“I don’t know what sort of agreement the two of you have but I would’ve thought you’d be a little more upset that your boyfriend is in there making out with another girl right in front of you.”
“You thought –,” I laugh, a big, stomach hurting, doubled over, gasping for air, tears running down my face, laugh. “You thought, Drew was my boyfriend?”
“Well, yeah.”
“No, no no. Drew and I are only friends, totally, completely, nothing more than just friends.” The look on Oliver’s face changed instantly, the dark cloud that was covering it lifted and there was a sparkle back in those beautiful eyes of his, I’d always noticed how incredible they were from the very time in grade school when I had met Drew’s brother.
“Oh, good. Can I give you a lift home?”
“Sure, thank you.”
The car ride home had been a quiet one, being this close to Oliver was a first for me and I was slightly on edge at the thought of being alone with him. It was kind of thrilling in an odd way, it was my chance of being alone with the guy I had been crushing on ever since high school when I’d started to notice boys as more than just maybe a friend to play football with.
Oliver held my attention more than any of the other boys at school had, he was in a league of his own which was coincidentally way out of mine. He was older; more experienced and wouldn’t have been remotely interested in a high school girl, so the offer of the ride back to Fosford was going to be a cherished moment for me.
“Do you have a boyfriend, Daisy?” Again I laugh, to me the question was ridiculous, I had kissed one boy and had a serious crush on my friends older brother, so the answer was no. Definitely no.
“No. Geez, girls like me don’t get boyfriends.”
“Girls like you?” His eyes darted from the road ahead to me and back again.
“You know, tomboys who are terrible kissers. That’s what all the boys at school thought of me anyway.”
“How would they know? Have you kissed a lot of boys?”
“No. One, and he told everyone it was terrible. He gave me a fat lip from biting me and a reputation of not being able to kiss.”
We fall silent again, a blush flushes my cheeks as the embarrassment of what I had told him creeps through my body as I stare out the passenger’s side window. I am more than ready to make my escape when Oliver pulls his car into the driveway. Turning in the seat I thank him before hastily exiting the car.
My feet hit the third step before I hear Oliver climbing from the car as well. His long legs catch up to me in no time at all and we are left standing on the top step of my parent’s house.
“Did I forget something?” My own eyes cast down to my hands where my handbag is clasped between them and my jacket is resting against my forearm.
“No, nothing. But, Daisy, you need to know what that other boy said about you isn’t true.” Shocked by Oliver pulling me roughly into his arms, I drop my bag and my jacket slides to the timber floorboards beneath us. His lips on mine was more than I could’ve even thought a kiss could be like. It was like someone had asked me to describe what I thought the perfect kiss would be and personified it within the fluid motion of Oliver’s lips. I felt my foot lift of its own accord when he deepened the kiss, his hands resting against the curve of my neck and his fingered splayed across the sensitive flesh, warm and confident with his own grasp of me. A deep rumbling groan escaping his lips and a whimper rushes across mine. Only when our breath had been completely stolen does the kiss end and our lips part.
“Daisy, the only thing terrible about kissing you is that I need to go home for a cold shower.” Dazed, I swallow and let his words sink in.
“Goodnight, Daisy blossom.” That single kiss had ruined me for any other man’s lips. Hearing him say my name was like a lighthouse to a ship, a beacon of safety that I hadn’t realised until later that I couldn’t live without.
* * *
I’m brought back to the here and now by Drew waving his hand in front of my face. “Dase, movie? You and me?”
“Yeah, okay, but you get your own popcorn and the first round.”
13
oLIVER
* * *
Throwing back the last of my coffee, I snatch up the keys from the bench. I had made my appointment with the shrink as early as possible, so as soon as it was over I could jump back in the car and head straight back to Fosford.
I wasn’t nearly as weary about the eight-hour drive today as I had been just over a week ago. No matter what the recommendation was that was made today I was going home.
I needed Daisy back in my sights in one way or another. She didn’t have to love me, hell, she didn’t even have to like me right now because all I needed from her today was that she no longer hated me.
* * *
After fighting my way through the early morning peak traffic I pull into the underground car park associated with the bank of professional offices in the glass skyscraper.
On the elevator ride to the eighteenth floor, I fire off a quick text to Trent telling him I won’t be at the apartment for at least a few days. Hitting send just as the ping of the elevator bell sounds and the doors whoosh open.
With no receptionist at the desk I take a seat in the waiting area, the padded seat faced in the direction of the doctor’s office, allowing me a full view as soon as she realised I had arrived. I have enough time to take in the neutral tones of the walls and the warm timber frames surrounding the black and white landscape photographs, that are lined systematically along the walls before the door to the doctor’s office is pulled back and I’m welcomed into her room.
I fold myself into the same chair as I had occupied the previous week.
“It’s good to see you come back, Oliver.” She offers me a warm smile.
“You didn’t think I would come back?”
“I did wonder if you would keep your appointment, yes.”
“If I want to get back to work, I didn’t think I had a choice.”
“There is always a choice, Oliver. Sometimes one path is just not the preferred one.”
“You’re wrong, if I had a choice I wouldn’t be here, I would be back at work protecting people like you from people like those who shot my partner.” I had been sitting with her all of two minutes and I was already starting to feel the frustration levels grow.
“What if I told you the choice was still made, you chose to come here because you want to get back to work, when you could choose not to come and life continues on as it was this morning before you got out of bed.”
“I want to be able to go back to work. Simple as that.”
“Right, well let’s get started then?” I nod in agreement, a report from this woman with her pinched lips and square framed bi-focal glasses was all that was stopping me from getting back on the job. Sarge’s words come back to me, If I needed to jump through some hoops I would cartwheel and somersault through those mother fuckers with a smile just to get cleared. “How have you been sleeping, Oliver?”
“I’ve slept better, sometimes I have dreams like we’re back in the building, chasing down the suspect and I’m the one who gets shot. I can feel the burn of the bullet as it hits me, the impact forcing me back against the wall. I fall but I don’t die, I just lay there as if I’m watching the whole scene play out before me. Other times, all I can see is her eyes, the fear and sadness and then the darkness as the light goes out in them.”