“One day at a time, love.” Ollie’s eyes beamed. “We’re both figuring it out. Just know I never meant to hurt you. My heart was always in the right place, but my mind wasn’t doing the right thing.”
“What about the medication?”
A burst of laughter from afar didn’t snag his attention. Eyes, hand, and focus remained solely on me as he leaned over and dragged a nearby chair closer. “Sit, you need to eat.” I slid from his lap and fell back into the chair before he pushed his tray in front of me. “I’ve been off the medication for three days now. It’s easier this time.” Ollie dropped an elbow over the table, turning in his chair to face me and gripped my thigh with his other hand. “I’m alright. Eat, love.”
“No shakes?” I asked, taking a bite of the mashed potatoes.
Ollie held out his hand, showing me. “Well, not from the withdrawal.” He flashed a half-smile, and his eyes studied mine. “I’m okay. Swear to it. Now tell me whose pot you pissed in. Who do you believe is fucking with you?”
“Jude.”
Ollie’s head shook. “No, Jude’s not capable of it.”
“How do you know.”
“I just do.”
I took another bite and scanned the room. “Then, I have no idea.” A few beats passed as Ollie’s fingers wrapped around my thigh. “What if I go to jail over this?”
“I won’t let that happen!”
“You’re not above the law, Ollie. You can’t control my fate.”
“Hey, look at me.” I dropped the fork and turned to face him. “Remember I told you to believe in us?”—I nodded— “Don’t hold back on me now, we’re almost there. I may not be above the law, but us? Together, we’re a fucking perfect storm.”
“A notion that even science can’t grasp.”
He smiled, leaned in, and kissed my temple. “There’s no doubt in my mind we can get through this, alright? And if the law fails us, if this place fucking fails us, don’t think for one second I wouldn’t have you out of here and across the world before the order for your arrest is even in motion.”
A shadow loomed over us, and I looked up to see Maddie and Gwen hovering. I paused mid-chew as her eyes darted between us. Turning to face Ollie, he squeezed my leg under the table and captured my gaze, holding it hostage.
“This is cute,” Maddie sneered. “And the saint fell in love with the sociopath, but it’s anyone’s guess who is who in this story. Truly, I’m shocked. She forgave you faster than I thought she would.” Maddie lifted on her toes before dropping back down. “Those same fingers touching your leg were the same fingers buried inside me not too long ago.” I flinched, and Ollie’s jaw tensed, but his eyes stayed on me, not bothering to look her way and keeping me with him. “Does it bother you, Mia?” she continued, prying for a reaction. “I tasted him. Sucked his—
“You good, love? Ready to get out of here?” Ollie asked as he jumped to his feet. He wrapped my hand in his, and I nodded, standing with him. My heart hit so fast or not at all and the back of my eyes burned from the resistance.
“He’ll be back. It’s only a matter of time before he falls off the rails again,” Maddie said through a laugh.
Ollie pushed through the double doors and led us outside. Though we walked in silence, the regret and disgust punished his stride and darkened his mood. When we reached a clearing in the woods, Ollie sat over the ground and fell back until his head hit the ground. His hands flew over his face as he tried to catch his breath.
In an instant, his whole demeanor changed, and I couldn’t help but feel for him. Ollie always knew the right words to say, but right now I couldn’t find any to make him feel better. His hands folded behind his head as he looked up at me with tortured eyes. “I’m a liar, a coward, and a hypocrite.”
“No, you’re not.”
“She has no right putting that image in your head.”
“It’s Maddie. I can handle Maddie.”
“Fuck Maddie. Can you handle what happened?”
I took a seat beside him, and his green eyes followed, taking notice in the distance between us and where my hands fell at my sides. His jaw ticked, waiting for a reply and disliking the space. “It doesn’t matter,” I finally said, and the truth was, it didn’t. Both Ollie and I had made mistakes.
Ollie caved and waved me over. “Come here.” I inched over, and once I was within reach, his arm snaked around my stomach as he pulled me over him until my head hit his chest. The tips of his fingers traced over my arm as he stared up into the darkening sky. “I haven’t been able to write a bloody thing since the day I was thrown in confinement. But now I have these words swimming inside me, making my head spin.”
“What is it you need to write about?”
Ollie shook his head and thread his fingers through my hair, sights still in the sky, perfectly content now. “Moments like this.”
“And tell me, Ollie, what exactly would you write in this very moment?”
He dropped his chin to look at me. “I’d write about your lips,” his thumb grazed over my bottom lip, “and how they were made perfectly with mine in mind. I’d write about those brown eyes of yours, and how they were created to hold my reflection. And your touch … how you don’t understand the power a single brush of your finger has over me. But what’s truly remarkable is when the world attempts to pull me under, you arrest my heart, and the rest of me could slip away, but it wouldn’t matter. Still, it would beat. Steady. Solid. Secure.” He looked up to the sky again watching the trees sway in the October dawn. “Something like that. But it reads better on paper, yeah?”
I shook my head. “I prefer to hear you say it.”
“Really?” He pulled me over him until our bodies aligned, and my forearms dropped to the ground on each side of his head. “Why’s that?”
“Because you have a lovely voice, and I don’t think you fully comprehend the impact it causes. Or maybe I’m biased, and it only affects me.” Ollie smiled, his eyes beamed, and my heart tightened.
“Can I touch you?” His brain bounced like an evenly matched tennis game and never in one place for too long. His internal conflict took me by surprise when it flowed through his cautious touch over my sides. “Or do you need time?” It took me a moment to realize he had been referring to what just happened back in the mess hall with Maddie.
“I don’t need time, Ollie. When it comes to you, time is not something I want to waste.”
Ollie smiled and wrapped his hands in my hair. “I saw your face, love. She got inside your head. You have every right to be upset, and you don’t have to pretend to be strong around me. Alright? It’s okay if you need time.”
Side-stepping the topic, I fell over to the side of him and thread my fingers in his, staring at the same sky. “You think anyone would notice if we slept out here tonight?”
“Scott would notice, and we wouldn’t be able to get back in once the doors are locked. But I’ll tell you what,”—he lifted our linked hands and pointed in the sky— “Same time next year, we’ll be sleeping under that same moon, probably a different strand of stars.”