coming in for the day. Bailey was undoubtedly used to handling the place on her own. It wasn’t until noon that I made it in for the day and there was a voicemail waiting for me in my office too. After ten minutes of staring at the blinking indication, I took a deep breath and pressed play.
A sigh of relief hit me at first that it wasn’t my mother again; however, it was my grandmother telling me that my mom wanted to talk. That was one thing I preferred to ignore. Living in New York for so long, I had been able to listen to the problems my mom and Gram had with each other, without being directly involved. Hearing the stories about the two of them was surreal to me and I was able to look at it almost as if their lives were just another crummy sitcom. Now, I was thrown into the middle of this not-so-funny situation and the reality of it was killing me.
My state of mind didn’t improve throughout the day and when I left at six that night, there is only one sure fire cure—chocolate. The local market had the best dessert selections and it was there, with a basket filled with various delicious treats that I ran into Oliver. A smile lit up his face and my eyes couldn’t resist traveling over his perfect physique. Could this man look less gorgeous—just once? There I was—a walking disaster—with I’m sure the words ‘hot mess’ tattooed across my forehead. Then there is Oliver; perfect fitting jeans, black sweater showing off his toned upper body perfectly enhanced by a to-die-for smile.
“Hey Dani.” Oliver threw his arm around one of my shoulders with a small squeeze. “Sheesh girl, is it that time of the month?” he asked with a laugh; gesturing towards my twelve-thousand calorie basket. My face instantly flushed with embarrassment, as I forced a smile to brush off the comment.
“It’s not for me. We…uh…the Inn needed some more desserts because we ran out of some ingredients and won’t get more until Friday.”
“Sure,” He said accepting my excuse with a grain of salt.
“So how are you?” I asked, in an attempt to change the subject off my terrible eating habits.
“Doing well. So mom's in the slammer huh? Well, that will be an awkward Christmas, celebrating at the prison. Hope you prefer orange to red and green." he said with a wink. My jaw just about made a dent in the hard-tiled floor at his comment. Was he being serious right then?
After taking a minute to compose myself, I responded. “I haven’t seen my mother since I was 18.”
“At least you know where to find her now.” Ollie shot me a smile, that I’m sure was meant to make my knees weak—but right then all I felt was irritation and disgust at his comments. “Hey, I need to run, but there was something I forgot to tell you last time we ran into each other.”
My heart fluttered in a traitorous fashion. “Oh yeah, what would that be?”
“I think you look really good now, since you’ve put on a little weight. That stick skinny thing in high school wasn’t the best look for you, but I like this.” A corner of his lip turned up, as he reached out and gave my side a little pinch. He flashed me his oh-so-charming grin once more before brushing a strand of hair off my shoulder.
Shooting a seductive smile at me, he said, “Hopefully, I’ll see you around Dani.” With that he was gone and I stood there in utter shock. Was that supposed to be a compliment!? Now that I’ve put on weight—oh yeah, every girl wanted to hear that from the guy they’ve been in love with forever. Ass. There was a split second where I considered putting back my chocolate treats, but after the day I had plus those comments—chocolate was my savior. Corey’s bar was also sounding like a viable option too, but I needed to be alone. I knew Corey would know how to make me smile and cheer me up—he always did such a great job. To be honest, it wasn’t just the physical effect he had on me. I enjoyed being around him and even when he was doing things to bug me—like that consultation—he still made me smile. Yet, there were just some times when a girl needed a night to be sad and indulge in junk food.
* * * * The next