is beautiful,” she says, her eyes dancing around the red brick walls filled with bicycling memorabilia and black and white photos of cyclists from all around the world.
Felix turns his gaze to me. “And you don’t listen to music. The crap you like is loud, angry noise. Screaming.”
“Rock,” I tell him.
Felix shakes his head, the hint of a smile on his lips. “Not even close. But it’s good to see you walking,” he says, nodding in the direction of my knee. “And it’s lovely to meet you, Liv. Please feel welcome to stay as long as you’d like. Make sure Arlo shows you the antiques in the back. They’re my true beauties.” He turns his attention to me again. “There’s a couple of bikes in the back that need new brakes and one that needs a new chain.”
“I should go. I don’t want to interrupt,” Liv says, eyeing the door.
“You haven’t even seen the antiques,” I tell her. “Come on. Drink your coffee, and tell me if you can find anything this good back in Texas.”
She grins, but I can tell she’s on unsteady ground, debating if this is a good idea.
“Okay. But I can’t stay very long. I’m supposed to meet my dad to help him pick out a gift for Whitney’s birthday.”
“Ah, Dr. Harris.” I lead her through the old paneled door that takes us to the garage area of the shop where we repair all the bikes that are brought in, and where I spend nearly all of my time here.
She stares at the wall of license plates, mostly all from the Pacific Northwest in different colors and patterns, the old lights hanging from the ceiling by heavy chains, and the entire wall of bookcases—filled with old mysteries and maps and books on birds and caterpillars and every other part of nature. “I bet these walls could tell a lot of stories.”
My phone beeps with a text. It’s likely Paxton or Ian trying to get me to head to the gym with them.
Jade: Let’s meet this week. Maybe we just need to hang out and see how things go. I miss you, Arlo. I hate that I can’t get you out of my head.
“Is everything okay?” Liv asks, her eyes trained on me.
I nod, typing out a quick response to Jade that we can meet any day this week or next, to figure this shit out once and for all. “Yeah. It’s just … a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?”
“This girl I was kind of dating—she has the wrong idea about us.”
“About us?” Her voice is several octaves higher than normal.
“Her and me, us, not—” I wave my hand between Olivia and myself “—us, us.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t … I’m not trying to … I don’t want to get in the middle or make a mess of things.”
“No,” I tell her. “You’re not doing anything wrong. She said, in a roundabout way, that she wants to start things up again, and she’s under the impression that I feel the same, but I don’t. That’s the misunderstanding. And she’s pissed I left her at the party and went to help you.”
Olivia’s eyes widen. “Was she hurt too? Is that why she was mad you left?”
“No, she was totally fine, just a bruised ego. She wanted me to leave with her last night, which wasn’t going to happen because one, I’m not dating her anymore, and two, because I needed to get you to the hospital.”
She grins. “You don’t have to defend yourself to me. I was there.” The smile slips from her face as she says, “But I do get where she’s coming from, the jealousy, that is. Seeing someone you still have feelings for leaving a party with someone that’s not you or kissing someone that’s not you … it’d make any girl kind of crazy.”
The moment she says it, Rose’s words of conviction for Liv to kiss someone play in my ears. Was that a joke? Did something happen with no-label Matt? Is that why there’s a hint of pain in her words?
Olivia twists to look at a wall of photos in mismatched frames, all of Felix from days he used to race. She turns to face me again, doubt etched across her face, furrowing her brow and bowing her shoulders. “I should go. Even though you guys aren’t dating, you could still be friends, and I don’t want to complicate that.”
“Liv,” I tell her. “Sit down and drink your coffee. We’re friends. If someone has a problem with