story I had just shared with him.
I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t say anything further. No one ever said much because there wasn’t anything to say. The accident had been horrific and unfair, and it had forever changed our lives in a terrible way. Nothing anyone could say would change any of that.
Rather than repeating a meaningless platitude, Oliver reached over and massaged my shoulder that was closest to him. It was more intimate physical contact than I’d had with anyone in a year, and it brought a marvelous wave of relief to my tight tendon. The urge was there to tell him to stop, but I didn’t have the strength to actually utter the word.
When he whispered, “I’m sorry you went through that,” I nodded my head and blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill over my lids.
He stopped rubbing my shoulder, and I immediately missed his touch. I ached to ask him to resume, but forced myself to refrain.
Oliver was particularly dangerous to me because he seemed to innately know exactly what I needed. It would be too easy to forget that he was a player and fall for him. I needed to prioritize protecting my heart, but he was making that damn hard.
The silence hung heavy in the car for a long while. Oliver eventually broke the quiet by suggesting in a hopeful tone, “We could listen to the rest of that audiobook.”
I giggled like a schoolgirl for the first time in longer than I could remember. Sighing happily once my giggles subsided, I was alarmed to realize that this charming man was already getting a firm grasp on my fragile heart.
12
Oliver
I had known that Violet wouldn’t take my suggestion seriously to listen to her naughty book, but I couldn’t explain––even to myself––why her happy giggles thrilled me so much.
We stopped for gas and junk food. Violet, of course, chose a chocolate treat, while I opted for a big bag of Cheetos. Once we were back on the road, we tore into our snacks.
Violet glanced at me before saying, “You should have grabbed some chopsticks.”
I wondered if she intended to stop for Chinese food. If so, we could most likely get chopsticks at the restaurant. Figuring there must be more to her odd statement, I gave her an expectant look.
“You could use the chopsticks to eat your Cheetos in order to save your fingers from being coated in orange cheese dust.”
Her voice sounded prim and logical, despite her ludicrous statement. I couldn’t keep from snorting out a laugh. She didn’t crack a smile, so I said, “Wait, you were serious? You want me to eat Cheetos with utensils?”
“It’s a great life hack,” she defended the absurd idea.
When she said the words ‘life hack,’ I remembered Soraya mentioning that Vi doled out advice on her radio show. “Is that the kind of helpful tip you give out on your talk show?”
“That’s just an example. I share all kinds of ideas to make life better.” She sounded a bit defensive, so I decided to shift the conversation to more familiar territory.
Grabbing the opportunity to flirt with her, I said, “Since I don’t have any chopsticks handy, I guess I’ll just have to lick my fingers clean––unless you’d rather do it for me.”
“I’ll pass,” she answered quickly, but when her face cracked into a wide smile, I could tell she was trying to hold it back. Knowing that she couldn’t keep from smiling was thrilling.
We settled into an easy silence as we continued the trek north on the now nearly-empty highway. I watched the scenery slide by my window in a blur. It was amazing to see so many trees and so few people. It had been a long time since I had left the concrete jungle of the city.
Suddenly remembering one of my only happy family vacation memories from my childhood, I asked her, “Have you ever been to Hershey?”
Scrunching up her face as if it was a strange question, she asked, “Do you mean the chocolate factory?”
“Well, yes, but it’s also so much more than that. The entire town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is centered around chocolate. You can tour the factory and make your own customized chocolate bar, there’s a museum, and an amusement park. I was just a kid when we went, but I could swear the entire town smelled like chocolate.”
Vi’s eyes were bright with excitement. “Don’t toy with me, Oliver. Is this true? How did I not know about this magical place?”
“It’s real.