The Absence of Olivia(25)
“You guys are killing me. This is officially boring.” Olivia’s words were a little slurred, but her eyes suddenly got wide. “Let’s go in the hot tub!”
“I don’t know,” I said carefully, glancing up at Devon. “Won’t sitting in the hot water just make us more drunk?”
“What’s wrong with more drunk? I’m only halfway drunk anyway. Come on, Evie. Don’t be a buzzkill.”
“I’m not a buzzkill, Liv. I just don’t want to spend the night taking care of you.” Her eyes widened a bit and it looked as though I’d offended her, but just as quickly, she put on her party-girl, no-worries mask and waved me away with her hand.
“You won’t have to take care of me. That’s why I brought my boyfriend, here,” she said patting Devon playfully on the arm. Devon didn’t move, didn’t give one single physical clue that her words had affected him, but I could feel the air around us grow thick with tension.
“I’m up for the hot tub,” Elliot said, also oblivious to Devon’s change in mood.
“Great!” Olivia jumped up from her chair. “I’ll go get my suit on.” She ran down the hallway, only swaying a little on her feet.
“I’ll go get the jets started,” Elliot said as he stood, but before he left he turned to me. “Did you pack a suit?”
“Yeah,” I said with a forced smile, not liking the way the evening was progressing.
“Great. See you out there,” he said, leaning down and pressing a kiss to my forehead. He walked away toward the French doors, which I’d learned on my tour led to the veranda. Devon and I sat at the table for a few seconds in silence. I knew he was upset, but didn’t really know how to broach the subject. As my best friend, my loyalty should have always been with Olivia. However, in this situation, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Devon.
“I think Olivia has gotten into the habit of confusing having fun with being drunk,” I said cautiously, not sure if Devon would be offended for Olivia by my words. I raised my eyes to look at him, only to find him looking directly at me. We didn’t speak for a few moments, but then he sighed, brought both of his hands up, and rubbed them down his face, groaning.
“Has she always been like this?” he asked, his elbows coming to rest on the table with his forehead resting in his hands.
“No,” I said thoughtfully. “She didn’t start drinking heavily and often until a few months ago.”
“You mean, until she met me.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way. “I guess. But I don’t think it’s you who’s making her this way. I think if she were seriously involved with anyone, she would have a hard time dealing with it. It’s always kind of been against her MO to be exclusive with someone. Maybe she’s using alcohol to deal with things she’s had buried that are being brought up by your relationship.”
“Hmm.” Now he sounded angry. Irritated. “Maybe one of these days she’ll open up enough for me to figure out what’s bothering her.”
“She hasn’t talked to you about it yet?”
“No. Every time our conversation turns serious, she changes the subject or suddenly remembers she needs to be somewhere and bails.”
Without thinking about it, I reached out and covered one of his hands with my own. “She really is a great girl, Devon. You just have to break through the tough exterior she puts up.” He heard my words and then turned his hand upward and his fingers closed around mine.
“The funny thing is, Evie, before I met Olivia, there was this one girl who I’d been thinking about for weeks.” His fingers squeezed mine a little harder and my throat went dry. “If only I’d been brave enough to ask you out that first day we met, things might be different right now.”
“Devon,” I whispered, my voice betraying me and saying his name like a curse. I shook my head and pulled my hand free from his, both afraid of the words coming from his mouth and the way they made my heart tumble in my chest. I was panicking. Panicking because even though Devon had made small remarks to me over the last few months about caring for me, I had never chosen to believe they were meant in any more than a friendly capacity. Not only out of respect for my friend, but also out of preservation of my heart. I’d fallen for him that first day too, but learned to live with the regret of letting him walk away. Learned to tamp down the longing I felt whenever he was near – and even when he was nowhere in sight. But his words, his acknowledgment that I wasn’t alone in those feelings, was dangerous.
Before I could say anything more, even if I could think of the words that were supposed to come next, Olivia came out of the hallway clad in a pink bikini that left little to the imagination. She came right up behind Devon and leaned down, wrapping her arms around his chest, putting her lips to the skin of his neck that I had imagined to be soft and smell of him. She kissed him there, tenderly, as his eyes bore into mine.
“Come on, baby. Let’s go get in the hot tub. I bought this new bikini just for you.” His fingers came up to pat her hands that were clasped together over his chest.
“I’ll be out there in just a minute.”
“All right,” she said with an easy smile while standing up. “I’ll just go make sure it’s extra warm for you.” She strolled away, opened the French doors, then closed them not so gently behind her, and disappeared into the darkness.