Between Friends and Lovers

(32) Alexandria

I’ve spent a long time staring at the charm bracelet in my hand. There was something about it that unsettled me. It was beautiful, and I loved it. There was no doubt about that. But the more I looked at it, the more I felt like it didn’t feel like a gift Oliver would ever give me. Maybe I was exaggerating. Or maybe I was wishing that someone else had given me the gift. Which, in and of itself, showed just how far gone I was.

However, I did believe that I felt this way because this wasn’t something I liked two years ago. I was never a sentimental person. Ricky was the reason I embraced the whole concept of being sentimental. He was the one who made me like the simple things and treasuring memories. Because despite what people think about Maverick, he was very sentimental—the treasure the moment kind of guy. Ricky was the one who got me used to buying things like necklaces, bracelets, or anything really that made me treasure a memory. And so that was why I was struggling to believe that Oliver got me this present, when everything about it screamed Maverick Bouras.

And that was why when Oliver dropped me off at home, I got into my car and drove to the Bouras’s home. I needed to talk to Maverick. I had some questions that I needed him to answer.

Truthfully, I could have asked Oliver, but with the way everything went, I wasn’t sure that Oliver was the one to give me the answers that I needed. The way everything went made me wonder what was going through Oliver’s mind. He looked as if he didn’t want to be there. I had started to feel like he felt obligated to be there. The entire time, Oliver kept quiet unless he felt like he needed to talk. He couldn’t walk next to me, and he purposely tried to have space between us. Which I didn’t judge him for, but it annoyed me because he could have simply told me that he didn’t want to spend time with me, I wouldn’t have been mad at him. It’s not like I had a crush on him, and my heart would be broken if he said no to spending time.

But what if he did think that I had feelings for him? I hoped he didn’t think that. Not only was I not ready for any relationship—or was I interested in anything casual—but I also had my puzzling feelings for Ricky that were giving me a headache, so I didn’t need to add feelings for Oliver in the mix.

Or maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe Oliver behaved the way he did because he was scared that I would ask him about his doctor’s appointment. Him not mentioning it again made me believe that he might have mentioned it by mistake the first time around. And to be honest, if he wasn’t acting the way he did, then I would have asked him about it, but his actions made me so uncomfortable that I decided to just keep my mouth shut. However, I didn’t think that that was an excuse enough for his behaviour today.

Today did convince me that there was absolutely no hope for me having feelings for Oliver. We could be friends and that it. Even though I had previously agreed that I had some sort of attraction for Oliver, in these past few days—especially today—I’ve come to understand that whatever attraction I had wasn’t long lasting. It was probably fuelled by nostalgia. The way I used to feel for him back then and the loneliness definitely contributed. But there weren’t any concrete feelings for Oliver burning within me. And I didn’t know if that was because I was questioning if I really did see Ricky as a friend or I wanted him to be more than a friend. But I knew that what I thought I felt for Oliver held no torch to my puzzling feelings for Ricky.

Pushing all of that to the back of my mind, I opened my car door and got out before closing it and locking the car. I looked up at the white barn style home with grey shutters display.

With a sigh, I walked on the brick pathway leading to the entrance. I knocked, and as I waited for someone to open the door, I looked at the bracelet, feeling anger growing within me.

The door opened, and Catherine Bouras smiled at me. “Alexandria!”

“Hi, Mrs B,” I greeted with a smile.