Delayed (20 page)

He squinted his eyes, trying to make out her features in the dimly lit room. She was pretty, light blond curls rested on her shoulders.
 

“I think you misunderstood,” Nick said. “I wasn’t trying to hit on you.”
 

She pouted her lip. “I know you weren’t. You’ve been staring at that girl over there. I was trying to find a reason to talk to you.”
 

He stared over the girl’s shoulder. Olivia was still dancing, not even looking his way.
 

“I’m not much of a dancer,” he said.
 

The girl took the empty seat next to him. She leaned her shoulder over the counter. “Well then we can talk. What’s your name?”
 

“Nick.”
 

The girl stretched out her hand. “Joy. And I mean that’s my name, not it’s a joy to meet you.”
 

“I got that,” he said, suddenly, grinning.
 

“Are you a local?” she asked.
 

He shook his head. “I’m from Massachusetts.”
 

“I’m from Shepton,” she said.
 

Nick squinted his eyes; her name and face seemed familiar. “Did your parents own the Cornerstone Bakery?”
 

Her eyes widened. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
 

“We were neighbors, or my grandparents were. They rent the place out now. Your family moved away a long time ago.”
 

“Nick… Nick Rivero?” she asked. “I remember you now. I mean we only met like twice, but I babysat your little sister once, like ten years ago. You’ve grown up.”
 

If he was twenty-one that meant she was almost twenty-four. He remembered her now, vaguely; the neighbors’ beautiful daughter, Joy, and his summer crush when he had been eleven.
 

“Small world,” he said.
 

Joy placed a hand to her forehead. “I’m embarrassed now.”
 

“Why?”
 

“For doing such an awful job of trying to hit on you.”
 

That made him smile. Joy turned her gaze to the dance floor. “Did you and your girlfriend get in a fight?”
 

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he corrected. The words came out harsher than he had intended. “We’re friends. It’s her birthday today.”
 

“Oh,” Joy said. She stood, pulling out her phone. “Well I’ll leave you to wait her for then. But in case you’re ever back in Jacksonville,” she gave him the phone. “Give me your number and maybe we can chat again.”
 

Nick didn’t hesitate. He pressed in his number and handed it back to her. Joy gave him a smile and disappeared onto the dance floor. When he turned back to his seat, Olivia was making her way over to him. She took the seat Joy had left.
 

“Did you get a date?” she asked, teasingly. He wondered if she’d had more to drink, her balance barely kept her on the seat.
 

He stood and tried to help her up. “We should go. You’ve had too much to drink.”
 

“What about your date?” Olivia asked. “It’s rude to keep her waiting.” Her words were slurred and slowed.
 

She tried to get up but ended up falling against him, using his body as a support. He’d never seen her like this, so unlike herself. He wrapped an arm around her waist and propped her up. It was too long of a walk back to the hotel so he called a cab. Olivia kept asking about Joy on the drive back. The front desk clerk gave them a suspicious look as they made it into the elevator.
 

Nick managed to open the door and pull her in with him. He would sleep on the floor tonight. He brought Olivia over to the bed, pulling back the covers. She’d have to sleep in the dress; he didn’t have the audacity to change her.
 

“Time to rest,” he told her as if he were speaking to a child. It seemed like she was about to listen, but just as she sat on the bed, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and playfully brought him down onto the mattress.
 

Nick ended up right on top of her. He could feel her arms around the nape of his neck. His heart beat in his chest, wildly, never ceasing.
 

“Are you going to tuck me in?” she asked, with a half laugh.
 

He gulped down a breath. Her gray eyes were unwavering. “Olivia let me get up,” he said. The command was weak.
 

She shook her head. “Why? Do I make you nervous?” Then she pulled him in closer. There was barely an inch between them.
 

“Olivia…” he managed.
 

She brought her head up from the pillow and met his lips. They were warm and tasted like strawberries. The two of them remained that way, locked together in a kiss for a few seconds. He pulled back.
 

Olivia smiled, a lazy smile. Her eyes were barely open. “Don’t flirt with other girls,” she said. “You’re my friend. I don’t like to share.”
 

She sat up even more and kissed him again. The warmth traveled through every part of him. The room disappeared behind them, as did all sound or reason. Nick fell deeper into the embrace, leaning down toward her, pressing his torso against the fabric of her dress. He wanted to go further. He knew he could, stay here and kiss her until the sun rose. Still, somehow, he pulled back.
 

“Not like this,” he whispered. He didn’t want to kiss her when she was drunk and might not even remember anything the next morning. They meant too much to him, her kiss, her touch.
 

He hoisted himself up, and Olivia released him. She laid her head against the pillow again.
 

“Maybe tomorrow then,” she said, still smiling. Her eyes closed and soon she fell asleep, giving into the slumber.
 

Nick left the hotel room. He stood in the hall, a finger pressed to his lips, his heart a mess of unmatched beating. He had no choice. He’d have to tell her, even if she didn’t remember tonight. There was no turning back.
 

23

June 5, 2011

He kept asking if she remembered anything from that night, and while most of her twenty first birthday had passed into the back of her mind, there was one thing Olivia could recall quite vividly. She didn’t let Nick know that, though.
 

“I can’t ride another roller coaster,” he said. It was Monday and they had moved their Florida road trip to Orlando. They’d been in Universal for the better part of Sunday, and now they had to decide where they wanted to spend their day.
 

Olivia sat back in the rental. Their suitcases where packed in the back, ready for when they drove out to Miami at the end of the day.

“Let’s go somewhere else then,” she suggested. They’d only gotten the one day passes, mostly because it had been all they could afford.
 

Nick drove onto the highway. “Where should we go?” He tried adding lightness to his tone, but she could feel it there, the question he wanted to ask, but didn’t.
 

“The next sign we see on the road, that’s where we’ll go,” she said.
 

He shrugged and sped up, merging into the onslaught of morning traffic. “Okay. Don’t take it back later.”
 

Olivia nodded and so they waited, passing by ten signs for rest stops and fast food places. Finally a lone, blue billboard made its way into their field of vision.
 

“The Turner Aquarium,” she yelled out, pointing to it as if where a game. “Let’s go there for the day.”
 

Nick bent his head down, trying to squint at the directions as he drove. “I’ve never even heard of that place. We can go though, since it was your idea. Don’t blame me if it’s closed.”
 

She shook her head. “It won’t be closed.”
 

They followed the exit on route to their new location. It took them all of an hour and three loops around the same neighborhood to find the place. The aquarium wasn’t tiny, in fact it looked like it could very well take up an entire football stadium, but there was something about it that was completely inconspicuous. The paint on the outside had faded from a dark blue into a strange hue that almost resembled white. The building was surrounded by acres of untouched forestlands.
 

Olivia bought the tickets, since Nick had been paying for gas, it was the least she could do. He hesitated but let her; especially, after the lecture she had given him on her right to assert her equality.
 

“You don’t always have to pay for things. Girls have their own money too,” she had said to him. As far as their friendship went, that was considered a lecture, maybe even a hint of an argument.
 

They headed into the center of the Turner Aquarium, making their way past the electric eel hall and the jellyfish garden. Which wasn’t really a garden, but a tank filled with coral and beautifully colored decorations, that housed four jellyfish.
 

“Look at that shark,” Olivia said, pointing to a new display. There was a baby great white swimming about, alone. She leaned in toward the sign. “It’s an orphan. They rescued it from the wild, after its mom got killed my fishermen.”
 

Nick read the sign behind her. “I wonder if they’ll release him into the wild again.”
 

She shrugged, trying not to think about it. It made her feel guilty, knowing she was paying to visit animals in captivity. It was the same feeling she got whenever she went to the zoo back in Glensford. Like she was contributing to some greater evil.
 

“They have dolphins,” she said. “Let’s go see if we can feed them.”
 

He nodded and followed her out toward the main area of the aquarium, back toward the signs that could lead them to the dolphins. The aquarium was getting crowded.
 

“Such a cheap alternative,” said one lady to her friend.
 

Olivia tried not to listen to the conversations as they passed by strangers. Then something stopped her, a voice, familiar and distant.
 

“What do you want to see next Isabel?” a father asked his daughter. It wasn’t just any father though, he was Olivia’s, and he was talking to Jocelyn’s child.
 

Olivia froze in her steps.
 

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked. He didn’t ask anything more once he followed where her gaze led.
 

Two years, she hadn’t seen them in two years.
 

Jocelyn saw her first. Her eyes widened and she tapped her husband on the shoulder. He stood up from where he had been kneeling down next to Isabel. His eyes fell on Olivia.
 

She took a step back. He hadn’t called on her birthday or on Christmas. He’d spent years pretending he hadn’t completely torn apart her life and her mom’s, and she wanted nothing more than to feel the hate she had once felt for this man. The hate she had spent her teenage years trying to cement into her system.
 

She couldn’t. Seeing him now, she had the urge to run to him and give him a hug, for all the time that had passed. She had the childish urge to push Isabel out of the way and say ‘Stay back, he was my dad first’.
 

Olivia didn’t do any of those things. She remained glued to Nick’s side, staring at them from across the room.
 

Her dad took a step forward. He tried to hide his shock, and forced a smile.
 

“Liv,” he said as he walked toward her. “What are you doing here?”
 

What right did he have to ask that question? It wasn’t like she couldn’t be where he and his fake family where. This hadn’t been her choice.
 

“We’re on a road trip,” she said.
 

“Oh,” her dad said. He turned back to point to his former mistress. “We’re on vacation too. Isabel got out of school, so we’re celebrating.” He looked at Nick. “I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”
 

“We’re not dating,” she said. “You’d know that if you called.”
 

She didn’t know why she was reverting to her teenage ways again, talking back to anything her dad said. The anger and immaturity rose together, combining to form a mess of a result.
 

“I called your mom a few times,” he said quietly. “She said I should wait for you to call me first, when you were ready to.”
 

Olivia fisted her knuckles. When she was ready? She’d never be ready to talk to him about anything. Then she heard the other part of his statement.
 

“You talk to mom?”
 

Her dad nodded. “From time to time, just to see how she is.”
 

What right did he have to call his ex wife? He’d put her through enough.
 

“Don’t call her anymore,” Olivia said. Then she turned to Nick. “Let’s go. There are other things to see.”
 

She grabbed her friend by the arm, and began to pull him in the opposite direction.
 

“Don’t you want to see Isabel?” her dad asked. “She’s already seen you here. It would be rude not to.”
 

Olivia let out the excerpt of a laugh, still holding on to Nick she said, “Rude maybe. But not as rude as cheating on your wife or parading your mistress around.”
 

“Olivia,” her dad said. “It’s been long enough. I may have tolerated you calling her that once, but not anymore. You’re not a child”
 

She wasn’t anymore and that she knew. But then why did she feel so hurt? Just as hurt as when her parents had forgotten her fourteenth birthday, or when her dad hadn’t come to her awards banquets or her first performances.
 

“Have a nice trip,” she said to her dad. Then she grabbed Nick and they made their way to the dolphin display.
 

He didn’t mention anything else about what happened that day, not until they got out to the parking lot, as the sun began to set.