Jewel Ann - Idle Bloom

“Uh hum …”

I let go of Oliver.

“Your mom wants to see you in the kitchen,” Kai says.

I rub my lips together and nod. “Be nice,” I whisper while passing Kai.

“Watcha need, Mom?”

She leans against the counter with her hands planted on her hips. “You and Oliver are living together?” I can tell from the tension in her neck that she’s struggling to keep her volume under control.

“No. Why are you asking me this?”

“Because Kai said he hasn’t seen you much lately since you moved in with Oliver.”

Thanks, Kai … asshole!

I look up at the ceiling and exhale an exasperated breath. “We were for a little while, but we’re not now.”

“So you’ve had sex with him?” she whispers, glaring at me.

I laugh. No, Mom, we just sleep in the same bed, holding hands . “Yes, I’ve had sex with him. Good grief, I’m an adult.”

“So he knows about your back?”

“Yes, he knows about my back!”

She startles. “Keep your voice down, Vivvy.”

“He loves me, Mom. He thinks I’m beautiful and more than that … he makes me feel beautiful in a way I never have before. When I’m with him I don’t think about school, or my past, or marriage and children.” I bite my lips together and blink back the deep emotions that can only come from thinking about Oliver. “He’s my simple perfection. I like me with him. ”

“Dinner ready?” My dad furrows his brow while peeking his head around the corner.

My mom nods, still staring at me. “Yes, tell the guys to come eat.”

“You know I just want what’s best for you, Vivvy.”

“Oliver … Oliver is what’s best for me.” I speak the truth. I know in a part of my heart that wasn’t alive until I met Oliver that he was meant to be with me. I just wish I knew what to do with the pain of his past. A past that’s still part of his present, our present .

“Okay, Vivvy.” She sighs and hands me a dish of steamed veggies. “But you’re still not sleeping with him under this roof.”

No problem. Oliver and I don’t do much sleeping when we’re together anyway. I smirk. “That’s fine.” I’ve never considered myself a rebel, but the more she treats me like a child, the more I want to take Oliver upstairs and do very adult things with him in my boy-banned room under my parents’ roof.

We make it through dinner without any bloodshed. My parents ask me about school under the scrutinizing looks of both Oliver and Kai. I think if it were just Oliver here I would tell them. Sometimes it feels like Kai is waiting for me to fall on my face so he can come to my rescue, so he can keep me needing him. Not anymore.

“Oh my gosh, Mom! You didn’t need to put candles on my cake.”

“Yes, I did. You deserve a wish, Vivvy.”

Mom sets the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting in front of me. I look around the table at the people who mean the most to me, even tattletale-half-the-time-I-want-to-kill-you Kai. Taking a deep breath, I give Oliver a sideways glance and a wink before blowing out all my candles and wishing for … nothing . I already have everything I could ever want.

I blow them all out with one breath. Oliver rests his hand on my leg and leans over. “Happy birthday, my love,” he whispers in my ear and kisses my cheek.

“Our little girl is twenty-two. Where did the time go?” My dad smiles while shaking his head.

“Twenty-two … how old is your wife, Oliver?” Kai silences the room.

Oliver’s grip on my leg becomes painful.

“Wife?” My dad clenches his jaw.

“Get out, Kai.” The anger inside me builds to an explosive level. I should have never taken him home after his sister died. Cracking the door for Kai is like cracking the door to a bull’s pen. If given the chance he will trample me every time.

“Kai’s not the one with the wife, Vivvy. Why are you kicking him out?”

“You’re right, Mom.” I glare at Kai. “He’s not the one with a wife. Kai’s just the one who got drunk and wouldn’t take no for an answer the night I tried to escape his advances and fell into the hot coals.”

My parents look at Kai and the smugness evaporates from his face. “Viv, you swore you’d never say—”

“Say what, Kai? The truth?”

I could have predicted it—he’s tearing up. Unbelievable. He should have majored in theater, not pre-med.

“Vivvy? Kai? What’s going on?” my mom asks with a wrinkled brow.

“The truth?” Kai shakes his head. “That’s real rich coming from you.”

The legs of Oliver’s chair screech against the tile floor. “I think you’ve said enough.” He stands and clenches his fists.

“What are you going to do? Hit me again? Is that what put your wife in the looney bin?”

Smack!

“Oh my gosh! What are you doing?” my mom yells, scrambling to get to Kai, who looks close to unconscious on the floor with his chair tipped over and blood oozing from his nose.

I didn’t even flinch because I expected Oliver to knock him out the first time he made the wife comment. Once is risky. Twice is just stupid. My dad hasn’t moved and his eyes are on me. The anger is obvious, his anger with me— my lying, my “disappointing” choice in men.

“Rodney, help me get him up.” My mom presses a napkin to Kai’s face.

My dad shakes his head. I’m sure the only reason he helps Kai up is so he won’t have as much blood to scrub out of the grout later.

I look around, but I can’t find Oliver. “Oli?” As I start toward the stairs, I see him coming down them with his bag in hand. “Where are you going?”

He pulls his wallet out of his pocket and hands me a fifty. “Here’s some money for the train.”

I don’t take it. “What are you doing? I don’t want your money. Where are you going?”

“Home.” He keeps walking.

“I don’t understand. You’re just leaving me here?”

“Yep.” He opens the front door and heads to his car.

“Oliver, stop!”

He shoves his bag in the backseat and then gets in the driver’s seat.

“Stop!” I grab the door before he shuts it.

“I’m so sorry. Kai’s an asshole. But I stuck up for you, for us. Why are you leaving and punishing me?”

He rests his hand on the top of the steering wheel while looking out the windshield. His unwillingness to look at me is painful. “You told him I’m married. You told him Caroline is in a mental hospital!”

I jump at the angry snap of his voice. “I didn’t.” I shake my head and wipe a few errant tears.

Now he glares right at me. “Bullshit! I’m sure you couldn’t wait to call him after you got out of the hospital.”

“I’m not lying. I didn’t tell him.” I keep shaking my head like this is a bad dream. “Alex must have told Sean and he probably told Kai, but it wasn’t me.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s none of their business, it’s none of your …” He pauses.

“ Excuse me!” I draw in a deep breath. “It’s none of my what? Business?”

Oliver closes his eyes and shakes his head.

“ You have some nerve. I was in the freakin’ hospital! Broken in every sense of the word thanks to you keeping your past hidden from me. So excuse the hell out of me for confiding in Alex. But don’t you dare invite me into your bed and tell me you’ll do anything for me then turn around and say it’s none of my business.” I slam his door and start walking down the street because there’s no way I’m going back in the house with Kai and my parents.

“Vivian!”

I keep walking.

“Stop.” Oliver catches up and steps in front of me.