Olivia
I just finished with my final preparation to go to Malibu. Karen would pick me up with her parents. And also Bailey.
Once I was ready, I brought the bags down the stairs where Blake was waiting for me in the family room.
“You have them all?”
“Yes.” I put the duffle bag on the floor while the backpack on the sofa.
“What time she will pick you up?”
“Around nine. I think she should be here soon.”
“I see. Well,” Blake pulled out something and it was a wallet. He grabbed ten thousand dollars, three of them to be exact, and handed them to me. “Take it.”
“Oh, no, Blake. Please. I still have some from the pocket money you gave to me every month.”
“Come on, Olive. Just take it. Consider it as an extra for your summer holiday. And as a precaution, if something happened and you need the money. Buy something fancy for once.” I really did not want to accept it. I knew he made that amount of money easily like a snap of a finger. But…
Looking at him while he was begging me with his eyes. I couldn’t. I took the money from him and in an instant, his blue eyes felt relieved. “Thank you, Blake.” And by the time I could hear the horn from outside. Karen just arrived.
“It’s Karen.” I looked back at him and I walked closer to him. Tiptoeing my feet so I could reach him. I kissed his cheek and then went back to looked at him. He appeared rather surprised by my action. “I’ll be fine, Blake. I’ll call you when I arrived,” I said and I grabbed my backpack and duffel bag.
His voice stopped me in the hallway. “Olivia?” I turned back to him. “You are really going to Malibu with Karen and her parents?”
“Um, yeah. Why?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong, Blake?”
“I just want to make sure because the constant calls and texts you received for the past week has made me rather suspicious.” I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t say anything.
I should have noticed. Ever since I received a call from Stewart, something about me just changed. I liked it when he did that to me. I never had a guy who cared about me and gave me those treatments.
Stewart texted me almost every day and sometimes his messages popped out during my dinner with Blake which…he was not happy at all.
“He’s just a friend, Blake.”
“He? A guy?”
“Yes. He’s a model and Karen’s friend. He’s not the person that you should be worrying about.”
“You’re my daughter and it’s my right to be worried. How old is he?”
“He’s twenty-four.”
“He’s too old for you. You need to be careful with every boy you met, Olive. Including Josh.”
“Why you have to include Josh into the conversation?”
“Because he’s also a guy,” he replied plainly. Oh, man. I didn’t want to talk about this.
“I assure you, Blake. There’s nothing between me and this guy. Including Josh. It’s normal for friends to be texting with each other, right? Just like what I always do with Karen.”
“Karen is different.”
“Okay, you know what? Stop it. I want to take a vacation and I don’t want to ruin the mood.” Blake was sighing when he heard me. I didn’t want any drama when I was about to leave and having fun with my friend. Hell to the no.
“…You’re right. I’m sorry. But just be careful out there. You make me feel better if you can take care of yourself. Just call me when you’ve arrived.”
“I will.” I slowly turned away from him and headed to the door. Ready to opened it until his voice stopped me again.
“Olivia!” he called and he walked fast to me. Surprisingly, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his hold. He was practically…hugging me. Oh, freaking God!
My heart was beating fast in an instant. Worried that he might hear it.
What was he doing?
Why he was hugging me like this?
Why he was doing this…like he couldn’t let me go?
Why, Blake?
He did something more unexpected when his wet lips touched my forehead. Kissing it softly. My mind instantly remembered his kiss at our first fight. His warm lips when it connected to mine. The sparkle when he was so close to me. Everything.
I wanted to feel his lips again.
I looked up to him and his sapphire eyes were on me. Staring like he was looking deep into my soul. Hypnotizing me with his beautiful eyes. His eyes softened.
“I’m going to miss you.” Thump.
I blinked. Trying not to think about my thumping heart. “It’s just five days.”
“It’s too long for me. I’m used to having you around now and for you to be gone away from me, it will feel different.”
I was happy when he said that.
Blake rarely confessed his true feeling to me, to anybody. To heard him indirectly saying that he was going to be lonely, was cute and adorable.
I was glad too because he started to act like a true father where he was going to miss me also worry me to hell.
Blake let me go. I immediately missed his warmness around me. “If you want, you could join me in Malibu and we can go somewhere else if you don’t want to be there. A family trip, just the two of us.”
Blake smiled. Again, that was rare for him to do that. And once he smiled, he looked even more handsome and I considered his smile as one of the beautiful smiles I had ever seen.
“I will finish my job before you come back then.”
“I will wait for that,” I said and pulled myself away from him. I walked out of the house with Blake behind me bringing my duffle bag.
Karen was out of the car wearing her red tank top and light blue hot pants with sunglasses on her head. She was so ready for the vacation.
“Hi, babe! Here you could put the bags on the back. Hello, Mr. Morgan!” she greeted and led us to where we could the bags. Blake put in my duffle bag and he closed the door. I saw her parents sitting in front as I greeted them.
“Hi, Olivia!” Henry-Karen’s father greeted me as he stepped out of the car wearing a Hawaiian shirt. He looked cute in those clothes. “Morning, Mr. Morgan,” he greeted Blake and both of them shook hands.
“Mr. Wilson.”
“It’s rare to see you at this hour.”
“Well, I need to see my daughter before she leaves.”
Henry chuckled. “You don’t need to worry about her. She’s in good hands. We’ll take care of her.”
“Thank you.”
“You changed, huh? You look more like a father than you used to be. I’m happy you changed this way.”
“Well, I made a mistake and I intend to fix it.”
“People made mistakes, Mr. Morgan. It’s totally normal. Especially regarding about our little girl.” Blake smiled at him. Henry was right though. Blake never showed any coldness to anyone anymore. “Well, nice meeting you. We should go now. Come on, girls!” He parted ways with Blake and entered the Wrangler.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, Blake. Bye!” I waved to him and went inside the Jeep. Henry began to drive the car away from my house as I was looking at him until I couldn’t see him anymore. I could feel someone’s hand on mine and it was Karen.
“We’re going to have fun together,” she said as I smiled. Bailey got in between us from behind. “Bailey!”
“Hi, Bailey!” I hugged him. Gosh, he was so fluffy!
The trip only needed forty minutes until we arrived in Malibu. Henry parked the car at his beach house. We grabbed out our bags until he said, “Well, I’ll be helping you two to put the bags at Brad’s house and after that,” he paused while wrapping his arm around Lisa’s-Karen’s mother’s shoulder and kissed her temple. “Please don’t disturb the adults.”
“Ew. Dad, that’s disgusting,” Karen spewed as I giggled over their cute conversation.
“Oh, here’s Brad,” Susan informed while we were looking in her direction. A man with dark hair was running towards us. “Hi, Brad!”
“Hello, everyone!”
“Hi there. Hey, this is the person that I want to introduce to you. My best friend, Olivia,” Karen said and Brad turned to me.
“Oh, hello. Name’s Brad. Nice to meet you, Olivia.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”
Brad hugged Henry and then to Susan. “Where’s Emma?” Karen asked.
“She’s at home, preparing some breakfast for all of us before we go to the beach.”
“Oh, really? Well, since Brad is already here and we have to put our luggage as well, I suppose the girls doesn’t need my help. Help them out, Brad. I’ll see you soon,” Henry parted with us as Karen groaned at her father’s action.
“Your parent is always like that, girl. Especially your father. Never mind that. Let’s go.” He grabbed our duffle bags and he walked ahead. We followed him from behind until we reached his beach house. It was beautiful and so modern. I assumed the inside was going to be ten times amazing.
By the time we were so close to the house, I could smell something nice coming from inside. “Emma!” he called out to his wife. We walked inside and as I suspected the interior was amazing.
“Brad, darling. Are you home?” the sweet voice said where I presumed, she was the wife. She came out with her cute pink apron around her clothes. And she was so beautiful. Her sparkly blonde hair like platinum and a pair of green eyes. “Hi, Karen,” she greeted and hugged Karen. Karen introduced us while Brad took the bags to our room.
We were waiting in the dining room while Emma was finishing breakfast.
“She’s really pretty. And Brad too.”
“Brad is really lucky for having Emma. She knew that Brad was a proper gentleman and he deserved her too,” Karen explained. “Say, is it true?”
“What is?”
“That you are texting and calling with Stewart.”
“Oh, that. Why are you asking?”
“I peeked at his phone, accidentally and saw your name.”
“Well, he’s the first one who texted and called me.”
“So, how is he?”
“He’s…nice and funny too.” Karen kept looking at me like she was waiting for some answer. “That’s it. I couldn’t see him differently.”
“I can safely guess that Stewart might be interested in you already.”
“Blake said he is too old for me.” Once I mentioned my father’s name, Karen was immediately become more interested in talking about it.
“And how did he react about it?”
“He was…rather annoyed and asked me to be careful.” I could see Karen was amused. “He’s just worried that someone could potentially hurt his daughter.” Karen was still smiling at me. Grinning, to be exact. “Stop that.”
“Well, girl?” She put her hand on my shoulder. “He might be showing his true color.”
“What do you mean?”
Karen groaned and pulled her hand from me. “You are so slow, you know? I’m not going to tell you. But I’m going to enjoy it and I want to see what Blake will do to Stewart if he goes out of the line with you.” Okay, that was confusing.
“What are you—”
“Alright, it’s ready!” Emma came from the kitchen while bringing a pot. Brad also just came down the stairs.
Maybe I should drop the topic now.
Karen was so confusing.
What did she mean by…goes out of the line?