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“I never said I wanted it.” I watched as he handed over his credit card to pay for the postcard.
“I could tell by the way you were looking at it.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was the same way you looked at that piece of pizza from Southside.” The smile that broke across my face felt like it was going to split it in half.
“I’d say that is a fair comparison.” The two of us went to exit the shop together to find Olivia. Tommy slipped his hand in mine as we weaved back through the displays and out into the rainy day once again. That simple gesture made a small avalanche erupt within my chest. It was one thing for Tommy to grab my hand when there were obviously paparazzi there to take our photos, but out on the pier there was no guarantee anyone even noticed us. It felt more intimate than any other time we’d ever held hands. Like this time was for the two of us and not for the cameras.
My mind flashed back to the previous night, and I remembered how Tommy had wanted to consume me with that kiss. The passion behind that kiss would have fooled me if I hadn’t known it was for show, and now as we walked through this public place without a care in the world, it was hard to believe that Tommy’s hand in mine meant nothing.
Olivia was waiting for us outside the gift shop, an ice cream cone in her hands.
“You already found ice cream?” I laughed at my best friend. Ice cream was her kryptonite. If I wanted anything from Olivia, all I had to do was bribe her with Moose Tracks and I knew she’d be there.
“Is that a serious question?” Olivia asked me as she licked her cone. I rolled my eyes before I linked my arm through hers. Tommy trailed along on the other side of Olivia, his eyes drifting lazily over the crowd.
“So, Tommy,” Olivia drew out.
Here we go.
“What are your intentions with my best friend?” I tried to keep myself from staring at Tommy as I waited for his response, but Olivia had other ideas. She turned around to face him directly, walking backward through the crowd and blindly trusting that she wasn’t going to hit anything. It was the most perfect depiction of Olivia as a person, barreling down a crowded pier while hoping she didn’t crash into anything or anyone.
Tommy took Olivia’s interrogation in stride. His eyes slid over to me before he began his response. “Well, Olivia, I want to date your friend.”
“Why?” Olivia questioned. I gave my friend a look that said, what the hell? Because did I honestly want to hear Tommy tell her some lie to help sell this whole fake relationship? Part of me knew that as soon as I heard Tommy make something up that held no true meaning behind it, a crack would appear in my heart.
That alone should have scared me. I had sworn off dating after Luke and had believed that if I ever opened my heart up to someone again, I would only be disappointed. But something inside me was changing. I was beginning to care more about the way my heart felt when I was around Tommy than the possibility of him breaking it.
Tommy paused again before he answered, his eyes glancing back over at me. My palms began to sweat as I waited to hear what he would say.
“Have you ever met someone that is the complete opposite of everything you’ve ever looked for in a person?” My brow furrowed at Tommy’s question. That was not the grand romantic response that I had been expecting him to give Olivia.
“Not particularly,” Olivia replied.
“Well, for me, every person I’ve ever dated before was the same. They loved partying, found dating to be a status symbol, and really only wanted to be seen in pictures with me because of what I did for a living. They fit perfectly into the lifestyle I was living at the time.” I was waiting on pins and needles to hear what Tommy was going to say next.
“None of those girls had ever shown any interest in who I was outside of the uniform. They wanted nothing from me but free tickets to games and expensive dinners. When I met Maggie, I saw a girl that wasn’t impressed by expensive dinners or free tickets. She already has the best seat in the house and prefers getting a slice of pizza over caviar. She would rather have a glass of wine at home with a good romance movie than a night out. And every time I look in her eyes, I feel like I’m being transported somewhere magical where only Maggie Redford has been. She is everything I’m not used to looking for, but I realize she is exactly what I need.”
My mouth grew drier the more he spoke. It wasn’t that Tommy hadn’t sold the bit. It was almost like he had sold the bit too well. He hadn’t given Olivia some cheesy romantic speech about how when he first saw me he knew I was the one. Instead, Tommy had given my best friend a list of things he had come to know about me. Things he had taken the time to file away in a folder marked “Maggie.” My heart was beating as fast as a prize racehorse coming around the final bend of the track. The small voice in my head was shouting at me about the reason that Tommy and I were even in this mess in the first place, but it was like my heart was slamming the door and silencing that voice as I watched him.
Tommy continued to hold eye contact with Olivia, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away from his face. I was searching for something in his expression that would tell me he was observant and a very good actor and that none of those things he said had meant anything. All I saw was the same passionate look that he had on his face when he talked about the sport he loved, baseball. Olivia stopped walking.
“Are you going to break her heart?” My gaze shifted from Olivia’s face to Tommy’s. Olivia narrowed her eyes at him as if she were trying to find something off with Tommy’s response.
“I never want to hurt Maggie.” Tommy looked at Olivia first and then me, like he was trying to reassure not only Olivia but me about his intentions.
Olivia seemed to be satisfied with Tommy’s answer because she flipped back around and started walking toward the edge of the pier. My mind was racing a million miles a minute as I tried to understand what Tommy had said. Did he really mean all of that? It was like a reel was set on a movie projector in my head, showing all of the moments we had spent together so far. The two of us had been forced into this precarious situation that normal people would never find themselves in, and it was like it had bonded us closer than we’d originally realized.
“Look!” Olivia shouted, pulling me out of my internal think session. She was pointing at the docks off the pier. They were covered in sea lions.
I fumbled for my purse, wanting to capture the moment. All I had was my phone, but it would have to do. My eyes scanned the scene, trying to determine the best angle before I lined up my phone for the shot.
When I pulled the phone down to study the picture, I could feel Tommy hovering over my shoulder. “Perfect.”
I glanced up to see him staring down at me. My heart was in my throat. I was in serious trouble.
Later that afternoon, Tommy walked me back to my hotel room. Olivia had wandered back to her own, leaving the two of us alone. Neither of us wanted the day to end, which could be seen in the slow walk we took down the hallway toward my room.
