“You mean?”
“Yes, we fucking did it.”
She laughed as she took her hair out of her eyes. I gently moved it aside and kissed her.
“Shhh, Mom and Aunt Veronica will hear you. Besides you need to get home, so you can be ready for the office tomorrow. Wait, what day is it?”
“Wow, you’re really out of it. It’s Monday.”
Then she started jumping out of bed and she did the cutest thing; she was panicking.
“We need to get to the office. We’re late and besides I can’t have them thinking that we’re living together or anything.”
I put the pillow behind my back and thought about the times that I’d insisted on being in the office at eight, or even earlier. I saw an email on my phone and for the first time in a long time. I didn’t feel the need to rush.
“Aren’t you getting ready?”
“No.”
I crossed my arms and then there was a knock on the door.
She started to panic as she had her dress half on and then rushed to the door. “Shh,” she said to me and I just raised an eyebrow. I was thirty, not thirteen. She was acting like a teenager that was caught having sex in her parents’ house. Sure, this was her mom’s house, but she wasn’t exactly a teenager.
“Aunt Veronica, what is it?”
“How did you know it was me?”
“A guess,” Olivia sighed as she tried to make sure that only her head was sticking out through the door. If it had been any other woman I would have left and not seen them again. But this was different. I knew that Olivia and I were going somewhere and so I crawled out of bed and grabbed my pants.
I held open the door; I should have put my shirt on, but then judging by her aunt’s face I could tell that she was enjoying the view.
“I thought that I heard someone else in here.”
“Yes, I’m Ross Hamilton, and you’re Aunt Veronica who’s helping Olivia out.”
She laughed uncontrollably as she started to talk to my chest and not meet my eyes. “I’m not exactly helping her out. Just spending time with my sister.” Her chubby hands met mine. Olivia brought her back down to earth by clearing her throat.
“If I’d known you had company then I would have…”
Before Aunt Veronica could finish her sentence, Olivia nervously replied, “We need to get to the office.”
“Oh, this is the same Ross Hamilton, your boss.”
Olivia turned red as she tried to straighten out her dress. “Where’s Mom?”
“Taking a nap.”
“Why, what time is it?”
Both Aunt Veronica and I said in unison, “Ten.”
“That means she hasn’t even woken up yet.”
“Oh no, sometimes she doesn’t show her face until twelve. Every once in a while she likes to lie in apart from Tuesdays. When we go to yoga.”
“Yoga?”
“Yes, she loves it there. She says that it helps to relax her mind.”