Chapter 26

Elana

The rays of sunlight spilled into the bedroom and cascaded across my face, waking me from my sleep. I kept my eyes tightly shut, not wanting to ruin the comfort that I felt, wrapped up in the soft blankets in Ollie’s bed. The pillow smelled like his cologne, and I knew if I got up, it would officially end the amazing day and night we’d spent together. Then again, I could feel the pangs of hunger in my belly, so I slowly opened my eyes and looked over to where Ollie would have been sleeping. Without thought, my chest did a flip-flop as I stared over at the empty space beside me. Before I could go into a full-fledged panic, though, I heard the shower running in the bathroom. I chuckled at myself for being so paranoid and climbed out of the bed. Inside his top dresser drawers were a pair of plaid boxers and a t-shirt, so I threw them on, rolling the boxers at the top to make them fit.

My mouth was dry and sticky, and I could only imagine what my breath tasted like. As I passed the mirror, I stopped, looking at the matted mess that my hair was, covered in baby oil and sweat from the night before. I ran my fingers through it before giving up and shrugging, making my way out to the kitchen. I shuffled to the fridge and looked inside, pulling the orange juice from the shelf and pulling down a glass. I poured a glass and chugged it, breathing heavily as I pulled the glass from my lips. As I stood there recovering, I glanced down at his almost empty fridge, noticing that he had a carton of eggs and a gallon of milk on the top shelf. I inspected the dates on them and was surprised to see that they were current, so I pulled out the ingredients and set them on the counter.

If I was going to be up this early in a strange house, I might as well make some breakfast for us to eat. I went through the cabinets, trying to find the utensils and dishes that I needed. Finally, I was able to scrounge together a frying pan, spatula, and bowl, finding the flour as I went through the rest of the cabinets. That was perfect; I could make something other than a plate full of eggs for us to eat, making sure that we were full. I grabbed a larger bowl and started cooking, humming to myself as I combined the ingredients together and began to whisk them into a batter.

I looked over my shoulder as Ollie walked from the bedroom, dressed but towel-drying his hair. He looked so handsome right out of the shower, and immediately, I became a bit self-conscious since I looked like a bag of ass. He smiled with that charm I had remembered so many times before when we would see each other around campus. It made my heart flutter, and I could feel my cheeks getting warm. I poured some of the batter into the frying pan and watched as it cooked. Ollie slowly approached, looking down at the batter and then wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. I smiled and touched his arm with my hand, reaching for the spatula.

“Whatcha making?” he asked.

“Tacos,” I said sarcastically with a smile.

“Hmm, I think you might be doing it wrong,” he replied, kissing me hard on the cheek.

“What? You’ve never had flat, fluffy tacos?” I joked.

“There is a first time for everything.” He laughed.

“No, I’m actually making pancakes,” I said happily. “One of my favorites, especially after… well, a good workout.”

“That, we did have,” he said, kissing my neck.

“I just wished that I had some apples, so I could make some apple pancakes,” I said with a sigh. “They are one of my favorite things in the world. My father, before he left, would make them for me every Saturday morning when I was young. He would turn them into funny shapes and then sit with me and eat them. It’s one of the few good memories that I have of him. I just remember feeling happy and content when I smelled that apple smell. It meant my mother was out and there would be no bickering and fighting, just me and my father.”

“Well, they sound absolutely divine,” he said, smiling. “And I promise you from the bottom of my heart, I will go through hell or high water, travel a thousand seas, kill the biggest giant, to find you some apples. You, my dear, may have whatever you like in this world.”

I laughed, turning and watching him walk off around the counter with his arms in the air. He was quite the showman and extremely sarcastic. He got me giggling so badly I could barely say a word to him.

“The world is your oyster,” he continued, his arms in the air. “There is more than one way to skin a cat. A bird in the hand is as good as two in the bush…or something like that.”

“Okay, okay.” I laughed, flipping the pancake. “You know, you aren’t my servant any longer.”

“Oh,” he said, dropping his arms. “Well, it was definitely good while it lasted. In fact, I was thinking of implementing at least one day a month where this servant thing takes effect. Actually, I was thinking we could swap off. I don’t know how many varieties there are of that boxed meal thing I made.”

“Yeah,” I scoffed. “Keep dreaming, but what I will do is come over and cook your dinner. You just have to be the one to do the dishes.”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s a tough one. I hate doing dishes.”

“I’ll throw in a massage,” I said, flipping the pancake and smiling.

“You twisted my arm; done,” he said, slapping his hand on the counter.

We both burst into laughter, looking around the room at the fruit that was in the kitchen. He pretty much had everything but apples, which was odd, and I made sure to make fun of him for it. I plated the pancakes, and we sat down at the breakfast bar to eat.

“Okay, I have to figure out how to get the apples,” I said, taking a bite. “It’s going to haunt me if I don’t.”

“I mean, they do make these things called grocery stores, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen little round, red balls that resembled apples in their produce section,” he replied sarcastically.

“No, no,” I said, shaking my head and sighing. “You can’t make apple pancakes with an apple grown in Malesia.”

“I don’t think they grow apples in Malesia.” He laughed. “In fact, I don’t think Malesia is a real place.”

I shook my head. “It’s real, although I’m not sure if they grow apples there. But you know what I mean.”

“No, I think I’m missing this one,” he replied, looking at me.

“We need fresh apples,” I said, exasperated. “Like pick them from the tree, fresh.”

“Well, it is apple-picking season,” he said.

“Oh, I know,” I said excitedly. “There is an apple orchard about an hour away. We could go!”

“Perfect,” he replied. “It’ll be good to get out of town anyway.”

We finished up our pancakes, and Ollie got ready while I collected my things and waited for him. As I sat there by the door, I couldn’t help but smile, thinking about how amazing of a night it had been. On top of that, we were getting ready to do something that was actually normal. An actual date where we would walk hand in hand and pick apples together, just like I always wanted.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, pulling myself from my thoughts and smiling as he grabbed his jacket and walked with me out the door.

We jumped into his car and headed over to my place, so I could change out of his boxers and t-shirt. I looked like I was doing a serious walk of shame, smiling at the neighbor as I hurried inside the house. Ollie waved awkwardly and meandered inside, closing the door and smiling.

“Not a word,” I said, pointing at him. “Now, I’m gonna go change. If you want some coffee, there’s a Keurig in the kitchen.”

“Got it,” he said, folding his lips in and sticking his hands in his pockets.

I went upstairs and jumped in the shower, trying to get the oil and sweat out of my hair. When I was done, I pulled it up into a messy bun and threw on a pair of jeans, a gray fitted t-shirt, and a black jacket before jogging back down the stairs. When I got down there, Ollie was standing with two travel mugs of coffee and a smile, waiting for me to be done.

We drove along in silence, but not an awkward silence, more of a contemplative and joining silence. We were happy to be with each other, to hold each other’s hands and just be together. It was calming and sweet, and I had never been with someone before that I felt that close to in the moments between the conversation. My mom always told me the measure of a true relationship was not in the words spoken, but the ones that never had to be spoken. I finally understood what she was trying to say. I understood why she and my father never had the conversation about divorce. It just happened one day, standing in the kitchen, staring at each other.

The drive into the country took about an hour, and then we finally stopped off at Elegant Farms. When we arrived, there were tons of families with little children running around with sticky hands and faces and chowing down on beautiful red apples. I giggled as we walked around, dodging a couple of kids chasing each other through the orchard. We paid for a bag and set out, using the long basket stick to get some really good apples from up high. We laughed and joked with each other the whole time, sneaking a kiss now and then between the trees. Once we filled a bag, we headed back over to their country store, where we walked around and looked at all the handmade crafts.

Ollie was obsessed with the fact that they had their famous country ham, so we picked some of that up and some cheese to go along with it. I figured if nothing else, we would be completely engorged by Sunday morning breakfast. From there, we drove a little bit farther into a small town where we stopped and ate lunch, looking out at the people as they passed. This was a really small town, like the kind where everyone knows each other, and visitors were welcomed with open arms. At one point, we were even able to stop and talk to the mayor, who was just doing some grocery shopping at the local market with his kids and wife. We wouldn’t have known it was the mayor, of course, except for the fact that we were greeted by everyone and introduced as visitors in town. I was completely smitten by the whole experience and was hoping to come back when the season got closer to Christmas.

We spent the whole day shopping, eating, laughing, and teasing each other, before stopping and eating some more. I was pretty sure I hadn’t eaten that much in a really long time. It had to have been one of the most fun days I’d ever had, and there wasn’t anything flashy or expensive about what we did. We were together, and that seemed to be the only thing that mattered to either of us at that moment. I was definitely finding myself falling deeply for Ollie, and I didn’t even care.