Cuddle Application

10 - Does that Make Me a Gold Digger

Note: I changed this chapter from past to present tense. The entire story up to this chapter is in past tense, but recently I've been preferring the present. Hopefully it's not too confusing, so let me know what you think and which you prefer. Thanks! :)

"Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart."
― Charles Dickens

➳♀♁➳

"I thought you were riding horses," is the first thing my mind thinks to say.

Oliver says nothing, instead choosing to smile wider than the Grand Canyon, his full lips and sparkling white teeth on display.

Ugh. His face made me angry.

By now my blush had crept up my neck and stained practically my entire face, labeling me a tomato in front of a guy that looked nothing less than immaculate ninety-nine percent of the time.

A high pitched giggle escapes my throat, yanked out by the awkwardness of the situation.

"We were riding horses," my brother answers, and I look at him for the first time since I entered the house. He's sitting at the dining room table, lazily sprawled across one of the chairs, face neutral. He turns to Oliver, smirking. "This oaf here bet he could beat me in a race."

I look between the both of them, realizing for the first time how close Oliver and James actually were.

"Hey," Oliver objects at being called an oaf, "watch your name calling, because if I remember correctly, this oaf beat you in that race." His face is utter cockiness, but my brother smirks.

James suddenly launches from his chair, a smile plastered on his face as he dives toward Oliver. They land on the ground with a "hey!" and the thud of a limb banging against the counter. The two boys laugh as they each land punches to each other's chests, scrambling across the floor while I stand there scratching my head.

There were two eighteen-year-old boys, one my brother who was leaving next month to be a supposed "adult," wrestling like first graders on the floor of my kitchen.

I was no longer embarrassed about belting out a few Beyoncé lyrics.

Oliver rolls on top of James, and for a second it seems like his winning, but then James swings his leg up and the next thing I know, their places are reversed.

I blink, mouth slightly ajar.

The conversation James and I had just days before comes back to me.

"I wouldn't be against you liking Oliver, you know."

This was probably a set up - a way for James to interfere with my love life. A stubborn feeling takes hold in my chest. I'd be damned if I let him have any say in the guys I choose to spend my time with.

Then something occurs to me. "Wait," I say loudly, and the boys stop their fighting, each looking up at me, their fight interrupted. Green and brown orbs blink boyishly back at me. "Where'd you get a horse?"

There's a moment of silence.

"Horses," Oliver corrects, picking himself off the ground and leaning his arms down against the countertop next to him.

"Oliver's grandfather has a whole stable full of them," says James, still on the floor.

I raise my eyebrows. "Is he a farmer?"