A Love Restored

1 sucked in a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding, and Liam looked at me sideways. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I turned to him quickly, hoping I hadn’t given anything way. “Sorry. I’m just really sleepy.”

He nodded slowly and offered me some water from his bottle. I accepted gratefully. I drank most of it, then apologized sheepishly.

“You got a boyfriend, Flora?” Liam asked suddenly. I shook my head.

“You live on your own then?”

I shook my head again. “My Dad lives with me.”

“Oh, that’s cute. What about your mom?”

I felt my throat dry up at that, Liam asked too many questions. It wasn’t his fault. He was just talking. He just didn’t know what he was asking me

about

“She died. A few years ago.”

“Oh,” He paused for a second. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“You couldn’t have known, Liam.”

“My Dad died, too.” He said,

“When I was

was thirteen.”

“I’m so sorry.” I whispered. I squeezed his shoulder in pacification. “That’s terrible.”

He shrugged, but didn’t say anything.

I looked at him for a second, wanting to ask him something. He had been with the Corsinos so long. If I asked him, he would tell me everything. And I was so curious to know. What had been going with them all these years, but most of all with Felix. I had tried to look him up on social media, but he wasn’t on any. He had never been. Even when we were young, he had hated all social media–calling it pretentious and fake and a one–way ticket to selling all your information.

“So,” I finally mustered the courage, “Does Mr. Corsino have a girlfriend or something?”

He thought for a moment. “There was a girl.” He said, thinking. My heart sank. Of course, there was a girl. Of course, he wasn’t waiting around for me or anything. I hadn’t expected him to, but the news still hurt. “Someone from his university, I think. Not sure what’s going on right now. He seldom brings women over.” He looked to the side and caught my eye, a mischievous twinkle in his gaze. “Why? You fancy him?”

My eyes widened, and I shook my head. “I was just curious, is all.”

“I won’t judge you for it, you know? I know women like him.”

“He’s my boss.” I maintained. “And I’m not interested.”

Liam shrugged, but he continued to smile in a weird way, like he was thinking something strange to himself. I fell quiet.

Then, my curiosity got the better of me. “What was her name?”

“Gee, Flora. You’re really nosey, huh?”

I had to laugh to make it seem that I was really just nosey and looking for gossip, but in reality I knew I wouldn’t stop thinking about this. I would obsess over it forever and I would toss and turn in my sleep thinking about this girl. And Felix Them together. God.

“Olivia Miller.” He answered finally. I nodded and didn’t say anything more. When he finally dropped me off, I thanked him profusely, and then rushed up to my house. I couldn’t help it now. I had to search up this girl

I went on social media and looked up all the Olivia Millers that had gone to Princeton. There were several. It was a common name after all. But some of them were older and some had just enrolled, so I was able to filter out some people.

+10

chose a random account to click on. Mostly because she was the pr

prettiest of them all. Her hair was honey brown and curly and she had beautiful

Bonus

Chapter 12

features. As I went throughThis content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

her pictures, I mostly saw pictures from parties, with her friends and a few with her cat. As I went lower and lower, I stopped at a group picture. The picture quality wasn’t great. It looked like someone’s house, like a small party for friends or something, I swiped forward to the next picture in the sequence. My heart sank. There was Felix, not looking in the camera but to his left at something. It was a candid picture of the two of them sitting together. Olivia had her hand on his thigh. Very casual. But I knew what it meant.

So, it was her.

I scanned her profile for more pictures of him, or of them together, but there were none. Were they dating? Were they still dating?

If she came around the house to see him I wouldn’t be able to take it. I could still survive the knowledge, but I couldn’t survive the sight.