Overlooked(1)(138)

My stomach is attacked by nervous quivering as I hold the phone to my ear and wait for him to answer the call.

He does so on the first ring and I suddenly realize I’m not ready to hear his voice again. Especially surrounded by a crowd of strangers as I walk through campus to get back to the main road.

“Olivia?” his voice is as deep and sensuous as I remember. My knees nearly buckle at the sound.

I’ve missed him.

The urge to just hang up looms over my head but I can’t chicken out. I have to give him a piece of my mind. But all my bossy remarks have suddenly fled my mind.

I can only muster his name.

“Sebastian.”

“Olivia,” he says again but this time my name is a relieved sigh. As if he’s been waiting a hundred years for this moment and it’s finally happening.

“I-I, um.” Are you freaking kidding me? I’m stuttering like a fool. Clearing my throat, I try again. “Why did you pay for my tuition?”

The question sounds accusatory and in a way it is. I don’t need his money. I’d already won a million dollars from his company. Why did he feel the need to keep rubbing it in my face how much money he had?

“What makes you think I paid for your tuition, baby?”

My eyes slide closed and my heart constricts at his easy endearment. Thankfully, I’m waiting at a crosswalk by this time so I don’t get trampled by a rush of people.

“The lady said it was a scholarship fund set up by an anonymous donor. And I’m the only one in the school who received it. Don’t you think that’s a little too coincidental?”

“Hmm,” he hums noncommittally and lets me keep speaking.

“I don’t know anyone with that kind of money lying around. So it has to be you.”

He doesn’t say anything right away.

“Sebastian, you can stop throwing your money around. I can afford to pay for my own education, thanks to you. So I don’t see the need for you to keep showing off.”

“I’m not showing off, I’m investing in your education,” he snaps defensively.

Don’t ask me why but the anger in his voice is just plain seductive. I have to fight hard to keep my composure as I cross the street and head in the direction of my new apartment building.

“Fine, well what about the car?” I want to know.

“I thought you might need a way to get to school every day.”

“I’m okay with walking. It’s not that far,” I volley back.

“Jesus, Olivia. Why won’t you just let me do something for you?”

“You’ve done enough!” I explode unintentionally. The emotion that’d been rising in my chest since he picked up finally erupted. “Expensive gifts don’t fix a broken heart, Sebastian.”

His silence is ominous before he clears his throat. “I’m fucking lost without you, Olivia.”

His usually confident and sure tone is masked by what I want to say is sadness.

“I miss you more than you can imagine. The gifts are my only way of getting through to you because you won’t pick up the phone. Do you know how frustrating that is?”

Emotion jams the words in my throat, so I just look to my left and blink away the tears forming in my eyes.

“Olivia, you have no idea how many times I’ve picked up the phone to call you after a big win at work or a frustrating meeting that went sour. I call you anyway even though I know it’s going to voicemail just so I can hear your voice. I’ve run out of ways to tell you I’m sorry so I’ve resorted to showing you instead. It’s all I have left.”

“Sebastian,” I whisper through a cloud of tears.

“It’s not the same without you, Olivia. I need you,” he says earnestly.

Just when I think my heart can’t hurt any more, his words amp up the pain even more.

Because I need him, too. It’s taken me a while to realize it but he became my lifeline in such a short period of time.

When things ended abruptly, I wasn’t prepared for the crushing pain. It was unbearable.

“I swear to God I didn’t do anything with that woman and I never will because my heart belongs to you. Only you.”

Rounding the corner, I bite my bottom lip to still the tears. My apartment is in view now and I will myself to make it inside the elevator before I open the floodgates and start wailing like a baby.

I shouldn’t have called him. This was a bad idea. I’m not over him.

I don’t think I’ll ever be over him.

“I have to go,” I croak out miserably.

“Olivia, please—”

But I hang up before he can get in another word.

The sincerity in his voice makes it clear that I made a huge mistake and I don’t know if I will ever forgive myself for that.