Sparks the Matchmaker (Aaron Sparks Series) (17 page)

But he was really very lonely.

He decided after a while that the only thing he could do next was try again with Joy. He’d show up at Joy’s doorstep again in the morning. That was all he could think of. If she wasn’t there, he would stake out her cash register and refuse to go away until he at least had a chance to talk frankly to her for ten minutes. It was time for action.

He knew what he needed to do.

…even though he didn’t really know what he needed to do.

Chapter 22

Ollie was hoping desperately to be wrong, but he was right: Joy wasn’t home in the morning. He didn’t get to walk her to class. He was, though, determined to hear whatever she had to say, good or bad. The thought of it consumed him throughout the day. He planned to stop by her cash register a little before her shift ended, and he wouldn’t take “I have something I need to go do” for an answer.

Any thoughts of cornering her for a few questions were dashed when he reached her register only to see a tall red-headed guy working in her place.

“Where’s Joy today?” he asked, not bothering to wait in line.

“I don’t know,” the guy said. “She asked me to cover for her today.”

At any other time, Ollie would have taken the strong hint that Joy expected him to let go. But this situation was different.
Sparks wouldn’t be pushing me in toward her if we weren’t meant to be together—I think.
Sparks had warned Ollie that Joy would need space this week anyway, so he took it in stride and tried to hang in there.

It wasn’t completely unexpected.
But…

Ollie thought about how his grandma used to say “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Yeah, but too much absence makes the heart start to wander.
He wanted to see about Joy the Avoidress, but he was possessed by a budding curiosity about the Girl Who Scoots by Inches on Couches.

Even though Joy had managed to completely dodge him again, Ollie held on to the idea that Sparks had set him on the right path with Joy, even if his grip on that idea was failing.

He was very curious about Lynn, though.

Joy wasn’t going to avoid him forever. She just needed some time to think things through.

But Lynn…

He remembered how Joy referred to her most recent boyfriend as “that guy,” and he hoped he hadn’t reached that status with her.

Lynn…

Joy was not at his side because she had been brushing him off.

Lynn was not at his side because he had brushed her off.

When his mind got tired of thinking about those two beautiful faces, Anne would pop into his thoughts again.

More than once he thought about going up to his closet and pulling out the Yankees hat, but every time he thought about it, he resisted. He wanted to know the answers, but not enough to give in. He was going to make it a full week just to prove to Sparks who was really in charge.
Maybe to prove it to myself.
Since the last time Sparks had shown up was on a Sunday night, he would wait until then.

It would have been easier if there was a ball game to watch, but there wasn’t. It might have been nicer if Keith or D were home to give him some company, but Keith was off studying somewhere and D was at work with Greg. Even Richie had something better to do than to hang out with Ollie.

Someday I won’t have to play the dating game. Won’t that be wonderful.
He knew he could wade through the tough times because often the biggest rewards were found at the end of the craziest experiences. His experience was crazier than any he’d ever heard of, which only meant he’d find the most amazing life at the end of all of this; the most perfect girl to share it with.

He never gave in to the urge to pull out the Yankees hat. He never drove to Lynn’s place— not while he was still confused about his situation with Joy. He never gave in, except that he went to bed much earlier than usual.

Chapter 23

Ollie always knocked before entering Greg’s apartment, even if he had only left long enough to get something out of his car. Nearly every time he entered, he had to reintroduce himself before Greg remembered who he was. The last thing he needed would be for Greg to mistake him for an intruder.

“Pooky?” Ollie said after Greg opened the door, looking him up and down.

“Pooky!” Greg yelled. Greg wrapped his arms around him and squeezed.

Please be wearing clean pants.
“I’m glad to see you’re in a good mood,” Ollie said.

“Yes I am,” Greg said. “Now let’s go do something fun.”

“Can’t.”

“Why not?”

“D told me before I came in today that you needed to stay off your feet.”

“No I don’t. Why?”

“Because of that big gash on your leg. D took you to the doctor yesterday and you were told to stay off it for a few days.”

Greg pulled the left leg of his pants up and scanned it for damage. “Look at that. I wonder how that happened.”

“You fell off—“ Ollie waited, wondering if Greg could finish the sentence.

“I fell off… my skateboard? My bed?”

“The swing set.”

“Oh yeah. The swing set. I guess it’s not meant for people my size.”

***

Working a shift without Joy by his side was boring enough, but taking away their ability to leave the apartment made it even that much worse. Between some odorous loads of laundry and Greg doing reps on his weight set, there wasn’t much else to keep either of them busy.

“I think I’ll call my sister,” Greg said. He was having trouble, though, dialing his sister’s number with his massive fingers. He had used the phone numerous times before without incident, but now he couldn’t get his enormous digits to push only one button at a time. After the second attempt, Greg slammed it down on the table, cracking the plastic. That’s when everything turned upside down.

Ollie finally saw Greg’s short fuse firsthand, and it terrified him. “You okay, man?” he asked. “I think I’m supposed to give you some space if you start to get upset.”

“Shut up! Get out of here!” Greg yelled as he slammed the telephone down on the table one more time, breaking it into pieces. He sat forward on his haunches threateningly, tensed for the strike.

Well, that was the wrong thing to say
… not that there was any kind of right thing to say. The damage had already been done. The phone had defied Greg by positioning its numbers too close together. There was no fixing things now.

Ollie realized he hadn’t planned ahead very well. In the future he’d make his usual seat the one closest to the front door, and he would wait until he was near it before asking if Greg needed some time alone. That would be in the future. Presently, and rather unfortunately, he found himself sitting in a cave too close to an angry grizzly bear, and the distance between him and the only exit yawned impossibly wide.

Ollie stood slowly, hoping slow deliberate movements would be less dangerous than a sudden sprint to safety.

Greg stood more quickly.

Ollie turned and hurried toward the door. Greg moved quickly, especially for a guy who was supposed to stay off his feet. Ollie felt sure he was going to beat Greg to the door, but he didn’t know how long it would take him to get it open. He could already taste the freedom and safety of the outdoors, but the door—!

Ollie was able to open the front door, but Greg had him before he could flee through it to safety. Greg wrapped his massive arms around him as he tackled him, causing them both to stumble into the corner. They managed to stay on their feet, but then with a mighty grunt, Greg lifted Ollie up off the ground.
As long as I don’t hear any of my bones crunching, I’ll be okay!
Another loud grunt, and Ollie was thrown out the door, landing on the concrete like a sack of potatoes.

For a long moment, Greg stood over Ollie, staring down at him. He didn’t dare try to get up or move, ready to protect himself by kicking up at Greg if he needed to.
I can’t remember the last time anybody picked me up, let alone threw me.

Greg turned around, stomped back into his apartment, and slammed the door. It was over.

Before he could give it another thought, Ollie scrambled back to his feet and darted twenty feet away from the front door before turning around to reassess the situation. “Get out of here!” Greg yelled from inside his apartment. “Don’t come back!”

There was a bright side: at least he hadn’t hit him. Sparks had been wrong. So far, anyway.

***

Ollie waited just out of Greg’s sight for the next five minutes, watching and listening and breathing hard. He’d been in a few scuffles in his lifetime— including the one a few days earlier at the ballpark— but he’d never seen the kind of rage in a man’s eyes that he had seen just then; it was as if Greg was going to actually tear him apart.

There had been no way around it, though. He’d had no way of knowing Greg was going to have trouble with the phone. He had been reasonably cheerful thirty seconds earlier.

Ollie waited, nervous that Greg the grizzly bear was going to come crashing out his front door breathing fire, incinerating everything in his path. But he never made a sound.

Ollie considered his options.

The worst was to go gingerly back into Greg’s lair after just five minutes of calm.
No, that’s a bad idea.

He could go wait in the car for the next half hour or forty-five minutes, and while that might be better, it would be boring.

Or I could go hang out with Lynn and Marie…
Yeah. That was a good option; it just made sense.

***

Both Lynn and Marie could cheer Ollie up, even though only five minutes earlier he had nearly lost his life. He stayed only half an hour, but that gave him thirty minutes of smiles and laughter.

Maybe Greg got fed up because I’m both bored and boring.
He couldn’t help being bored and boring, though, at least with the kind of day they’d had.

Lynn probably could have guessed pretty closely what had just happened to Ollie by the expression on his face, but he told her all the details anyway.

“You can’t beat yourself up about it,” Lynn said.

“I know. That’s Greg’s job,” Ollie laughed.

“I’m serious,” Lynn said. “He’ll just snap. Sometimes you can’t avoid it. All you can do is get out of his way.”

After a while, Ollie walked back to Greg’s place. It was time to get back to work, and his responsibilities couldn’t be avoided.

He was still nervous about what he’d find there. He couldn’t help feeling like he’d failed at something. He felt somehow it was his fault Greg had flipped out, even though he knew it was impossible to completely keep Greg occupied and busy at all hours.

“Greg?”

“Who are you?”

“Ollie.”

Greg looked at him hesitantly, but stepped closer.

Ollie’s hand still rested on the doorknob. As he felt those potentially terrible eyes scanning him, it took everything he had not to tuck his tail and run.
Is he still mad at me, or does he really not remember who I am?
There’s one sure way to tell.

“Pooky?” Ollie said, still deciding between fight and flight.

Greg’s eyes lit up in excitement, like he’d just been reunited with a long lost friend. “Pooky!”

“I was gonna ask how you were doin’, but I can see you’re doing just fine.”

“‘Course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Oh, I dunno. I just didn’t know if you were still—” Ollie stopped himself from finishing his own sentence. If Greg didn’t remember his emotional hurricane, nothing good could come from reminding him about it. “…Uh, if you were still wanting to go over to visit Marie’s apartment.”

“Who’s she?”

“You know her… big girl across the way. Thick glasses.”

“Why would I want to visit her?”

“I dunno. She’s your friend.”

“I bet you just want to go over there because there’s a hot girl working with her today.”

Busted.
“Hey, if you don’t want to go over there, that’s fine. I just thought you’d like to go do something fun, rather than sit around the house watching TV.”

“I’m hungry. Maybe after dinner.”

Ollie took a few steps toward the kitchen and pointed at the empty bowl that had contained ravioli in the not too distant past. “You just ate.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not still hungry. Besides, don’t you have a girlfriend? Isn’t that girl with the curly brown hair your girlfriend? She doesn’t work over there.”

Ollie’s mind immediately switched over to defense. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides, how is it you can remember something like that, but you don’t even know who I am when I walk through your door?”

“Beats me. Sometimes I remember things, sometimes I don’t.”

It was a lost cause trying to convince Greg. He wasn’t going to go.

The big bear nuked a TV dinner, quickly got it into his belly, and resumed hibernation on the sofa while Ollie coasted to the end of the shift watching another ballgame.

Even after the shift and the ballgame had ended, Ollie sat there quietly debating whether or not to spend a little more time with Lynn and Marie or just go home. His debate went as far as walking over to Marie’s front door and lifting his hand as if he were going to knock, but he shoved his hand back into his warm pocket and made his way to his car.
Playing with fire. I’d better figure out what’s up with Joy before I go hanging out with other girls.

What a rotten situation to be in.
This would be so much easier if Lynn were ugly.
But Ollie had to shake his head at himself for thinking such a horrible thought.

That night, stewing in his thoughts, he knew what he wanted to do. He’d go over to Joy’s place in the morning so early that she couldn’t possibly be gone. It was all he could think of doing, but even that plan came up empty.

“Sorry, Ollie,” Joy’s roommate said, standing in the doorway in her pajamas. “She left town.”

“What?” Ollie couldn’t believe it. “Any idea where she went? Or when she’ll be back?”

“I think she went to Colorado again.”

Déjà vu. He’d seen this before, but he was on the other side of the situation then. Last time she went to Colorado she was looking to ditch “that guy.” Hopefully this trip to Colorado didn’t mean she went with Scott. “Did she go alone?”

Joy’s roommate clearly didn’t want to have to answer that question.

But he knew the answer just by the expression on her face.

“I don’t think so. I think she went with Scott.”