Page 102 of Fly with Me

Stella twisted a piece of her hair around a finger. “I don’t want to continue if you aren’t comfortable.”

“I am comfortable.” Fear bubbled inside Olive. What would it mean if this was over? No. It couldn’t be over.

“I wish you had called me to tell me you were sick.”

“I… I didn’t want to seem needy.”

Understanding spilled over Stella’s face. “You’re referencing what your ex said.” A bite Olive hoped was jealousy infused the word ex. “You aren’t like that. What she said revealed way more about her than it did about you.” Stella squeezed Olive’s hand more tightly and forced Olive to look at her. “Please call me if you need me. Anytime.”

“Okay.” Olive leaned on Stella’s shoulder.

“And this, this friendship… this is what you want?” Stella’s tone sounded unconvinced and unsure.

“Yes, it’s what I want. I don’t want a commitment. I like kissing you. I’d like to do anything with you. I wasn’t really looking for a relationship either.” Olive had said no relationships until she finished Jake’s list anyway. Maybe an arrangement like this was perfect for her too. “What about you, Stella? What do you want? Right now. This exact second. What do you want?”

Fire seemed to blaze between them for a moment. The silence dragged on slightly longer than would be normal in a casual conversation. Stella’s lips parted as if there were something she wanted to say, just on the tip of her very talented tongue. What was she not saying?

But Olive’s lungs decided to pick that moment to shudder and rasp enough that she dissolved into a brutal coughing fit. Her ribs ached. Pain flashed in her head as she kept coughing.

Stella’s expression changed, shifting back into what Olive was beginning to interpret as captain mode. She straightened, brows wrinkling as her eyes scanned Olive’s body. “Well, first you need to take off your shirt.”

Olive’s persistent hacking barely allowed her to articulate, “W-what?”

Chapter 36

After the coughing fit slowed, Olive blinked and tugged at her neck. The room was a million degrees now. “You want me to what?”

“Take off your shirt.” Her tone was matter-of-fact. Not exactly how Olive imagined her saying these words for the first time. And Olive certainly had imagined her saying them.

Stella turned to rummage through a shopping bag on the bookshelf behind her and pulled out a round blue tub, holding it up like Vanna White or a model on The Price Is Right.

Oh.

“In my family we have a very specific way of doing Vicks. My abuela swore by it. Do you mind if I show you?”

Olive stood and tripped over her feet. Stella rushed forward and caught her, interpreting the fall as illness-related delirium rather than the fact that all the blood in Olive’s brain had gone to a very different part of her body at the thought of Stella rubbing hands all over Olive’s chest.

“Still dizzy?” Stella swept her fingers across Olive’s forehead with a featherlight touch that seemed too teasing to be real.

“Uh—” After her voice cracked, she cleared her throat and tried again. “Yeah. Still not feeling great.”

“This will make you feel better. I promise. Sit.”

Olive sat so quickly it was as if she were Gus with a treat dangled in front of his nose.

Stella’s fingers grazed the worn hem of the T-shirt, and Olive offered her a tiny nod. The cotton pulled over her head, leaving her in nothing but the bra that Olive profoundly wished wasn’t an old and discolored gray.

“Lie down.” Stella’s words were more clinical than Olive would like, but again, Olive obeyed without question. “Close your eyes.”

Olive closed her eyes and felt Stella’s nimble fingers working through her hair. She fanned the tangled waves out on the pillow beneath her and smoothed it. The touch was so delicate, Olive shivered.

“Are you okay? Chills?”

“Um. Yeah. A little, but I’m fine.” Olive coughed again, covering her mouth even tighter with her elbow to try to spare Stella from any more of her germs.

Olive heard the untwisting of a lid before Stella spoke in a low, sympathetic voice. “You’re okay if I put some of this on you? No allergies, right?”

“No allergies.”