10. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The next afternoon Lara timed it better. She’d been forewarned that Sadie had a meeting and she knew that on Wednesdays Audrey worked in Brisbane, so her nanny was on pick-up duty. She made it to the gate at bang on 2:59pm, one minute before the bell rang.

“Hey mum!” Tilly arrived, her face bright and distracted. She was struggling out of the straps of her school bag, dumping it at her feet. “I just gotta-” her daughter ran over to the playground after Frankie and a couple of girls from her class.

Lara sighed. She followed over towards the playground.

“Tilly,” she called, “come on, we’ve got to go. ”

“Five minutes, mum!” Tilly’s eyes were beseeching as the small knot of kids gathered around some creepy high-tech talking toy Lara would never let into her own house.

“Nope,” came a low voice just over Lara’s left shoulder. She looked up to see Ollie approaching again, her eyes on the kids. “That’s a nope from me. I’m pretty sure that thing reports directly to our overlords.”

Lara almost laughed. She swallowed it quickly and flat out refused Ollie the win. She realised now that the child holding the toy was Aria Gabrielli, a pair of equally dark-haired children jumping up at her heels.

“You’re on pick-up duty for the whole family now?” she asked. She didn’t remotely care about the ins and outs of the Gabrielli family schedule but she wanted advance warning so that she didn’t keep finding herself so surprised by Ollie, everywhere, all the time.

“Seems like it,” Ollie told her, her eyes on her nieces and nephew.“Just this week,” she clarified. “Pia’s about to go on maternity leave and I figured I’d help her out with the school run until then. And if I’m here for one, I might as well be here for all.” She shrugged. “Natasha can lay back and have a wine, or whatever it is mums with toddlers at home do with their spare time.”

Lara stole a glance at her and caught the wry smile on her face. She found herself distracted by Ollie’s ridiculous glossy locks. How the fuck did Ollie comb all of that? It was almost curls but kind of waves, perfectly tousled as if Ollie had sauntered to the school gate directly from the beach. Lara’s palms itched and she looked away, right as Ollie turned to look at her.

“No kids, huh?” Lara said, purely to cover her stare. She could feel Ollie’s eyes on her and she refused to meet them. God, why was she making conversation with Ollie Gabrielli exactly?

“Good lord no,” Ollie told her. “I definitely don’t have the constitution for that.”

Lara huffed. She didn’t care if another woman wanted kids or not, but it always irked her to hear motherhood spoken of as if the women who did have them were somehow mystically stronger, instead of just plain tired and doing their damn best, no more talent and skills than the next person.

A small Gabrielli boy burst into tears and flung himself at Ollie’s legs. Ollie ducked down to hug him, her voice low and soothing and barely a minute later he was chuckling and running off to fling himself back into the fray. Ugh. Aunty stakes were always so much lower, she told herself, vastly annoyed by the wild display of competence.

“She’s cute,” Ollie said, after she straightened up. She was looking over at Tilly who was giggling wildly and whirling in a circle, arms akimbo. “Like a mini-you.”

The thing was, Tilly was a mini-Lara: same colouring, same eyes. It was joyful and terrifying all at once. It wasn’t remotely the first time people had commented on the resemblance but it was the first time it had made Lara’s cheeks heat. She was furious at herself and at Ollie. Ollie was making perfectly appropriate playground conversation - again, as if they were friends - and yet just like the day before, Lara felt sure she could read deeper intention behind her easy words. If Ollie wanted Lara to know she thought she was cute - not an adjective most people used about her by the way - it really meant nothing to Lara whatsoever.

“Tilly, Frankie, it’s time to go!” She studiously ignored the woman beside her and both girls looked up and groaned. Lara’s tone broached no argument however and they dragged their feet to go and grab their bags. Lara turned to follow, at the exact moment Ollie stepped forward toward the playground. Lara stopped abruptly with a sharp intake of breath, their bodies barely an inch apart, Ollie’s hands flaring at her sides like she was ready to grab Lara’s hips to stop her stumble.

“Sorry,” Ollie apologised as Lara quickly stepped back. They looked at each other for a beat of confusion, Lara flustered, Ollie surprised. Lara opened her mouth and closed it again. They hadn’t even bumped into each other, Lara zealously guarding her personal space, but she felt the collision like it had happened. “You good?” Ollie asked her, her expression curious at the heat Lara could feel rushing up her neck. Ollie’s lips were slightly parted and their bodies still way too close. Lara quickly unfroze. She whirled on her heels and walked away, extremely aware of the eyes on her back as she did. Jesus Christ.

The next day, Lara was fully prepared. Ollie found her attractive, that was manifestly evident. Lara was attractive; it was her most blatantly obvious feature. Who didn’t like long blonde hair and a cup-size that made men stupid? Ollie was gay, Ollie was into it, Ollie would be as easy to ignore as the rest of them, once Lara got over her surprise at the flash of heat between them. Because that’s all it was: Ollie’s interest, Lara’s surprise, the sudden proximity and the old tension between them, all combining into one strong zap of electricity.

It was fantastic, actually, Lara decided, after she’d thought about it for perhaps slightly too long. What better revenge after all this time than Ollie Gabrielli wanting something and Lara getting to be the one to deny it to her? Lara stalked into the schoolyard the next day, chin high, eyes for no one but her best friend, she and Sadie laughing together because this was not Ribbonwood High. Lara had an ally, a daughter, a business, a whole world of her own and Ollie had no impact on her now. She was wholly insignificant in the scheme of Lara’s life and Lara wouldn’t reward her with a single scrap of further attention.

Lara knew she looked good; knew because she’d checked her reflection in the store’s bathroom mirror before she’d left; knew because she’d dressed this morning knowing she was going to be looked at. It might not be ethical exactly, but as Lara reflected on the last two years of high school she felt entirely justified. She remembered another stab of feeling she’d discovered back then: the power that came with being wanted but out of reach. Slut, she remembered. Cocksucker, stuck-up bitch. Boys had wanted her despite all that, maybe because of all that, who even knew? But girls were the ones who’d truly hurt her.

Ollie…well, Ollie hadn’t really been the worst of them, objectively Lara knew that. She wasn’t even sure that Ollie had used any of those words, at least not to her face. She didn’t have to. No, Ollie had tortured her simply by holding herself up as Lara’s polar opposite and making her deep disdain crystal clear.

If there were high school archetypes then she and Ollie had each represented one. The blonde, sexy, bad girl and the sporty, brunette high-achiever. The nasty slut versus the good girl who stayed away from boys. Lara had only found one chink in Ollie’s perfection, the one thing that might turn the approving teachers and swathes of friends against the girl who had everything. She’d watched Ollie wrapped up in her female friends as if oblivious to the existence of boys - both privileges Lara sorely lacked - and put two and two together. It wasn’t her fault Lara had turned out to be right.

Still, Lara was not remotely above using any of this in her favour now. The unseasonable hot weather was the perfect excuse for the miles of bare skin she’d left on show, her hair loose and flowing, her movements sensuous and languid. Sadie tossed her an odd look. It wasn’t out of character for Lara to put this exact armour on against the school mums but she knew her energy today was different; she could feel it herself. She kept up the pretence of total carelessness, all the way into the schoolyard and out again, but just as they disappeared out the gate, she cracked. She couldn’t help but look to see how this version of herself was landing.

Ollie was leaning on the school gate post, surrounded - as always - in women. Her eyes were sure as hell locked tight on Lara though. Lara had meant to brush her gaze over Ollie as though she was mere scenery, inconsequential to Lara and absolutely not the focal point to all of this. But at the look in Ollie’s dark eyes, her breath hitched. Ollie didn’t look wrung out with desire or lessened by the weakness of wanting what she couldn’t have. Oh no. Ollie looked knowing. Her eyes reflected a clear hit of lust, that much was true, but she also looked solidly amused.

Lara flicked her hair over her shoulder and jerked her eyes back to her daughter, calling to her not to run, instantly a harried mother, no time for games with Ollie Gabrielli, but inside she was fuming. Why had she looked? Why did Ollie always get to fucking win?

The following afternoon just as she was getting ready to cash up the register and close for the day to go and retrieve her daughter, Lara heard the store’s front door bell jingle. That was a good thing, she reminded herself. One more sale for the day, another handful of dollars to keep the whole show on the road.

She heard purposeful footsteps down the aisle and looked up to see none other than Ollie Gabrielli, dark eyes fixed on her, a packet of ginger gummies snatched in her fist. Lara almost laughed at the sudden win. Ollie didn’t drop her gaze the whole way to the register.

“That’s quite the sweet tooth you’ve got.” Lara raised her eyebrows, the remains of her annoyance helping keep her expression thoroughly unimpressed.

“You’ve got no idea,” Ollie said softly, her voice low.

Lara narrowed her eyes. There was no way she’d let such an obvious line hit her anywhere that mattered. She let Ollie set the bag down on the counter and rang up her purchase as perfectly calmly as if she were any other wealthy, interstate tourist customer briefly crossing her path.

“Sightseeing?” she asked blandly. Lara managed not to let the victorious smile slip out as Ollie flushed very slightly pink. Score one for Lara, finally. She might be a single mother and a shopkeeper but at least part of her had been right: the overly blessed town princess really couldn’t seem to take her eyes off her.

“Lara-” Ollie didn’t budge from the counter, even though her purchase had been made. “I wanted to…” Her words petered out as she seemed to struggle with herself. She changed tack, her chin raising, eyes on Lara’s. “High school was a long time ago. It was a different time.”

“Not around here it’s not,” Lara stated the blindingly fucking obvious, her tone cool.

Ollie nodded. She chewed on her lip and watched her.

“We should go for a drink. ”

Lara couldn’t help her smile then. Ollie was so serious with her big brown Bambi eyes, her jaw set with determination. Lara leaned towards her, watched Ollie’s lips part, just a breath. She bit her own lower lip, heard that breath catch.

“Olivia-”

“It’s Viola, but you know that.”

“Ollie,” she raised her lashes. “There is not a single chance in hell.”