CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
OLIVIA
“I can’t believewe’re doing this right now,” Andie says, dipping her feet into the warm water. “Have you ever taken more than an hour for lunch?”
“Nope.”
I usually have lunch at my desk, squeezing out every last minute of my time to work. And where has that gotten me? Everyone else on the team takes half days, works from home whenever they want, which, let’s be honest, means they’re barely working at all. Not me. I follow the rules like it’s an Olympic sport.
Not anymore. Tomorrow is the day, my own personal D Day. And a fresh mani-pedi is just what I need to prepare for battle.
“Did you pick a color yet?” Andie asks. “I think I’m going with a burgundy shade so I can match the wine.”
I look at the woman currently softening my cuticles. “What’s the most sparkly polish you have?”
Andie helps me decide on a peachy-pink micro glitter. “Blinding, but still professional,” is what she said. And once all of our limbs are locked in place, I decide it’s time to spill the beans.
“I know about Daanesh.”
Andie stills at my abrupt declaration. I’ve been holding this in for a week, trying to decide if and how I should bring it up. But we’re going to Sonoma tomorrow and I’m honestly worried if I don’t say something now, it’ll pop out at the worst time.
“You know? How?”
Her voice is small and shaking with nervous energy. “I’m not mad. I get why you didn’t tell me.”
“I wanted to. I wanted to so badly. But we swore we would never tell anyone, not unless it got serious. And then it did but there are still reasons why?—”
“I get it.” I really do. It’s no different from Gavin keeping our arrangement from Daanesh. We’re all in this huge, twisted web of secrets, and I’m glad it’s being untangled. It’s fucking exhausting.
“Really though, how’d you know?” she asks. Her voice is still lower than usual, like she’s worried someone might be spying on us.
I match her tone. “An accident, I guess. He saw a text from me on your phone. When you asked if I was bringing Gavin to the Pawsability gala. So he told Gavin he knew our thing was fake, and when Gavin told me,” I pause to take a breath. “You were in Santa Barbara that weekend with yourboyfriend. I knew you’d never go as far to lie about where you were. So he had to be there with you.”
“That’s some serious detective shit,” she replies. “I thought he bought it when I told him you were joking. I’m so sorry.”
“I’ll be honest. When I first found out, I was hurt. Because we tell each other everything. But then I remembered our chat in Mexico. You said something about double dates, and you were so excited. So I think we should just skip ahead to that part, yeah?”
“I mean, obviously. But I also need to talk to Daan. He still thinks we’ve been—wait. Is this how Daanesh found out about Mitch? It’smyfault?”
“It’s no one’s fault but my own. But yeah, Daanesh told Gavin he knew about our arrangement and demanded to know why.”
“I’m really sorry for my part in that. But now it makes sense why you forgave Gavin so quickly. He didn’t really do anything wrong.”
“If I’ve learned anything from the last few months, it’s that no secret stays hidden forever. Does the secrecy with you and Daan have an expiration date?”
“I think so?” Her smile wavers. “This has to stay between us, but he and Vaughn might be selling the company. So he wants to wait to come out until that’s final. Just in case.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense. Double date TBD then.”
“Yeah, TBD,” she says wistfully. “But when the time finally comes, it’s going to be glorious.”
I grin, knowing she’ll plan something over the top and amazing.
“Has Daanesh said anything to you this week, about the Mitch situation?” I ask.
She sighs, tilting her head. “He’s really torn up about it, Liv. He wants to fire him, but he doesn’t want you to feel betrayed either.”
“I might be able to help with that, actually.”
