I was expecting shock, outrage, and perhaps a solid slap in the face. Instead, I’m hit with the fact that I clearly know zero about women.
Great.
It’s kind of chaotic as we’re all vying for bread and cheese and cold cuts and it probably would have been easier to just set everything down on the kitchen table, but…we didn’t. There’s a lot of reaching and bumping and apologizing, and it takes longer than I thought possible to make a sandwich, but eventually we’re all sitting down.
“You missed a lot this morning, Liv,” Loren says. “We saw dolphins out in the ocean, the guys tried to surf and failed miserably, and we decided to go for Mexican for dinner tonight. There’s a great place about twenty minutes from here that is so freaking amazing, you’re not even going to believe it.”
She’s sitting beside me but not looking at me. “I know we just had it the other day, but I will never say no to chips and tableside guac.”
“Right?” Vanessa agrees. “Anyway, the rest of the day is just to relax and do whatever you want. Do you think you’re going to start writing?”
“I’m not there yet. I know I’m going to need to start putting some serious thought into this book, but nothing’s coming to me yet. I’m hoping a few days of unwinding to the sound of the ocean will clear my mind.”
“Maybe we can help?” Roxie suggests. “We all read your books and…”
“No offense, Liv,” Mike chimes in. “But I don’t.”
“Me either,” Zayne adds.
Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to be offended. “That’s fine, guys. And I think Roxie was going more for me sitting with the girls and brainstorming. Which isn’t a bad idea. Would you guys be open to that maybe one day after lunch or something?”
Both Loren and Vanessa agree, and the conversation turns to books, and I’m more than happy to sit back and listen. Personally, I love a good thriller, but I don’t read so much that I feel like I have anything to add to the conversation.
Mike mentions some movies that were adapted from books, and that’s when I learn that two of Olivia’s books have been turned into TV movies! She never mentioned that to me on the plane and now I’m even more impressed with her. She shares how much got changed and how she had little say in them, and then other book-to-movie adaptations get brought up and I join that discussion as lunch lingers on. By the time we’re done, everyone stands to help clean up. Olivia hasn’t said a word to me since the kiss and I feel like now might be a good time to sneak away and talk. I find her over by the sink talking about cupcakes with Loren and I gently clear my throat to get her attention.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I was hoping to talk to Olivia for a moment.” I sound like a complete dork, but by the way Loren’s grinning, she must think this whole thing is endearing.
“You two go,” she says. “And Liv, I’m going to do another grocery order and get all the ingredients so we can bake!”
Roxie announces that she’s taking the dogs for a walk, Vanessa and Loren are going to lie out by the pool, and Mike mentions that he and Zayne are going to do a little research about the best time to surf in the area. Essentially, all the common areas are taken, and I know we’re going to need a little privacy.
“Your room or mine?” I ask lightly, but she doesn’t even crack a smile. “Let’s just go up to mine.”
The three flights feel like three miles, and by the time we’re in my room with the door closed, I’m pretty sure I heard everyone snickering. I turn and find Olivia making the bed.
“You don’t need to do that,” I tell her, but she waves me off.
“I should have done it before I went downstairs earlier, so…”
I take my side of the bed, she takes hers and in less than a minute, it’s done and we’re just standing there staring at each other.
“So, um…about before,” I carefully start.
“A heads-up would have been helpful,” she states, but she doesn’t sound all that upset. “I talked to Roxie before I went downstairs, and she said no one knew. I don’t understand what happened.”
“What happened was Mike heard you scream in the kitchen and came out of his room and saw us downstairs.”
“And from that you decided we needed to show everyone in a dramatic fashion that we hooked up, even though we didn’t?”
“If I could finish,” I interject. “He was awake after that and heard when you laughed in the den too.”
Her only reaction is an eye roll.
“And he happened to peek out the door as we were going up to my room. When he got up this morning, the first thing he did was grill me about the two of us hooking up. And then I did what you said I should do; I told him we hooked up.”
“Oh.”
“Then he told Zayne, and then they told the girls. You slept late and I was trying to be respectful and let you sleep, but that also didn’t leave me any time to talk to you first. When you came downstairs, everyone was looking at me for a reaction, so…I reacted.”
