Page 69 of The Single Dad

“Your text last night! Holy shit!”

She must have figured out what I wanted to talk to her about. That’s pretty common for us. Olivia is uncannily good at knowing what conversation we’re going to have before I even tell her.

“Yeah,” I say, grinning. “It’s probably exactly what you’re thinking.”

“I can’t believe it!”

She sounds thrilled—especially considering the early hour. “What are you doing awake?” I ask her. “I wasn’t expecting you to call until later.”

“Oh.” Briefly, the enthusiasm disappears from her tone. “Ugh, it’s my stupid boss. He wanted me to run an errand for him this morning.”

“That sucks,” I say sympathetically. “Did he wake you up?”

“Yeah. But it’s okay. It should be a quick thing, and maybe I’ll take a nap when I get home this evening. We should be focused on you—and Cole!” She says his name in a sing-song voice, loud enough that I wince, glancing at the door.

I head across the room and into my bathroom, closing the door behind me for a little bit of privacy. The last thing I need is for Cole to hear us talking.

“So, how much have you guessed?” I ask. In the calm light of day, I have to admit that I’m feeling a little nervous about this—nervous in a way I wasn’t last night.

“I’m assuming something happened between you guys,” she says. “Something… unprofessional.”

“Very unprofessional.”

She breaks out into giggles. “How unprofessional are we talking, here?”

I hesitate, then say, my voice lowered, “Um… that depends how unprofessional you think it is to have sex with your boss in his own house.”

She lets out another loud squeal of delight, and I have to hold the phone away from my ear. She’s already talking by the time I move it back.

“—literally living my fantasy right now, I can’t believe it!”

“You want to have sex with your boss?” I wrinkle my nose.

“Oh, god, no,” she exclaims in disgust. “I wish I could hire a witch to make him dissolve and replace him with someone like Cole Sullivan, obviously.” I laugh, and I can hear the smile in her voice as she continues, “But I’m so excited for you—this is amazing, seriously.”

“You really think so?” There’s a flutter of nerves in my chest. I stare at the mirror, watching myself bite my nails as we talk—a bad habit I haven’t dealt with since I was a little kid. “’Cause I’m not so sure it is.”

“Of course it is!”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I am having sex with my boss. That’s not exactly… stable in the long run, you know what I mean?”

“So? Neither is the job. I mean, you’re a nanny. That’s not the kind of thing that lasts forever. Eventually, that kid’s gonna grow up.”

“True.”

“So you might as well have fun while you’re there,” Olivia says encouragingly. “You’re still young enough to have fun. You can do a few impulsive things here and there.”

I take a deep breath, nodding along with her pep talk. “You’re right. But—”

“But what?”

“Where do we go from here? What happens next?”

“What do you mean, ‘what happens next?’ Nothing happens next! You don’t have to worry about that,” Olivia assures me.

“Right, right,” I agree, repeating her words in my head, layering them alongside Cole’s from last night. “Of course.” I exhale, the knot in my stomach loosened somewhat. “Thanks for talking me through my spiral.”

“Anytime,” Olivia says. “And now that I have, it’s time for you to give me all the good details.”

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