Page 82 of Love in Fine Print

“Why do you say that?”

“I listened to your Duel episode.”

Duel POV was a he said/she said podcast that I’d gone on a few months back to promote Ever After. Olivia had actually gone on it as well, which I found out after my first Google search of her name. I’d also listened to her podcast.

“I listened to yours, too.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “You did?”

It was strange to me that she assumed I had zero interest in her. I’d never been more intrigued, captivated, and downright fucking twitterpated by anyone else in my life. I would have thought my feelings were glaringly, embarrassingly obvious.

“I did,” I confirmed.

“Oh.”

I couldn’t tell if she was upset or happy that I’d listened to her episode, because her expression was once again unreadable. I hadn’t listened to my episode, but I couldn’t think what would make her assume I didn’t believe in love.

After a few moments, she brought the conversation back around, “You don’t, do you? You don’t believe in love.”

I’d never actually given it much thought, but now that I was, I realized I didn’t. Or at least, I hadn’t. Sure, I’d seen all the successful matches that Gran had made, but I just thought those peoplewantedto feel that way because they wanted to have a family, or because they were lonely, or because they wanted to have someone validate that they were worth loving. I didn’tthink that what they felt was real. But now I realized I’d thought that because it had never happened to me before. I’d never been in love until now.

Holy shit.I was in love with Olivia.

“What?” Alarm filled Olivia’s large eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… I just…”

“Sorry to interrupt.” Trevor began to sway with us. “But Walters is about to do his speech, you need to be in the front. You know, kiss the ring and all that.”

Olivia looked at Trevor and then back at me. For a split second, I thought she was going to say fuck the speech and stay to finish the conversation. But she didn’t. Instead, she dropped her arms, and the two of them made their way across the floor.

As I watched them walk away, the reality of my epiphany sank in.

I was in love with my wife. I was so fucked.

35

OLIVIA

I grabbedthe last few toiletries from the bathroom I’d been using attached to the guest room and walked them into Ben’s bathroom. My heart pitter-pattered as I passed the California King bed that we would be sharing for the next ten days while Jake was staying with us. Ben had gone to the airport to get him, and I was just finishing up and making sure that all of my stuff was out of the guest room and moved into his to leave no traces of usnotsharing a room.

I was heading back to clean out my dresser drawers when the doorbell rang. Dolly let out a bark as her nails clicked on the hardwood floors. I answered the door and saw Trevor standing on the other side. Alone.

“Where’s Peter?” I asked.

Peter and Trevor met at the Turkey Trot, which Trevor ran every Thanksgiving. The two had been seeing one another for the past month, which in Trevor-time was like a year. I’d invited him to come along to our annual Christmas Tree Selfie Hop.

It started the first year that Trevor worked at the firm. He’d mentioned wanting to go take a picture in front of the Macy’s Christmas Tree in Union Square and I’d said that I wanted tocheck out the tree at Pier 39 before I went over to Bay View to spend the holiday with my Uncle Mort. He suggested we go see both trees and take selfies. The next year we added City Hall to the list, and now we had ten trees we visited.

Every year, we’d go on our Christmas Tree Selfie Hop and then end the night at Bay View Senior Center, celebrating the holiday with Uncle Mort and the other residents who didn’t have a family to visit them. We drank the best hot chocolate, sang Christmas carols, and played board games.

This year, Jake and Ben were going to go with us. I’d asked Miss B if she wanted to come, too, but she thought the tree hop would be too much. So, I’d arranged a car for her to meet us at the senior center for the night's festivities.

“It’s over,” Trevor stated dramatically as he walked inside and greeted Dolly, who was beside herself at having a visitor.

“What? Why?”

“He wears socks with sandals.” Trevor shivered in disgust as he removed his jacket and scarf. “I just… I can’t.”

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