Page 98 of Misfortune and Mr. Right

“After a decent amount of struggle, I’ll always give in to you. Your happiness is my ultimate goal in life.”

“So, if I say I want to drive myself to dinner tonight … ?”

“I don’t believe you. And I’ll pout the whole way to the restaurant, but I’ll concede. You can drive alone. Just know you’ll be harming the environment when we could be conserving gas. One of us will get a better parking spot than the other. And after not seeing you alone at all today, you’ll be depriving me of something I’ve been looking forward to since breakfast.”

“You should have gone into law.”

“I considered it, but you were going into marketing.”

“You … what?”

“I knew you wanted to pursue marketing, and at the time, I was divided between business, marketing, and law.”

“And my decision was your swing vote?”

“I think, even then, I subconsciously wanted to be near you. I don’t know if I could have articulated it, but I definitely was persuaded by your choice of major. I admire you, Olivia. I always have.”

I shake my head slightly and look up at Logan in awe. “I thought …”

His brows lift in anticipation of my confession.

“It’s not the time or place to tell you what I thought. You following me out of admiration was not it.” I turn to walk back to my workspace and my laptop. Then I look over my shoulder and say, “Yes. I’d love a ride to dinner tonight.”

Logan looks to his left, then his right, and then he does a low fist pump, pulling his arm in toward his side and lifting a knee.

I’m grinning the rest of the day. Everyone has to know. And I don’t care.

Our team stays later than most of our colleagues so we can go straight from work to Luciano’s. Logan and I get on the elevator together. A few of our coworkers join us. We’re at the back. He sticks his hand out in my direction and looks down at it like we’re back in junior high playing Truth or Dare. We’re only descending four stories. We’re not alone. Logan knows my kryptonite. I cannot resist a challenge—especially one issued by him. There’s something familiar and comforting knowing we still have this. Even though I’m falling for him and everything I believed about him has shifted, we’re still us.

I stick my pinky finger in his direction, and he loops his around mine. We ride down like that, stealing glances at one another, way too giddy over something so ridiculously simple but surprisingly intimate.

The doors open, and everyone spills out onto the street level of our building. Many are parked in the garage next door, but Logan got lucky this morning and snagged a space only a few feet down from the front door.

“How did you manage to grab this spot?” I ask him when he passes me by to open my door for me.

“It just cleared when I pulled up.”

“Of course it did.”

“Because I’m the golden child.” He winks.

“Far from it.”

He hops in the driver’s seat a few moments later and turns to me, leans across the console, and kisses my cheek.

“I’ve been waiting to do that all day,” he says.

I grab his face and pull him back toward me, giving him a proper kiss on the lips.

“I’ve been waiting to do that,” I tell him.

“Always one-upping me, Pennington.” He winks and turns the key.

“Do you think there’s some HR policy we’re in danger of violating?” I ask him as we navigate rush hour traffic to get to the restaurant.

“Nope.”

“What makes you so sure?”

---