Page 97 of Misfortune and Mr. Right

He smiles at me as we walk toward Darwin. “You know, love isn’t a bad thing, Olivia. It’s actually kind of the best thing. If you do happen to fall into it, I’m pretty sure you’ll survive the fall and land on your feet.”

I smile over at him. “Thanks, Charlie. But it’s too soon for that kind of emotion. I really like Logan. A lot. He surprised me. It turns out I’ve misjudged him—grossly misjudged him. And now that I see him for what he really is …” I look over toward Logan, who is walking our way. “He’s irresistible.”

“Haven’t you known him, like, forever?”

“Basically?”

“Doesn’t sound too soon to me.”

Logan steps up next to me, and the back of his hand brushes against the back of mine, lingering there a moment before pulling away. The touch appears accidental, but when I glance up at him, he’s smiling down at me very intentionally.

“Pennington,” he says in a private way that causes everything around us to disappear in an instant.

“Alexander,” I answer him in a way that says,I might be falling for you, and I’m not as scared of that possibility as I was last night.

His responding smile sends little zips of happiness through me.

“Okay!” Darwin says. “I’ve just heard from the head of Untethered, Brian. He said your testimonials and the shorter content on social media have been pulling people into the individualized profile quiz we set up. They’re seeing a surge of new sign-ups from our campaign.”

Darwin smiles around at each one of us in turn.

“I’ve gathered the best marketing talent here at Barnes, and once again you’ve risen to the occasion. To celebrate another successful campaign, I want to take you out to dinner tonight. Cancel any other plans and meet me at Luciano’s at six!”

Logan turns to me. “Want a ride to Luciano’s?”

“From here? With you?”

“That was what I had in mind, yes.”

“Won’t people notice when we arrive together?”

“Am I your dirty little secret, Olivia?”

“No. Of course not. I just haven’t thought of how this is going to work here, at Barnes.”

“It works like us getting our jobs done with the same excellence we’ve always given to our work. But when it comes to showing up to a work dinner, I give you a ride, open your door, put my hand on your back to lead you into the restaurant, pull out your chair, sit next to you, and every so often, I hold your hand under the table while we focus our attention on Darwin whenever he talks, but we focus on one another whenever the conversation is just a bunch of chit chat between coworkers.”

“Oh.” I look up at him. “How do you manage to have everything figured out so neatly?”

“I think about you. A lot.”

“But Darwin just announced this dinner a few minutes ago.”

“I thought of what we’d do at the Christmas party. This is just a modification of what I had planned for the holiday office gatherings.”

“Christmas is around eight months away.”

“I like to be prepared.”

“And what if I don’t like your plan?”

I like his plan more than I can put into words, but I have to ask. I don’t mind bossy Logan, but he’s not going to dominate me. Neither of us would find any fun in that.

“If you don’t like my plan, we banter. I give you all my good reasons. You fight me. You give me your good reasons. I fight you. And in the end, you win.”

I can’t help the smile I give him.

“I win? Just like that.”

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