Page 53 of Count Your Lucky Stars
Margot chuckled. “You give me tingles, too, Liv.”
Olivia burst out laughing. “No. I mean,yes, but I meant my butt’s buzzing.” She stepped back and turned, looking at Margot over her shoulder. “Could you grab my phone? My hands are full.”
Oh.Margot wiggled her fingers into the tight back pocket of Olivia’s jeans, prying her phone free. The name on the screen caught her eye. “Why the hell is Brad calling you?”
Saying his name put a funny taste in Margot’s mouth, bitter like she’d drunk coffee that had gone cold and stale. Admittedly, she’d never been Brad’s biggest fan, and not only because he’d dated Olivia. When he hadn’t ignored Margot, he’d called herCargo, a childish taunt that had butchered her name and implied she was Olivia’s sidekick, herbaggage, all in one fell swoop. Of course, he’d only called her that when Olivia wasn’t around because he was also a coward of the highest order, butwhatever. The past was the past, and that was the whole point.
Olivia’s eyes widened. “Um. I don’t know.” She juggled the cans in her arms, dropping one. It clattered against the floor, rolling down the aisle and under the freezer. Olivia frowned at it. “He just... does sometimes.”
Margot goggled at her. “As in, he does this on what? A regular basis?”
Olivia’s throat jerked. “Defineregular.”
“Jesus,” Margot murmured. Olivia’s phone continued to vibrate against her palm. “You answer?”
Olivia cradled the remaining cans, eyes flitting between Margot’s face and that lost can. “I...” She cringed sharply and gestured to the phone with her elbow. “Could you just...”
“Are you serious?” Margot stared at her. “You want me to answer it?”
Olivia cringed. “I’ll be so quick. Just... hold it up to my ear?” She stared at Margot with wide eyes and—ugh, Margot couldn’t believe she was doing this. A testament to how little she wouldn’t do for Olivia.
She swiped at the screen and held the phone against Olivia’s ear.
“Brad?” Olivia rolled her lips together and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, looking as uncomfortable as Margot felt. “Now isn’t a good time.”
Margot bit down hard on the inside of her cheek.
Olivia shut her eyes. “No. It’s in the junk drawer.” She sighed, forehead creasing in irritation. “The junk drawer, Brad. The catch-all drawer in the kitchen. The one below the coffee maker. The one that sticks when you—yes, that one. It’s in there. Check in the back.” Olivia’s shoulders slumped, and Margot was tempted to hang up the phone for her. “No, Brad. I have to go. Good n—”
Margot ended the call with a little more gusto than strictly necessary, jamming her finger against the screen. She reached around Olivia and slid the phone back into her pocket, then stepped back, crossing her arms. “How often does Brad call you, Liv?”
One of Olivia’s shoulders rose and fell, too jerky to be casual. “Sometimes. I don’t... It’s not like I’m keeping track. It’s enough to be a nuisance, but not enough to be a problem.”
A nuisancewasa problem. Anything that put a frown thatsevere on Olivia’s face was a problem, and she shouldn’t have to put up with it.
“What’s he even calling you about at”—Margot dug inside her pocket for her own phone—“eleven at night, anyway?”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “He was looking for the spare garage door opener.”
“And he calledyou?”
A can of cat food teetered, stacked precariously atop the rest. Margot snatched it just as it fell, holding on to it for Olivia.
Olivia nibbled on her lip and nodded. “It’s—it’s always stupid little things, Mar. I just shrug it off. It’s not worth getting up in arms about. Trust me.”
“Why haven’t you told him to fuck off?” Or, better yet... “Why do you even take his calls? Just block his number.”
“I asked him to stop.”
“Youaskedhim.” Margot’s tongue bulged against the side of her cheek.
Olivia blew the hair out of her face with a weary sigh. “It’s not that simple.”
Margot bit her tongue against the urge to blurt out that it sure sounded simple to her. Cut-and-dried.Fuck off.Two little words, but... she wasn’t in Olivia’s shoes. “Help me understand what makes it complicated, then.”
Olivia stared at her for a second, eyes flitting over Margot’s face as if weighing the sincerity of Margot’s request. After a moment, her gaze dropped to ground between them, her voice quiet but steady. “It’s not like Iwantto take his calls, but I can’t just block his number.” Her jaw ticked, a muscle beneath herear jumping. “I’ve asked him not to call me unless it’s about something serious.”
Margot was trying to understand, but it didn’t make sense. Olivia and Brad had been divorced for a year, and from the sound of it, they didn’t share close mutual friends. They didn’t have pets or kids to shuffle from one house to another. And they hadn’t exactly ended on the best of terms, what with Brad being a cheating ass. The longer she puzzled through this in her head, the less it made sense and the more frustrated she got on Olivia’s behalf, her blood pressure rising. “Okay. What would possibly be serious enough for Brad to need to contact you?”
