Chapter 52

Olivia delivers the news that she is in love with someone else, not Andrew. I pretended to be surprised, and it didn’t look like she noticed that I was faking.

Her confession triggered another bout of tears to roll down her face in globs. She tried to calm herself, suck them back in, and hide her hiccuping sobs, but she couldn’t. I felt sorry for her.

In a way, I thought I could relate to Olivia. I wasn’t inclined to marry Ethan originally, but at the end of the day I was glad I did. My situation was different, though, Ethan wasn’t twenty years older than me.

“Have you eaten yet today?” I asked her, pushing the cookies away from us and reaching up into her cupboards to pull out pots and pans.

“No,” She gave a teary reply.

I got to work making her a hearty breakfast to calm her emotions. Eating was the happiest time for me, I hoped that, for Olivia, it would be at least a small comfort.

It took me all of fifteen minutes to get a full plate of breakfast made for the two of us.

“This is so good!” Olivia exclaimed after taking a few bites of the pancakes and eggs I placed in front of her.

A proud smile stretched across my face as I took a bite from my own plate.

“Do you feel any better?” I asked as she continued to eat, shoving pieces into her mouth with gusto.

“So much,” She admitted with a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry for getting emotional before.”

I shook my head, telling her it was completely natural to be so upset over the whole situation. It was not ideal, not one little bit.

“Do you want to celebrate before the wedding at all?” I asked tentatively after a few minutes of comfortable silence. “In case you can’t escape it?”

Olivia paused with a mouthful of food. I realized she probably hadn’t considered the fact that the wedding was, afterall, supposed to be a celebration - a party.

“I mean,” She bit her lip and set her fork down. “I haven’t thought about it, but maybe?”

“Why don’t you let me throw you a bachelorette party!” I clapped my hands together, forcing the biggest fakest smile on my face. I wanted to make her happy, I just wished Ethan was not part of that happiness.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea with everything…” She let her words drag out and I waved my hand to dismiss them.

“We should celebrate while we can. It doesn’t have to be anything big either, how many friends do you have that you’d like to invite?” I started looking through her kitchen drawers for a pen and paper to write the details down.

“I don’t have any friends.” She murmured so quietly I thought I misheard her.

“I’m sorry?” I asked, urging her to repeat herself.

“The only people I really know outside of a professional setting are Ethan and Mars,” She confessed, louder so that I could hear. “ I barely even know my fiance. I’ve only met him in the office or to sign contracts.”

My heart ached for her as she spoke. Even at my lowest, I had Sammy to bring me out to eat or for drinks when things got a little too bad at home. Olivia didn’t have anyone.

“Well,” I looked at her and reached across the table to place my hand atop hers. She lifted her gaze to meet mine, her eyes shone with unshed tears, and I gave her my best comforting smile. “You have me now, and we will be great friends.”

Olivia and I spent the rest of the day looking at hundreds of places to throw an extravagant party. Apparently, money was no obstacle since she had both her parents’ wealth and Andrew’s backing her up. We couldn’t find anything that would be fun for just the two of us, though.

“We can invite my friend, Sammy,” I told her. “That way you’ll have two new friends, not just one. Trust me, Sammy is amazing.”

Olivia accepted graciously. Now with a party of three, we had to find something small but not boring.

It was harder than we thought it would be. To plan a real bachelorette party we would need at least ten girls to be part of the festivities. I patted Olivia on the back and told her we’d be able to figure something out within the next week. Though, we might have to settle for a nice dinner and some pretty desserts.

“You baked those cookies you brought earlier, right?” Olivia asked out of the blue while we were searching online.

“Yes, I’m a pastry chef.” I told her with a proud smirk. It was one of the only things I could declare openly and fully boast about just a bit.

“Would you be interested in making the wedding cake, too?” She asked, setting her laptop to the side and wringing her hands together nervously, as if I’d say no.

“Of course!” I jumped up excitedly, “I’d love to! What kind are you thinking? What flavor?”

Olivia’s eyes widened and an amused, open smile lit up her face. It was the most genuine I’d seen her all day.

She was about to say something when the doorbell rang.

Olivia ran to the door and Ethan was standing on the other side. His figure took up most of the door frame as he leaned against the wood. His muscles bulged under his work shirt and I had to look away to keep myself from just blatantly checking him out.

Ethan’s eyes met mine and he gave me a quick smile in acknowledgement.

“You two get along today?” He asked Olivia to let him into the foyer.

We looked at each other and giggled, “Yes.” We said in unison and chuckled again.

All in all, I was happy. I wasn’t sure what to expect from spending an entire day with Olivia, but I was pleasantly surprised.

“Good to know,” Ethan gave me a quick once over, and took his car keys from his pocket. “You ready to go then?”

I nodded, waved goodbye to Olivia, and left Ethan in his luxury car that I found myself starting to love.

When we got home, the first thing I did was run into the kitchen and start playing with flavors to combine for the wedding cake. My sense of smell had improved so much over the last few weeks that I could simply smell the intensity of flavors and figure out how to best combine them.

It was like a dream.

I played around in the kitchen for a while, deciding that a lemon and coconut combination might be fun to try, when Ethan came in with popcorn and a blanket.

“Since we didn’t get to watch our movie a few nights ago,” He holds up the items in his hands with a lopsided grin and my stomach lurches.

“Okay,” I breathe out. I didn’t think he’d care or even remember.

We settled on the sofa together. Ethan draped the blanket over both our laps and put the popcorn in between us on the coffee table so we could share. He pressed play on the movie, and I don’t remember a thing about it.

I don’t know when it happened, or how. At some point, we fell asleep, and moved around in our sleep.

Sunlight streamed in from the closest window, waking me from a deep sleep. Beneath my cheek, I felt the rise and fall of Ethan’s chest and his steady breathing.

I blinked a few times, trying to figure out if this was some sort of dream.

It wasn’t.

It was all quite real and I couldn’t even enjoy the intimate comfort before the front door slammed open, bouncing off the wall behind it with a loud thud.

Ethan sat up in a sleepy panic, and I fell off him onto the carpeted floor of the living room.

“It’s Andrew!” Olivia cried out, Mars was following closely behind her. “He’s gone and done something awful!”