Party of Two
Page 24
He pulled her into his arms.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see someone,” he said in her ear. “I’m so sorry. I should have done something to prevent this.”
They sat like that for what felt like hours, just holding each other.
Finally, she kissed his cheek and pulled back, but kept her hand in his.
“Thank you,” she said. “I needed that.”
He kissed her softly.
“I did, too. Badly. How did the pitch go?”
She laughed.
“At first really well. I was worried they’d say something shitty to me, especially after those stories over the past few days, but . . . well, they sort of did, but they also offered us the job. In part, it seems, because of you.” She held up her hand at the look on Max’s face. “I know, I know, I was pissed, too, and so was Ellie. We’re still figuring out whether we’re going to take it.”
“I’m not sure whether to congratulate you or commiserate with you,” Max said.
Olivia leaned her head against his chest.
“Both sound great right now.”
Max kissed her again, then pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“Speaking of those stories. Kara didn’t want me to read them, but I did, and on the plane I drafted this press release telling them all to stop being so racist and also to fuck off.” He shrugged. “Not quite in those terms, but close. I sent it to Kara on my way here so it could go out first thing in the morning, but she suggested I show it to you first.”
Olivia’s eyes widened as she scanned the draft on his phone. She quietly sent up a thank-you for the existence of Kara.
“Max, this is one of the most romantic things anyone has ever done for me, so thank you, and also, I’ll murder you if you send this.” She paused, and then raised her voice. “Wait, I won’t actually murder you, sorry about that; this is not a threat to a member of Congress, if you’re listening, FBI, that was a figure of speech. What I meant by that was, I’m thrilled by your vigorous defense of me, your ability to recognize racism, loud and subtle, and especially your recognition of your own privilege, but no, absolutely don’t send out this press release. We want these headlines about us to die down, not flame back up, remember? This is like pouring oil on the embers; it’ll start another round of articles and summaries and phone calls to my parents and sister, and I want all of that to stop.”
He sat back.
“You didn’t tell me they’d called your parents and your sister.”
Damn it. She hadn’t told him that on purpose; she knew he’d lose it.
“Of course they have; come on, you knew they would. But what I’m saying is, they’ll stop after a while, once we get boring to them. Please let us get boring to them, okay?”
He slid his phone back into his pocket.
“Okay. Even though I really want to tell those assholes off, okay.”
She stood up, and pulled him with her.
“Good, now that’s settled. Hopefully, in a few months, this will be nothing more than a lovely story someone tells a kid in trouble about rising from adversity. ‘If Olivia Monroe could get arrested as a teenager and later be the founding partner at one of the top law firms in Los Angeles, you can, too!’ they’ll say.”
Max followed her into the kitchen.
“One of the top law firms in Los Angeles, huh?” he said.
She took leftover pizza out of the refrigerator.
“People always told me to dream big, you know.”
Chapter Eighteen
Max was home for the weekend a week later—the last weekend before August recess—and he had to admit Olivia had been right. Maybe because they’d been boring, or maybe because much bigger news had knocked them out of the headlines, but the stories about them had almost completely died down. Random pictures of Olivia still popped up from time to time—once heading into the community center, another time walking into the gym—but even the paparazzi didn’t care about them anymore after those first few awful days.
They still took precautions—Olivia had swapped cars with different friends to make it harder to follow her; she and Ellie had hired a temp for a few weeks to answer their phones; and Max had stopped going to her house, for fear the press would discover where she lived. But other than all of that, life had mostly returned to normal.
Max looked over at her, in her spot in the corner of his couch, and smiled. That line of tension that had been there on her forehead for the past month had faded. But . . . her shoulders still looked too tense as she hunched over her phone.
What she needed was a vacation.
Wait. Yes. What they both needed was a vacation! Max pulled up his calendar on his phone and smiled.
“What are you doing next weekend?” he asked.
Olivia sat up and narrowed her eyes at him.
“I sort of assumed I’d be here—why, are you gone then? I thought your town halls didn’t start until the second week of August.”
His staff had built in a few days of break for him, which he hadn’t had time to think about until just this moment.
“This last month has been so hard, and I think we deserve an actual vacation,” he said.
A smile spread across Olivia’s face.
“What do you have in mind?”
Max grinned at her.
“Hawaii.”
Olivia’s mouth dropped open.
“Hawaii? For just the weekend?”
Max shook his head.
“For, let’s say . . . five days, if you can manage it? I get back here from DC on Thursday night, God willing—we can leave Friday morning, and come back, like . . . Tuesday night. I know the office has been pretty busy lately—can you take a few days off?”
He’d fallen in love with this idea in the last two minutes. Now he just had to convince Olivia.
“Ellie was lecturing me the other day to take a few days off,” she said. “But Hawaii? You know, I’ve actually never been. It was always too expensive for us to go there on vacations when I was growing up, and then I’ve been on the East Coast for so long and Hawaii is so far from there I didn’t even really think about it. Isn’t that kind of far for a five-day trip, though? And isn’t this kind of last-minute?”
Max ignored that last question.
“It’s a shorter flight from L.A. to Hawaii than it is from L.A. to DC—okay, barely, but it is shorter—and the amazing thing about flying to Hawaii is that, because of the time difference, you can take a nine a.m. flight from LAX and be on the beach by noon.”
Well, that was a slight exaggeration, but it was worth it. He could already see the glimmer in her eye.
“I like the sound of that. Go on.”
Shit, that had been his main selling point; he hadn’t had to sell anyone on Hawaii in a while. What to say?
“Second, I know a great hotel there—we won’t have to deal with press or anyone who gives a shit about either one of us. We’ll just lie by the beach or snorkel around and look at sea turtles, or lie by the pool drinking mai tais and eating poke, and it’ll be perfect.”
She pressed her lips together, in that way he knew she did when she was fighting back a smile.
“Beach, turtles, mai tais, poke . . . I love all of those things. But . . .” She stopped and looked at him. He tried to make his eyes extra pleading, and she laughed out loud.
“If you think those puppy dog eyes are going to win me over . . . well, you’re correct, but to be fair, I was mostly already won over by all of that other stuff. Are you sure we can get a room in your dream of a hotel at this late date, though? It’s summer vacation, isn’t everyone in Hawaii?”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“Let me make a call.”
Five minutes later he hung up the phone with a grin on his face.
“We ha
ve a room at the hotel from Friday until Tuesday. Are you in?”
With a smile on her face, Olivia looked up from her phone.
“I just double-checked with Ellie to make sure there’s nothing crucial, and she told me she’d fire me if I don’t take this trip, so . . . I guess I’m in.”
Which is how they ended up in two first-class seats from LAX to Oahu that Friday morning. She fell asleep on his shoulder as soon as they took off, but he nudged her awake about an hour before they landed.
“I don’t want you to miss your first descent into Hawaii,” he said.
She smiled sleepily at him and turned to look out the window. For a while, nothing disturbed the endless blue of the ocean. And then, suddenly . . .
“Is that it?” she asked.
He peered over her shoulder and nodded.
“That’s it. I can’t wait for you to see it.”
They landed during a soft, warm rain. At first Max was disappointed that Olivia’s first views of Hawaii would be in the rain, until she pointed.
“A rainbow!”
She had a look of pure awe on her face. Max could have watched Olivia look at that rainbow for hours.
The rainbow wavered in front of them as they drove away from the airport, but finally the sun came all the way out, and the rainbow disappeared, just as they made the turn toward their hotel.
“Now,” Max said. “Let’s see just how fast we can plant our asses in lounge chairs by the pool.”
They checked into their hotel in a flash, and raced, giggling, into their room to change. Olivia threw off her clothes almost before Max had his suitcase open, and before he could pounce on her, she’d pulled a bright red bikini on and slipped on flip-flops. He reassured himself that he’d have plenty of opportunities to pounce on her this weekend.
“What’s taking you so long? I thought this was a race.” Olivia grinned at him, her hat in one hand and a bottle of sunscreen in the other. “Get my back, will you?”
She handed him the sunscreen and turned her back to him. And then she gasped and walked toward the window.
“What is it?” He dropped the sunscreen on the bed and followed her.
“This view. Holy shit.” She stared outside at the golden beach, bright blue water, and choppy white waves, then turned back around to him. “Why do you still have pants on? Let’s go!”
But Olivia didn’t let him stop at the lounge chairs by the pool. Instead, they went straight to the beach. She dropped her beach bag in the sand, and they ran into the water holding hands. They both recoiled at the impact of the freezing cold Pacific Ocean, then grinned at each other and went in deeper.
“You’re right,” Olivia said to him, once they’d both treaded water in silence for a few minutes. “Hawaii is perfect.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. She tasted like salt water and lip balm and happiness.
“Now Hawaii is perfect,” he said.
* * *
* * *
Later that afternoon, Olivia pushed back her wide-brimmed straw hat and smiled up at the sky, and at Max, in the lounge chair next to hers. She’d been more stressed about this last-minute vacation than she’d let on to Max. She’d had to get a ton of work done, bring Ellie up to speed on her clients in case she had to cover something while Olivia was gone, and find a swimsuit that not only fit her boobs and ass, but one that actually looked good on her, and all in less than a week. But it had all been worth it. The sun felt so good on her skin. She’d spent so much time this year inside her office building or her house—or Max’s house—she’d barely taken advantage of the L.A. weather. She hadn’t even been to the beach since she’d moved back! Sure, the beach was all the way on the Westside, but that was still closer than Hawaii. She made a pledge to herself to get to the beach more often.
She kept her sunglasses on as she looked around the pool; after the past few weeks in L.A., she constantly felt like she was being watched, which was only partly paranoia, after that one really bad week. She still felt smug about one of the paparazzi pictures, though—someone had taken it as she’d walked toward her gym, brand-new athleisure on and yoga mat in hand. She’d looked sporty and friendly, and like she had no idea anyone was taking her picture. As soon as she walked into the gym, the employees had smuggled her out the back door. When that picture had popped up online, she cheered.
Luckily, everyone—including photographers—had seemed to lose interest in her and Max, so she’d begun to let her guard down. Plus, already this morning she’d seen two people far more famous than Max here at the resort. If they trusted this place, she would, too. Oh wow, and there was a third, over there stepping out of a cabana. Now she could definitely relax. And speaking of relaxation . . .
She turned to Max.
“Do you see those people over there? They have a drink inside a pineapple—how do we get one of those? No, two of those.”
Max grinned at her.
“You’re getting into the Hawaii spirit, I see. Next time one of the waiters walks by, we’ll ask him to bring us one. No, two.”
Ten minutes later, they grinned at each other over their boozy pineapples.
“Cheers to one of the best ideas I’ve ever had,” Max said as he touched his pineapple to hers.
Olivia wanted to roll her eyes at him, but she was too relaxed.
“Cheers,” she said, and took a sip of . . . oh wow, that was a strong pineapple drink.
“I’m going to be drunk within the hour,” Max said as he put down his pineapple.
“I think I’m already drunk,” she said. And then she took another sip.
Max glanced down at his phone. Even though it was a Friday during recess, he still seemed to get an email about every minute. They’d both spent some of this time by the pool working on their phones, but it still felt like vacation.
He turned to her with his eyebrows raised. Oh no, she knew this look.
“You know,” he said, in his most convincing voice. “The last town hall meeting is going to be in L.A., at your community center.”
Olivia picked up her pineapple again.
“Excellent,” she said. “I hope Jamila takes credit for that.”
She took another sip from her pineapple. She probably didn’t want to know how much rum was in this thing, did she? Well, whatever was in it, it was delicious.
“I know how you feel about that center, after all the time you’ve spent there,” Max said. “What would you say to coming with me to the town hall there? Especially since this whole thing was your idea, after all.”
Olivia couldn’t help but smile back at Max.
“With an offer like that, how can I say no?”
Olivia took another sip of her pineapple and smiled at the world. If only every workday could be spent in the sunshine with pineapples full of rum. She’d get very little work done, but she’d be in an excellent mood.
After they finished their pineapples, Max reached for her hand.
“Let’s go take a walk along the beach,” he said. “I’m getting hot.”
“You’ve always been hot,” Olivia said, and giggled.
Max grinned at her.
“I think I like Hawaii Olivia a whole lot. Can we bring her back to California?” He stood up and pulled her up out of the chair.
Olivia pulled on her cover-up.
“Look, I’m still trying to get rid of New York Olivia, okay? But if you can manage to bring me one of these drinks every day, I feel like Hawaii Olivia will just naturally take over.” She slung her beach bag on her shoulder. “She won’t have a job anymore, but she’ll be real cheerful about it.”
They walked down to the beach, hand in hand, and strolled along the water’s edge.
“This was a very good idea on your part,” Olivia said.
Max turned to her, that cocky grin she loved on his face.
“Look!”
A man was on one knee, and the woman in front of him had her hands in front of her face. Slowly, she lowered them, and took his hand. Olivia and Max couldn’t hear what the couple was saying, but everyone on the beach knew exactly what was happening. After a few minutes, the man slid a ring on the woman’s finger and stood up. Everyone around them—including Max—applauded. Olivia joined in.
“Wasn’t that romantic?” Max said, after the couple waved at everyone and walked back up to the hotel.
“It was,” Olivia said.
Max turned to her and smiled. Olivia saw something in his eyes change. He opened his mouth, almost in slow motion. A sudden apprehension hit Olivia.
“You’re not going to propose, are you?” she blurted out.
His face dropped. That crestfallen look made her want to take back what she’d said, but it was too late. Damn that pineapple drink and all this sunlight; she would have done that much better if she hadn’t been this tipsy.
“Would it be so bad if I was?” he asked.
No, it wouldn’t be so bad, but also yes, of course it would be.
Shit, shit, shit, how could she say this to him?
“It wouldn’t be, if now was say . . . a year from now. And if in that year, we’d had even one conversation about getting married—though I’d prefer more like four or five conversations.”
Max threw his hands in the air.
“Four or five? Who needs to talk four or five times about getting married? I love you, you love me, isn’t that enough?”
Olivia took a deep breath. Every time he said he loved her like that, it made her heart want to burst.
“I do love you, so much, but that’s not the only thing. Even normal people in normal relationships need to talk through this, and our relationship has at least two or three major abnormalities.”
Max dropped down on the sand and pulled Olivia down next to him.