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“Really? I didn’t see that!” His fingers moved quickly and I knew he was a few blocks away in the accounting office he shared with his business partner. “Okay Olive. Thank you. And sorry for the bother.”
“No bother, but you can make it up to me by having fun on this date. Okay?”
“I’ll do my best,” he promised and I knew he would.
“That’s all any of us can do,” I reminded him kindly and ended the call. Business was booming, a fact that I was grateful for given my current situation, it was barely after twelve and that was the fifth call I’d handled from nervous candidates. Not that I blamed them, dating was hard under normal circumstances and when you added more people to the mix, it became harder.
More people like matchmakers, even though it was our job to help.
More people like babies, particularly between strangers, made it almost impossible to navigate. Luckily, Liam and I weren’t dating. We weren’t even co-parenting and once he thought about it, he’d see that even that wasn’t a good idea. He might be a good guy, but Liam Reyes wasn’t someone you could count on in the long run.
“Knock, knock.” Kendra stood in the doorway holding a giant green basket covered in tissue paper. Eva and Sophie stood on either side of her in the doorway, wearing excited and curious smiles. “A package came for you.”
My brows dipped low but I waved them all in, knowing they wouldn’t leave until everyone knew what was inside the basket as well as the identity of the sender. “I didn’t order anything.”
“Maybe a client wanted to thank you,” Kendra offered with a hopeful smile.
That thought brought a smile to my face. Grateful clients usually sent engagement announcements or wedding invites, rarely actual gifts. “Set it on the table, please.”
“You’re looking a little pale,” Eva said and motioned for me to sit as soon as I was on my feet. “I’ll just open it for you.” Mischief sparkled in her eyes, pulling a laugh from me.
“Lover boy doesn’t send you enough gifts? Because I could have sworn you received a mysterious brown paper wrapped gift just last week.” The flush on her cheeks told me, told everyone, exactly what was in that package. “Hand it over, Eva.”
“Fine. Party pooper.” Eva lifted it with a dramatic grunt and set it right on top of the desk calendar I relied on as a constant reminder of my schedule. Phones and tablets were great, but nothing beat the constant reminder of bright red permanent marker. “Well, don’t make us wait all day Olive, we have work to do.”
“You could always, I don’t know, get back to work.”
“We will,” Sophie finally chimed in as she sat on the sofa that sat against the wall and crossed her legs. “As soon as we learn the contents of the basket. And the sender.”
“You’re both evil, you know that right?”
Eva and Sophie both shrugged and wore matching unapologetic expressions. “It happens.”
“Fine.” With shaky hands, I unraveled the silky teal ribbon wrapped around the tissue paper and let it fall like flower petals all around my desk. Inside the basket was a lot of things for a pregnant woman. “Whoa!”
“Don’t leave us hanging,” Kendra cried out when the tension became too much for her.
“You heard the woman,” Eva urged with a crooked smile.
“It looks like a pregnancy kit. There are two baby books, a back pillow, candles, a baby shopping list, juice and a rainbow salad.” I dropped down in my desk chair, stunned by the contents of the basket. Even more stunned because I knew if the girls hadn’t sent it, only one person could have.
“Where’s the note or the card,” Sophie asked. “Not that there’s any surprise. Or is there?”
My glare sent Sophie into a fit of giggles more appropriate for a teenage girl than the owner of a matchmaking agency. But she wasn’t wrong, so I dug into the box, underneath the salad that already had my mouth watering until I found a folded sheet of paper with two words on it.
“I’m in.” I read the words twice to myself and once aloud to the girls. “That’s it.”
“Context please,” Eva demanded as she tapped something on her phone, probably postponing something important to hear about the dramatic details of my suddenly interesting life.
I sucked in a deep breath before I told them about my conversation last week with Liam. I left nothing out because there was no point, they needed to know everything so they would understand. So they wouldn’t misread this gesture as something romantic. So they wouldn’t try to make me hope for more. “That’s what ‘I’m in’ means. He wants to be involved.” And this sudden change of heart was causing all kinds of conflicting emotions within me.
Kendra spoke first, her confusion written all over her face. “Why do you sound so bummed about it? This is a good thing. Right?”
