I’ve got this.
I rap my knuckles on the wood, peeking around. She’s stretched out on her couch.
She and Zachary are pointing to his laptop, laughing hard at the screen. “And then it goes like this.” He lifts a hand and mimes swatting something…off a counter, maybe?
Ah, they must be watching cat videos. Olive is addicted to evil cats.
Olive looks up, laughing still as she waves me in. “You have to see this one. This tuxedo is such an asshole. She knocked over the coffee maker for literally no reason.”
Zachary stares at her. “Olive, there’s notnoreason. She’s a cat. That’s reason enough.”
“True, true.”
I join them on the couch, watching the video of a dastardly cat swatting mugs, vases, shot glasses, and more to the floor in a cacophony of sound and feline destruction. When the demolition is complete, Zachary shuts his laptop, winded from laughter.
Olive is his twin in chuckling. I’m not sure if this means she’ll be in a better mood to receive my news or if I’m about to burst her bubble.
Zachary pushes his glasses up his nose, then stands, clutching the silver laptop. “I’ve got a conference call, so I better take off. Good to see you, Katie. Don’t be a stranger.” Then he leaves, shutting the door.
Smart guy.
Olive sighs happily, then meets my gaze and roams her eyes up and down my frame. “It must be a special day. You’re hardly ever here. Are you going to whisk me off to test that new chocolate shop that just opened today? Because I had plans already to eat my lunch there.”
“No,” I say, steeling myself to tell her the truth, the full truth, and nothing but. “Listen,” I begin.
In a nanosecond, she sits up straighter, her expression shifting to intensely serious. “Oh.”
Images of my mother flicker before my eyes. Her pop-in this morning. Her assumptions. The way she’s lived her life. My deep, potent desire to be the opposite to her. I haven’t entirely been that way these last few days, but I have to be now. If I want to have the life I desire, I can’t operate like her at all. Not one bit. “Mom came by this morning.”
Olive cringes. “What did she want?”
“To ask me to be her maid of honor. She’s marrying Silvio.”
Olive’s jaw clangs to the center of Earth, then back up. “Oh, Katie. I’m so sorry.”
I shake my head, quickly dismissing any sympathy. “It’s fine. I’m not upset. I don’t care about her or him. But the thing is, I don’t want to be like her. Not at all. And I have been. I haven’t been truthful with you.”
Confusion crosses her face, lining her brow. “Okay. What do you mean?”
With my head held high, I begin. “I fell in love with Harlan while working with the Renegades. He’s wonderful and amazing, and I’m going to start seeing him. We were going to wait till the end of the season, and I’ve been looking for a replacement to recommend for the classes I teach them, and I had this whole plan to find someone who they’d want and be impressed with. I was going to finish out the contract and then tell you,” I say, and sadness flickers in my sister’s eyes.
“You were?” She sounds devastated.
I’m such an ass for hurting Sassy Yoga. But I have to do this. No matter what.
“I’m so sorry, Olive. I know it probably seems selfish, and I’m about to tank a deal. But I can’t be this person who’s ridiculously in love with this guy and making plans to be with him and not tell you. And not tell them—Lacey at Blaine Enterprises. I feel like I’m deceiving everyone, and that’s wrong. I hope you can forgive me, but I can’t work with them anymore. And that has to start now.”
She shakes her head and doesn’t stop shaking it.
My heart plummets, knowing I’ve disappointed her so terribly. Tears well in my eyes, and a lump forms in my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I say past the hitch. “I’m sorry I messed up thisdeal you and Zachary worked so hard for. But I just can’t lead a double life. I need to be honest about this—fully honest. So I’m truly sorry.”
She gets up, scoots closer, wraps an arm around me.
Huh.
That’s not what I expected.
