“So you were planning to just hook up with her and go home? Shameful.”
Ollie still looks amused, which is a relief. “I was hoping to meet her sister, actually. The famous Abby.”
I step in. “Okay. I think that’s enough torturing him.”
“No, no, no. I decide when he’s had enough. So why’d you give her such a hard time? Dating, not dating, all that nonsense…”
Ollie sighs. “I was scared things weren’t over with her ex.”
“Nick?” Abby considers this. “Yeah, I could see that. But only because Nick is such a manipulative weasel. That’s not Laura’s fault.”
Ollie grimaces. “Well, I’m glad she’s not with him, then.”
“So what are your intentions?” she asks. I try again to interrupt, but Ollie doesn’t bat an eye.
“Serious ones.”
“So you’ll still be together in June?”
“I hope so.”
Does she mean…? “Wait. Why?” I interrupt.
“Because that’s when my wedding is. Hannah and I looked at locations together. We’ve got a date!”
“That’s amazing.” I give Abby a huge hug.
She looks at Ollie with a smile. “And now that I’ve decided that Oliver is acceptable, he can come, too.”
Ollie grins. “What did I do to earn the acceptable label?”
“You dropped everything to show up here at ten at night just because she asked you to.”
“Well, she wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important to her.”
Abby smile slowly widens as she glances at me. “Yes, he’ll do.”
There arefew things as terrifying as arriving at work to find a meeting invitation from someone who is not part of your department. Destiny has asked to see me, so I head up to her large corner office, which turns out to be as elegantly styled as she is: all cool whites and understated paneling.
“So,” Destiny says. “Someone came into my office this morning to discuss something with me, and I think you need to be informed about it.”
I sense that this is not good news, but I can’t be sure. “Okay…?”
“Apparently people in the office have been following Ollie’s swing dancing career?” Destiny says it with skepticism, like she’s asking whether Ollie is part of a Dungeons and Dragons club or a hacky-sack tournament. “And I guess there was some story about Oliver confessing his love to you at an event? In the middle of a crowd? I didn’t get all the details. But does that sound right? That you two are seeing each other?”
“Oh.” My voice suddenly sounds like a teenage girl’s.
“I gather there’s video of you dancing at a party, as well?” Destiny asks it like it’s a question, but I know that it is not. “My concern is this. Our committee is creating a report about how everyone in the company should act with regard to disclosing arelationship, and it will look extremely poorly if two members of the committee were getting together in the middle of it. Which is why I asked that question at the beginning of the process.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Ollie and I were not in a monogamous relationship at that point. We didn’t know what to report, and then we put things on hold for several weeks entirely, and then broke up, and last weekend, we did end up getting back together. But I thought our committee work was essentially done.”
“Done but not presented. You should have told me about this immediately.”
I take a breath. “The truth is, unless the people are reporting to each other as manager and employee, relationships are usually too complicated to define them in the early stages.”
“I can respect that. But someone felt concerned enough about this to report this to me and your managers.”
“Was it Brant?” I ask.
