Page 61 of The Contract Marriage

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to ignore it.” Even as I say it, my mind whirs to find a way to get out of it gracefully. I don’t want to give Olivia any reason to suspect I won’t be faithful to her.

–Me: When are you done at work?

–Olivia: We can just meet at La Mer. It doesn’t make sense for you to spend an additional hour fighting traffic to pick me up from work.

–Me: I left work early.

–Olivia: Slacker! :smiley-emoji:

–Me: So I’ll pick you up.

–Olivia: Okay. I should be done by five.

I go to the cutting garden and carefully clip the flowers and get them ready for our date. She deserves the very best I can provide, and I love these flowers the most. They remind me of the radiance glowing within her.

“I’ve never seen you smile like this.”

I turn and spot Frederich coming out with a bag of fertilizer. “Wasn’t married before.”

He laughs. “Married life seems to agree with you. Kind of surprising.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“You always seemed detached from what few dates you had before.” He squints slightly. “Tell me honestly. Were you measuring them all against Olivia?”

“No.” My answer is automatic and fast, but then I stop. Was I?

He snorts. “All of those women with dark hair and blue or gray eyes.”

“So? I happen to have a type.”

“About five-eight…”

“Oh, come on.”

“Just pointing it out.”

I wrap a simple silver ribbon around the flowers. “You should be pointing fewer things out and putting more fertilizer in around the plants. See how sad these shrubs look?”

“Yes. They’d look better if some heartless person hadn’t just come by and clipped all the flowers off.” His tone couldn’t be drier.

“Ha. I didn’t plant them to smell them.”

“No, you were planting them for her,” he murmurs softly. “I’m glad you’re feeling yourself again after the dinner last week.”

I shrug. “They aren’t going to change.”

“No, although your grandmother tried to do something about them. Anyway, enjoy your date night.”

I grin. “I will.”

Whistling, I drive the freshly washed Spectre to my wife’s office in Culver City. 3:15. Plenty of time to make it despite the crappy traffic.

This explains why Gideon has a helicopter. Maybe I should consider buying one, too. Olivia would enjoy the short jaunts, and we wouldn’t waste so much time on the road.

Two fender benders slowing down the traffic are irritating, but can’t kill the excitement pounding in my heart. This is it. My first real date with Olivia. Himeko was nice, but the circumstances were different. Olivia was upset and needed comfort. She probably only said yes because she needed someone to hold her—figuratively—in that moment. But this is something she agreed to without any kind of emotional upheaval.

I pull up in front of her building right at five. She’s already coming down, looking as fresh as she did this morning in a bright sunshine-yellow dress and white stilettos. Simon follows in a gloomy black suit. I scowl. He just rubs me the wrong way, sort of like an ugly painting your otherwise perfect spouse insists on hanging in your living room where you’ll have to see it all the time.