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“I didn't see it with my own eyes,” Ernie admitted. “Georgia Witherspoon told me about it.”
I should have known.
I sighed and shook my head. The situation was even more complicated than I'd considered, then. It wasn't just about the town finding out that Olivia and I were together. If Georgia was involved in things too, that meant that by going out with Olivia, I was rejecting the woman once and for all. I didn't want to say that she scared me, but I did have to wonder what she would do if she found out that I really wasn't interested in her in the way that she wanted me to be.
I continued to brood as I headed back to the office that afternoon. The balance of a small town community is very delicate, and I didn’t want to upset that balance. But I also had no desire to disappoint Olivia. We'd had fun the other night, and then there was the strength of the desire that I felt for her. And beyond all that, there was the whole thing with her mother. Olivia herself was in a delicate state at the moment. But even if I thought I should stay away from her, I wasn't sure if I could.
As though sensing the direction of my thoughts, Olivia called that evening, not too long after I got home. “Hey,” she said quietly. “I just wanted to check in and see how Emma was feeling.” There was
something more to it than that; I could hear it in her voice. But I didn't press, as much as I wanted to hear her admit that she was mostly calling just so she could hear my voice or something like that.
“Emma's doing good,” I told her. “She should be back to 100% by Monday.”
“Good,” Olivia said, sounding distracted. She paused. “I've been invited to this wedding,” she finally said. “It's for an old college friend of mine, and I'm supposed to RSVP by the end of the week because the wedding's in about a month. Anyway, I was just wondering if you'd be my plus one.”
“Oh,” I said, shocked to hear her say that.
“I know it's kind of a big deal, but I won't really know anyone there except for a small handful of people from college. They're all bringing their fiancés and husbands, and I don't want to be the only one there on my own,” Olivia rushed to say. She paused again. “Besides, there will be beer. And cake. And I won't make you dance, I promise.”
I laughed. I wasn't sure that I should agree, not with my uncertainty about this whole relationship, and especially not if everyone else was going to be there with their fiancés and husbands. It sounded like people could very easily get the wrong impression of us. But then again, the more I thought about it, the more that that was a wrong impression that I wanted them to make.
I swallowed hard. That, in itself, said more than all the thoughts I'd had that afternoon. I wanted to be considered a serious couple with Olivia.
Still, as soon as we made this into something serious, there would be consequences. Or repercussions, rather. There was the town to think of, and my evolving grief. There were Emma and Helen. And Jeannie, and my professional relationship with her and her daughter.
I didn't know if I should agree to go.
“I'll have to check with Helen and make sure she'd be okay to watch Emma,” I said lamely.
“Oh, right!” Olivia said too brightly, clearly attempting to mask her disappointment. “Of course.”
“I want to go,” I said. “I just need to check.” Then, I shook my head. “Do you think this is a bad idea?” I asked.
“I wouldn't have asked if I thought it was a bad idea,” Olivia said, sounding confused.
“Not about the wedding, but about...us,” I said slowly. I didn't know how to say it to her, but I wasn't planning on playing around with her. If we did anything, it was going to be serious.
“I want there to be an 'us,'” Olivia told me frankly. “But that's up to you to decide, Eric.” She sighed. “Could you try to let me know by the end of the weekend if you're okay with this?”
“I'll let you know,” I agreed. There wasn't anything else I could do.
“All right,” Olivia said. “Have a good night.”
She hung up almost before I could respond.
Chapter Twelve
Olivia
I didn't know what to do about the Eric situation. I knew that he was still upset about his wife's death; that much was obvious. But we'd shared a night of passion like I'd never experienced before. This wasn't Hollywood, and I knew that where feelings were involved, things could happen. I had never gone home with someone after a first date before, and I had never experienced feelings like this. Heck, I'd started the evening unsure if it really was a date or not.
Once he'd admitted that I was the first person he'd slept with since his former wife, I'd known that we were delving into a whole set of baggage. I'd expected there might be weirdness afterward. But I guess I hadn't expected him to just avoid me like that. We were both adults, for crying out loud; surely we could deal reasonably with whatever the situation was. Just talk about things.
And to keep Emma away from me as well, I don't know. That just seemed excessive. When he'd called on Thursday morning to say that she would be staying with her Nana for the day, I'd been surprised, but I'd taken it in stride. When he hadn't shown up on Friday as well, I started to get worried. What if he regretted what we'd done? What if I never saw him again, outside of a professional setting where he was Dr. Jones, and my mother was his patient?
Maybe Emma really was sick. But there was no conviction there.
The truth of the matter was, Eric was coming across a little wishy-washy. Maybe I was just blowing things out of proportion, but I had to wonder if he’d even consider accepting my invitation to have him as a plus-one. I probably shouldn't have asked about it in the first place, but I did want him to be there, both to keep me company and because I could only imagine how sexy he would look in a suit and tie.
