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Chapter Eight
In hindsight, Olivia acknowledged that shemighthave been in the wrong when she’d rearranged Sammy’s beloved kitchen without asking for his input first. She really had thought she’d been doing him a favor—what kind of monster left dozens of spices unorganized like that?—but she supposed any baker or chef would chafe at having their culinary sanctuary upended.
Since she couldn’t put everything back the way it was—she didn’t remember all the original placements—she settled for an apology dinner. Sammy had said some hurtful things during their argument, but he’d sucked it up and apologized. It was time for her to do the same.
Plus, she needed to stop hiding from him. She’d locked herself in her room since she accidentally flashed him and his mother yesterday, so mortified it took a good half hour before the crimson faded from her face. She’d even waited until she heard Sammy leave the house that morning before she chanced sneaking into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face—and he hadn’t left until eleven.
Olivia couldn’t hide from him forever, though, so she might as well get their first post-accidental-nudity encounter out of the way.
“It’s not that big a deal,” she said out loud, touching one of the takeout boxes to ensure it was still warm. “He’s seen you naked before.”
The reminder didn’t help as much as she thought it would.
She glanced at the clock and drummed her fingers on the table. It was almost seven. From what she’d observed over the past week, this was when Sammy usually ate dinner, but if he didn’t come home soon, the food was going to get cold. Olivia would’ve worried he was dining out, but she’d heard him on the phone that morning saying he would be home all night working on bakery stuff.
Ten more minutes, and then I’m digging in.She could save the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Disappointment niggled at her, which was ridiculous. It wasn’t like she’d been lookingforwardto dinner with Sammy. This was an apology meal. It was an obligation, not desire.
To keep herself preoccupied, Olivia opened the Community app on her phone and scrolled through the local listings, looking for anything that sounded interesting. She was feeling lonely, and she could use some new female friends in her life. Farrah was only a phone call or FaceTime away, but she lived in New York and was married now. Plus, her interior design business was booming, and she was always busy. Ditto for Kris, who lived in L.A. and was juggling her job at MentHer—a nonprofit for girls who’d lost their mothers—with her charity work, wedding planning, and flying back and forth to various exotic locations to visit her movie star fiancé on set. Courtney was single and ready to mingle, but she also lived out of town, in Seattle.
None of Olivia’s grad school friends had stayed in the city either, choosing instead to take their summer internships in New York or London. The classmates whowerein San Francisco, she didn’t care for.
She sighed and scrolled aimlessly through Community, where people could form groups and post meetup opportunities for others with similar interests in their city. Knitting, birdwatching, photography, dodgeball...
Olivia stopped on a black-and-white profile photo of a shirtless man lying on a bed with his head thrown back in ecstasy. EROTICA BOOK CLUB, the bold black letters next to the photo proclaimed.
Interesting...
Olivia had read her fair share of high-brow literature and popular fiction—Proust, Austen, Dostoyevsky, Toni Morrison, Dan Brown, Stephen King. She was familiar with all of them. But she had a particular weakness for erotic fiction. It was the perfect escape from the sometimes mundane nature of reality, and who didn’t like hot, sexy times? Besides, the books contained excellent ideas for spicing things up in the bedroom.
Given the social stigma against the erotica genre, Olivia didn’t flaunt her reading preferences, but she didn’t hide them either. Her friends understood but didn’t share her tastes, and it would be nice to find some like-minded readers she could connect with.
Olivia scrolled down and read the description.
Not your average book club! This is a group for people who enjoy reading and discussing sexy, smutty books. Each month we will choose an erotic romance or erotic thriller book to read and discuss. Join us for book discussions, drink specials, and raunchy jokes (because all “work” and no play makes Jill a very dull girl). We meet on the first Tuesday of every month at The Catalina Restaurant & Bar, 7pm. Hope to see you there!
It sounded promising. Too bad it only met once a month—Olivia could only attend two meetings before classes started again, but what the hell. She’d take fun where she could find it.
She’d just finished adding the next book club meeting to her Google calendar when the sound of a car door slamming caused her to look up. A minute later, Sammy strolled in, looking devastating in a black T-shirt and jeans. Surprise flickered over his face when he saw Olivia and the spread on the dining table.
Her nerves jumped into overdrive. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He flashed a quizzical smile. “You must be hungry.” A faint tinge of amusement colored his voice.
Okay, she may have gone alittleoverboard with the Thai takeout. The still-closed containers took up almost the entire table.
“It’s not for me,” Olivia said. “It’s for you. Well, for us. It’s an apology dinner.”
Sammy’s smile faded. “Dinner.”
“Yes.”
“With you.”
An inexplicable stab of hurt pierced her chest. “I was trying to be nice. You were right—I shouldn’t have rearranged everything without asking you first yesterday—but if you don’t want to eat with me or you already ate, that’s fine.” She busied herself with opening a container of chicken pad Thai.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
