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Chapter Eight
Three days after the accidental date with Jackson, and the evening spent with her vibrator and his face in her head, Ollie was worried about herself. It had been fun talking to him, but she’d said way too much. Talking about karate and dance had been fine, but Jackson asked thebigquestion and Ollie fumbled. But, she’dalsogiven Jackson hope, which might be a problem.
It was all because of herdatewith Joseph—and those disastrous dates with the other men Baby had found. He’d turned her inside out with his predictable reaction and his need to find a wife. She actually couldn’t even remember what was written in his biodata about why he was still single at 38. Now that she thought about it, it was silly she got so worked up whenhewas the one who was the mess. Sure, he had a job at NASA, but she was happy with her life. She had the most incredible friends and she was content. And Joseph fucking up that evening sent her mind spinning to Jackson and how he didn’t judge her. Except to point out her treatment of him, which was fair.
When she came charging out of her bedroom, she hoped to find Lachlan there to ease her nerves. Her friend kept the weirdest hours while he wrote yet another bestseller, and that meant that he was always cooking up a storm when Ollie was asleep. That morning, there was evidence of Lachlan’s cooking but no sign of him. Needing a little TLC, she grabbed her bag and drove to Frankie’s apartment.
Frankie and Ollie met when they were 10, when the former moved in next door in her neighborhood of Huntington. Ollie was the oddball at school, so when Frankie was brought into class one day, they instantly connected. Frankie had lost her parents, and she’d come to live with her grandmother. Ollie had always been fond of Nana Willows—she was best friends with Baby and the two women would sit on the porch to cackle and gossip about their neighbors.
Nana Willows was white, but she behaved like a typical Indian grandmother thanks to Baby’s influence. Frankie and Ollie not only bonded over idiots at school, but over the fact their grandmothers were absolutely insane. And they’d been inseparable since.
Except for a stupid fight their senior year of high school, there wasn’t a time in their lives when Frankie and Ollie didn’t speak a minimum for three times a week. They’d moved to Delaware together for college and found their way to Wildes together.
“I’m so fucked!”Ollie yelled as she barged into Frankie’s apartment, slamming the door shut behind her. When she didn’t hear a response, she stopped and frowned at the silence. “Frank?”
Ollie heard her friend talking to someone, the sound coming from the spare bedroom that Frankie sometimes used as an office. She tip-toed and pushed the door open to find her best friend and assistant sitting in front of their laptops while on a conference call. Ollie made an apologetic face and backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Ollie kicked her shoes off and walked into Frankie’s large kitchen to find something to eat. Or drink. It was happy hour somewhere in the world.
Francesca Willows was one of the most sought after wedding planners in Delaware—but don’t you dare call herFrancescaif you wanted to keep breathing. She worked for a Cruella de Vil meets Miranda Priestly type of woman who took all the credit, and made Frankie do all the work. It allowed her best friend to afford this gorgeous two bedroom apartment.
Seated on the couch, Ollie was halfway through a bag of Doritos and drinking wine straight from the bottle when the door opened. Ginny, Frankie’s assistant, waved awkwardly and rushed out of the apartment as her best friend dropped down beside her.
“You could have called. Or texted,” Frankie said before taking a swig of the wine. “Instead of startling the fuck out of my new client.”
“If they can’t handle me, you shouldn’t be working for them.”
Frankie chuckled. “So, who did you kill and how much longer till the body starts to stink?”
“Great questions, this is why we’re friends,” Ollie mumbled through a mouthful of Dorito crumbs. “I killed myself and I think I’m already stinking.”
Frankie leaned in, sniffed and gagged before ripping the bag of Doritos out of Ollie’s arms. “Into the shower with you. My garbage smells better and I forgot to take it out last night.”
Ollie got to her feet, whining and groaning as she followed Frankie to the bathroom. She’d been run off her feet and thanks to dry baths and lots of deodorant, Ollie managed to get through dance classes during the week and shifts at the Barrel. And that morning, a shower was the last thing on her mind when the panic attack woke her up.
While her friend went to retrieve clothes and a towel, Ollie stripped and stepped into the shower. The cold water hit her and she didn’t even flinch; she was numb at this point. Between Joseph’s behavior, all the Pierce flashbacks, and the warm feelings she got from being around Jackson—it was alltoo much.
“Okay, start from the beginning.” Frankie called from the other side of the shower curtain.
Ollie sighed and lathered shampoo into her hair. She told Frankie about her disastrous date with Joseph, other uneventful dates and the morning with Jackson, then getting off to thoughts of him all night and when she finished, her best friend hummed.
Ollie pulled back the curtain to glared at Frankie. “Really, after all that, I get a fuckinghum?”
“I don’t even know what you want me to say.”
“Give me advice, you nincompoop.”
Frankie grinned. “We’re name calling now, I like where this is going.”
Ollie growled and finished washing up. She grabbed the towel and wrapped it around her body before reaching for a smaller one to wrap around her hair. She dried her body as Frankie handed her a full glass of wine and pulled on the baggy clothes left on the sink. With her hair wrapped in a towel, Ollie joined Frankie on the couch.
“Let me see if I got all of this right,” Frankie started, sipping from her own glass of wine as she shifted on the couch to face Ollie. “You think Jackson is cute, but he’s got ‘relationship’ written all over him, so when he asks you out, you shut him downhard. Then you go onmoreBaby sanctioned dates and almost lose your shit with this handsome guy because he judged your job choices.Then, oh I’m not done yet, you spent a morning with Jackson, used his existence to give yourself multiple orgasms the very same night and now you have butterflies in your stomach. What did I miss?”
“The part where I said I’m going to kill you if you rehash all of this again.”
“Right, whatever. I’m like a cat, I’ve got nine lives.”
“Why are we friends again?” Ollie shifted, sloshing wine onto herself. She lifted her t-shirt to her lips and sucked on the wine spreading there before taking a sip from the glass.
