Liv sighed. “Sorry. I thought you were someone else.”
Bennett wasn’t sure what to do. Did that mean she didn’t want to talk to him because he wasn’t the person she’d been expecting? Not to mention that she sounded like she’d been crying. Liv had only cried on the phone with him once before and it was after a particularly nasty exchange with her father. Normally in a situation like this, he’d just make an excuse to get off the phone instead of dealing with it. But this was as good a time as any to try out some of the things Katie had tried to teach him.
“Did you see your parents? Is that why you’re upset?” Bennett figured that was an educated guess.
“Actually, yes. I did. But that’s not why I’m upset. It’s just ... hard to explain.” Liv was quiet for a moment. “Have you ever been in love?”
Bennett’s mouth fell open. Then he considered the question seriously. He believed in love. It would be almost impossible to be raised by Mark and Julia Alexander and not believe in love. His parents had been happily married for more than thirty years and he still caught them kissing in the kitchen on a regular basis. Unlike his brothers, he’d never been grossed out by how affectionate his parents were. It made him happy to think that you could make a choice of companion and still be content with that choice decades later. It gave him hope.
“I don’t think so. Have you?”
He was suddenly very curious to hear her answer. Ever since it had occurred to him that Liv might be a perfect match for him, he had been so focused on the idea of making himself into the kind of guy that she’d consider and he hadn’t even thought about whether she might already be in love with someone else. He really had gone about this whole thing backwards.
“There’s this guy. His name is King.” She sniffled and there was a rummaging sound.
Bennett waited patiently. Liv was an emotional person and did things on her own time. There was no rushing her when she was telling a story.
“He’s a member of the club I manage. I knew I shouldn’t get involved with him. He’s exactly the type of guy I should avoid. Rich, arrogant … just trouble. What the hell was I thinking?”
“It sounds like he’s not very nice. Why are you dating a guy that you don’t even like?” Bennett was sure there had to be more to the story or this was just one of those things he would never understand.
It made him angry to think of some guy making Olivia cry. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, he knew that. She’d gone through so much after her parents turned their back on her and had grown into an amazing woman. But that didn’t mean she didn’t get hurt sometimes, too. Maybe it was a holdover from taking care of her when she was first thrown out of her parents’ house but Bennett felt a strong wave of protectiveness for her.
“It’s not like that. Okay, maybe it is a little bit. But there’s just something about him. When I’m around him, I feel alive. You know? Haven’t you ever felt that around a certain person?”
Bennett’s thoughts went back to Katie’s passionate defense of him when saying his old classmate sucked donkey balls. He laughed out loud at the thought.
“What? Why are you laughing?”
“Sorry, I was just thinking of something ridiculous my assistant said earlier.”
“Oh you hired someone else? Another grad student?”
“No, a friend of a friend. Katie is one of Jackson’s neighbors.”
Liv hummed. “Katie, huh? You’ve never had a female assistant before.”
Bennett wasn’t sure if she was expecting him to respond to that. It was a statement, not a question, but somehow it seemed to require a response.
“No, I haven’t. But Katie has been very helpful so far.” He didn’t add that she was mainly helping him figure out how to appeal to Olivia.
Then Bennett realized that the entire time he’d been talking to Olivia, he hadn’t felt even slightly jealous that she was talking about another guy. Shouldn’t he feel jealous? Or at least a little upset? That was what he’d observed in others who were in romantic relationships. But the thought of Liv with this King guy didn’t bother him at all.
Then he thought of all the times Katie had mentioned her ex and could practically feel his blood press
ure rise. Even the idea of her asshole ex talking down to her was enough to make him want to punch something. Bennett smiled. Maybe he wasn’t as abnormal as he’d thought.
“Liv, I’m sorry this guy has been a jerk to you. You deserve better than that.”
“Thank you, Bennett. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. But I want to talk about you. Something is going on with you.”
He could have pretended he didn’t know what she meant but found himself suddenly desperate for the female perspective. Olivia had been through a merry go round of bad relationships over the years and he’d had a sideline view to all of it. The drama, the tears, the breakups, the makeups. It had always seemed messy and unnecessary to him before but now he hoped that she could help him decode some of what he was feeling.
“Liv, when you care about someone, do you think about them at random moments throughout the day?”
“Yup. And you especially think about them when you’re supposed to be doing other things.” Liv chuckled softly.
“And they seem to understand you, even when no one else does?”