Chapter 26: Olivia
I awaken to the feeling of Davis gently rubbing my arm. At some point, I must have fallen asleep in the backseat of the car that was waiting for us at JFK. A week ago, if someone told me that Davis Ridgeway would have affectionately put my head on his shoulder to keep it from bobbing around during a car ride, I would have never believed them. But lo and behold, he’s softly rousing me awake and my temple is nestled against the curve of his arm.
“Hey, we’re here,” he whispers, keeping his voice soft and soothing. His hand continues to slide along my arm, bringing me back to reality in more ways than one.
Before I awoke, I had been dreaming of Missouri, specifically the apartment where Charlie and I lived when I was in college. That apartment had always been too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, but in the spring it had been a welcome respite from the chaos we encountered outside of our walls. Protracted legal proceedings with Albie, who inherited everything that our mother left behind when she died. Unforgiving hourly wage jobs. Food banks and Goodwill. In the dream, Charlie and I were back in that apartment—but Davis was there too. Davis and I played Jenga while Charlie looked on. Riveted, he watched as we took turns inching the wooden blocks out of the tower, each more precarious than the last. He woke me up before I could see who won.
The other reality I’m coming back from is the time Davis and I spent in Amsterdam, living out a fairytale of a week that felt so surreal yet so natural at the same time. It was a vicious dichotomy, tempting and yet dangerous all at once. Yet so badly, against my better judgment, I didn’t want the fairytale to end.
It ends though. It ends with corporate housing. I peer out the window of the SUV at the apartment building and let out a heavy exhale. The thought of sleeping without Davis after spending every night with him for the past five nights seems torturous, but Charlie has been waiting for me to come back to the city since last night. Groggily, I rub my cheeks, forcing myself to get my head on straight. No more dreams, no more fairytales, just the here and now.
“I should head up alone,” I mention, glancing at the building’s entrance. “All the interns live here. Someone would recognize you.”
I can tell that Davis doesn’t like my logic, but it checks out. Reluctantly, he nods before he kisses me. It feels like the most instinctual thing in the world. “Text me when you’re upstairs,” he requests before giving my hand a squeeze. “I mean it.”
“Or what?” I kiss him again, letting the challenge linger in the air before I say, “Kidding. I will.”
A few minutes later, I’ve left Davis and I’m standing at my front door. Exhausted, I fumble with my purse trying to find my keys to my apartment when the door swings open.
As soon as he sees me, Charlie pulls me into a hug. I haven’t seen him in a couple of months, so I’m surprised to see the hideous facial hair that he’s clearly been working on all summer. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to give him some well-deserved shit for it because he’s already spinning me around. “Dude, you look so great!” he exclaims.
“Great how?” I ask as I situate myself back on my feet.
“Like, happy,” he comments as he shuts the door behind me. “And, like, fat.”
“I’ve gotten fat?” I question before glancing down at myself.
“Not fat. Just, like, well fed,” Charlie explains with the kind of obliviousness that only a nineteen-year-old boy possesses. “It’s a good thing. Looks like you’re making enough money to finally get off of the ramen and oatmeal diet. You’ll have to tell me what that’s like.”
“Oh, do you need money?” I inquire.
Annoyed, Charlie lets out a sigh. “No, mafia Olivia. I don’t need any of your mysterious money.”
“You’re such a—”
Suddenly, I stop speaking as the door to the apartment opens without warning. Surprise doesn’t even begin to cover my reaction when I see Davis in the doorway.
“Hey, you forgot your phone in the car,” Davis explains before he spots Charlie. “Oh…”
“My brother,” I explain hastily before Davis can get any ideas.
“Oh,” he says again, just with noticeably more brightness in his tone. He lets himself in and shuts the door before he extends a hand to Charlie. “It’s good to meet you. I’m Davis Ridgeway. I’m a friend of your sister.”
“Charlie Nolan,” he says, taking a few steps to shake Davis’s hand. “Good to meet you too. Do you guys work together?” He glances between the two of us with a tinge of a sneer on his face. I know my brother, and I know his mind is already working on overdrive to figure out if there’s more here.
“We do,” Davis confirms, throwing in a chuckle that would annoy me if it weren’t so damn cute. “Does she not talk about me?”
I can feel this conversation shifting into dangerous territory—like an icy tundra where my sort-of mentor, sort-of coworker, sort-of customer finds out that I’ve been passing along most of the money that he gave to me to my little brother for his college expenses.
“Because she talks about you,” Davis continues before Charlie can admit that he’s never heard of Davis until today.
“Yeah? Good things, I hope.” Charlie answers as he glances in my direction. “Or is she telling stories about how I used to collect rocks when I was a kid? Because I swear I haven’t done that in years—”
“Two years,” I interject flatly. “You were doing that well into high school, Char.”
“Nothing about rocks. Just how proud she is.” Davis relaxes against the doorframe. “Apparently you’re going to Wash U. That’s amazing. You’re a sophomore now?”
Charlie beams from the compliment. “Yeah, how did you know?”
“Olivia told me,” Davis lies, continuing to pile on that business-y schmooze charm that he has mastered over the years. “And you’ll have to forgive me. I didn’t realize you were in town. We just went on a business trip to London, but I wouldn’t have asked Olivia to come if I knew she had company.”
“Forget it,” Charlie insists as he waves off the apology. “I told her she had to go. She said that she was working with this hotshot VP and she really wanted to impress him.”
“Traitor,” I hiss, pretending to be angry.
Davis raises his chin in Charlie’s direction. “Good call. She definitely impressed more than just me.” Briefly, he looks in my direction, offering me the smallest of knowing glances. “So how long are you in town, Charlie?”
He shrugs. “Not much longer. Heading back to St. Louis on Sunday night.”
“Have you been keeping busy since you got in?”
Charlie nods. “I did touristy shit yesterday, and then I had pizza, like, three times. It really does taste better. Oh, and did you know that there’s an M&M’s world in Times Square?”
Davis’s eyebrows shoot up and he gets this look on his face like he just reunited with a long-lost sibling. “I did,” he confirms coolly before letting out a soft laugh. “Hey, do you have plans tomorrow, or can I take you both to breakfast?”
“Oh, we have—” I begin.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Charlie interrupts, practically shooting me a glare to shut me up. “Right, Liv? We don’t have plans. We can hang out with Davis.”
Reluctantly, I shake my head, well aware that I’m about to become a third wheel to a bromance in the making. “No plans. We can do breakfast. All of us. Together.”
“Great. I’ll pick you both up here at ten,” Davis says, before winking at me. “Hope you both like waffles.”