Olivia
“A mimosa pitcher, please,” Sadie says to the waiter as soon as he walks up.
“It’s mimosas,” Sadie says. “This is when you drink mimosas.”
“It’s mimosa happy hour,” the waiter agrees because it’s his job. “Twelve dollar pitchers.”
“Shit, maybe we should get two,” Sadie says, and both Henry and Kiersten laugh.
“I’ll take an iced coffee with cream, please,” I tell the waiter. “And a water.”
The waiter walks away, and I shake my head at my friends. “Is there a reason we are in such a hurry to get Sunday morning drunk?” I ask.
“Is there a reason you don’t want to?” Henry asks with a smirk, and I see where this is going. They think if they get me loaded, my lips will get loose. And they all know I went on date number three.
“You know I was planning on telling you about my date either way,” I say.
“Yeah, but this way the details will be juicer,” Henry says.
“Not if she sticks to coffee,” Sadie mumbles.
After deciding on the avocado toast, I set my brunch menu down and offer an exhausted smile to all my friends.
“Alright, you want to know what happened?” I ask, and they all perk up.
“Yes!” Kiersten says.
“Obviously,” Henry adds.
“Let’s go,” Sadie prods.
“Alright,” I sigh. But I can’t help the fact that I am smiling. “So he picked me up from my house. And he wouldn’t tell me where we were going. Oh, and he had a rose. And then–”
“Wait, he had a rose?” Sadie cuts in.
“Yes,” I say.
“What color?” Henry asks.
“Yellow,” I answer.
“Well, look at him. You love yellow,” Kiersten says with faint approval.
“I can’t believe he brought you a rose,” Sadie mumbles quietly.
“Then what?” Henry presses.
“And then he took me to North Current…”
“North Current?!” Henry says. “That is like…the bougiest oyster bar on the waterfront.”
“Do you even like oysters?” Sadie asks.
“I didn’t get oysters. But yeah, it was swanky for sure,” I grin, and they’re eating it up.
“So then what?” Kiersten asks.
“Then we drank and ate and talked. He asked me about my job,” I say as the waiter sets down the mimosa pitcher and the glasses, pouring one for each of us. Then he takes our food orders.
“What about your job?” Henry asks after the waiter walks off.
“Well, I told him I host a podcast,” I say.
“Don’t you think that might be a little risky?” Kiersten asks. “Considering we are currently in the middle of a series dedicated to roasting him.”
“I don’t think he listens to the podcast,” I say, taking a sip of my mimosa.
“Hopefully not. Or it would totally blow our cover,” Henry chuckles.
“Right,” Sadie says.
“I don’t know. We kind of agreed to disagree on the concept of love. Seeing as how he is Mr. Realr and all. And then there was this party on the beach and we went down there and had s’mores and danced,” I go on.
“You got the CEO of Realr to eat toasted marshmallows and dance in the sand?” Henry asks in disbelief. “Did he take off his shoes?”
“No. But he kissed me,” I say.
Kiersten and Henry are eating it up. But Sadie wants to get right down to business.
“So he took you somewhere expensive, played along with what you wanted to do on the beach, and trust me, he was playing along. Luca Laurent is not a beach person. And he’s definitely not a s’mores and dancing man.
It’s all part of his game plan to keep you on the hook. ”
“You think?” I ask, suddenly remembering the motives in play.
“Oh, hell yes,” she goes on. “Olivia. Please tell me you aren’t falling for his charm. He is a charming man. Cold, maybe, but charming. This is what he does. He leads women on and then, once they’re invested, once their hearts are involved, he drops them. Trust me.”
“This is great,” Kiersten chimes in. “He’s obviously invested,”
“Very invested if he took you to North Current. Not that that’s a lot of money for him,” Henry says.
“It’s not,” Sadie waves her hand. “He’s a billionaire. I’m sure places like that are his go-to for dates.”
“Either way, this is such good content,” Kiersten says. “It shows the lengths men like him will go to before destroying a woman’s faith in love and finding their soulmate all so they can fulfill their own selfish needs.”
I set my glass down, my lips tipping in a frown. “Are you sure about that?” I ask.
“I am sure that men will string women along while they use them for sex and whatever else?” Kiersten snorts. “Absolutely.”
“But we haven’t had sex. Not since the first night, I mean,” I say.
“It’s all part of the act,” Kiersten says, and Sadie agrees.
“Yep. Because if he kept sleeping with you each time it would be too obvious that he’s just doing the dinners and the dancing and kissing for a happy ending at the end of the night,” she says.
“Or…he’s not the guy we thought he was,” I say carefully, and everyone stops.
“What do you mean by that?” Sadie asks sharply. “Of course he’s the guy we thought. The guy we think. I know him, Livv. Don’t let him fool you. He’s an ass.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I’ve seen men like you’re describing.
And it’s always a little bit obvious. There are always red flags.
But so far, every date he’s taken me on has had zero red flags.
And the fact he hasn’t tried to get me to sleep with him the last two times…
it’s just not the pattern of a catfish. It’s more… ” I trail off.
“More what?” Henry pries. And suddenly I feel like I am in a danger zone. “I don’t know. More…like he might be…”
“Actually trying to date you for real?” Kiersten asks.
I don’t say anything, but my attention darts over to Sadie.
“Wait. Livv…” she says. “You don’t actually think he’s interested in you, do you?”
“I’m not saying that,” I jump in.
“Are you interested in him?” Sadie presses.
“No. Of course not. I’m just saying…if we are wrong about him–”
“We’re not,” Sadie cuts me off. “Livv, I worked with him. I know.”
“But if we are,” I go on. “Then I don’t feel right about this. About any of it. Because it’s one thing to catfish a catfish. But catfishing someone who is actually a well-intended person…that’s not what I’m about.”
“Well, we can’t stop now,” Sadie says as the waiter sets our food down. “We can’t stop until we get revenge for what he did to me. You do still want to defend me, don’t you? That was the whole point of this. It was your idea,” she says.
“I know, I know, I just…”
“We also have to think of the podcast,” Henry says. “I agree,” Kiersten nods. “Our number of followers has skyrocketed since we started this series. If we stop now, we will most likely lose all our new listeners and maybe even some of our regulars.”
“Not only that,” Henry says. “But if we admit we were wrong about this, people are going to wonder what else we are wrong about on our podcast. It could be detrimental.”
I bite my lip. They aren’t wrong. From a business standpoint, it’s a risky move to back out now. Still, I don’t like it. Something about it, after everything I’ve experienced in the past two dates, makes all of this feel wrong. There is a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Olivia,” Sadie says. “You’re not falling in love with him, are you?”
“No,” I say immediately. “Of course not.”
“Because that would be…so fucked up.”
“I’m not,” I tell her, and for a moment we just stare at each other. Then I add, “I promise.”
“Alright well, I guess we keep rolling then,” Henry says.
“Yes,” Kiersten nods. “This next episode is going to be epic. The dinner, the beach, the kiss. People are going to eat it up.”
Everyone digs into their food, but I just stare at my plate. Something about all of this is making me lose my appetite. Something about it feels off altogether. But I know what I have to do for the sake of our jobs and for my friendship with Sadie. I just hope it’s the right thing.