19. Leo
LEO
Leo woke with Olivia’s head on his shoulder, her hand splayed possessively across his chest, and one of her legs draped over his. He blinked slowly as his eyes adjusted to the bright morning light. He didn’t want to move and disturb her, so he lay very still.
Unlike the last time they’d woken up in bed together, Leo knew exactly what had happened last night.
He remembered every moment with perfect clarity, from their fun day in New York together, to their serious conversation at the rooftop bar, to taking Olivia back to his penthouse and falling into bed with her.
He probably should regret that last bit. And a part of him did. After all, sleeping together would make it harder to go through with the divorce. He already knew that, when Olivia left, she’d leave a hole in his life behind her.
But a bigger, louder, more important part of himself refused to let regret take over. He couldn’t bring himself to wish that last night had gone differently. Their night together had been unforgettable, and he wanted nothing more than to do it again.
He wouldn’t, of course. But he wanted to very, very badly.
“Leo?” Olivia stirred and sat up, yawning. Her curls framed her face, and she wore nothing but a bedsheet, which brought back plenty of memories of the night before.
“Good morning,” Leo smiled at her. “Did you sleep well?”
“Never better.” She smiled back with those soft pink lips. “Unfortunately, now, we won’t be able to put down ‘failure to consummate marriage’ on the divorce papers.”
Leo laughed. “I suppose not.”
“Okay, you have to get to work, right?” Olivia rolled out of bed. “I’ll get out of your way.”
Leo wanted to grab her hand, pull her back into bed, and repeat last night’s activities. He didn’t.
“How about we have dinner together tonight?” he asked instead. Olivia, still naked, halfway to the door, turned back with a smile.
“Perfect.” And then she disappeared. Leo lay back on the bed, wishing again that he’d called her back. But maybe this was for the best. Maybe it was good to keep his distance now, at least physically.
After a few minutes, he got up as well and went to shower and get dressed. When he went into the kitchen a few minutes later to get something to eat, Olivia was already there. She wore a robe now and was standing in front of the stove, scrambling eggs.
“I thought you might be hungry,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him.
“I’m starving,” Leo admitted.
“Good. Have a seat at the table, and breakfast will be ready in a minute.”
“Thank you.”
Leo sat at the table, and Olivia scooped the eggs onto a plate along with two slices of buttered toast, and cantaloupe.
“Thanks again,” Leo said.
“Stop thanking me.” She handed him the plate, then returned to the counter. She plated another portion of eggs, which she set at her place on the table, then brought over two steaming mugs of coffee.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Yours is black.”
“Perfect.” He took a forkful of eggs, which were fluffy and flavorful. “These are great.”
“It’s my own recipe.”
“Really?”
“No.” Olivia grinned. “Scrambled eggs are so easy to make, no one needs a recipe.”
“I probably would. I’d probably put the whole eggs in the pan and then wonder why there were bits of shell in there.”
Olivia’s smile widened. “Maybe you’d better learn. Tomorrow morning, I expect you in the kitchen with me, ready to cook.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Leo said with mock seriousness. “Consider me your sous-chef.”
“Done. Anyway, you did fine when we made dinner the other night.”
“Did I? It took me almost an hour to chop five carrots.”
“I was trying to be nice.”
Back and forth they bantered. If Leo had expected awkwardness after their night together, he’d have been disappointed. If anything, talking to Olivia felt even easier than before.
He wanted to keep talking to her, but after just a few minutes, he’d finished his breakfast, and it was time to go.
“See you this evening,” he said.
“Have a nice day.” Olivia waved from her seat at the table with a bright smile.
Leo walked very slowly down the hallway, half-hoping that he’d come up with some reason he needed to stay home again. But by the time he’d walked the few blocks to his office, he managed to focus on work again. Mostly.
He was a little later than usual, so the office was already full of employees. He nodded hellos and good mornings to all of them before heading into his office. It was going to be a busy day, so he dove right in.
He didn’t think about Olivia. Or, at least, he tried not to. He tried not to wonder what she was doing today, if she was still thinking about the night they’d spent together (like he was), and if she was looking forward to him coming home (like he was).
After his first morning meeting, which was with the C-suite, Leo was back in his office when Julian, his assistant, poked his head in.
“The legal team dropped this by for you while you were in the meeting,” he explained, handing over a manila envelope.
“Thanks.” Leo opened the metal tie at the top of the envelope, and out slid a postnup agreement, just like he’d requested. His and Olivia’s names were right at the top.
Leo’s stomach twisted. He’d asked for this before he’d known Olivia, before they’d slept together. Now, he felt bad for not trusting her more. He shouldn’t have asked for this. He shouldn’t use it.
The night they’d spent together and the conversations they’d shared the previous day — those had been real. If Olivia had really wanted money from him, surely he would have known.
He tucked the document away in his top desk drawer.
When the divorce papers were ready, he’d sit down with Olivia and make sure they were on the same page about each keeping the assets they’d entered the marriage with.
There was no need to force her to sign the postnup, which would probably make her feel terrible. Leo didn’t want that.
The divorce papers would still take a few more days, at least, so Leo would wait until then to bring it up. He wanted a few more days with Olivia, a few more days like yesterday.
He turned his attention back to his work, trying to put Olivia and the divorce out of his mind.
That evening, he went home early. Again. To his surprise, Olivia wasn’t there. For one heart-stopping moment, he worried that she’d decided to leave and go back to Seattle. She’d only agreed to stay for a few days, and a few days had passed. He was in no rush to get divorced, but maybe she was.
Before he could fully process why he was so panicked, though, Olivia stepped out of the elevator behind him. Her camera was draped around her neck, and she was grinning.
“You’re home!”
“So are you! What were you up to today?”
“I was out taking pictures,” She beamed. “I finally feel excited about photography again!”
“That’s great,” Leo smiled at her. “Does this mean you’ll show me some of your work at last?”
“Hmm. Maybe,” She put a finger to her lips thoughtfully. “But first, let’s do dinner.”
“Fine by me.”
They ate dinner together, chatted, stayed up too late talking on the couch, and finally went to bed in their separate rooms without Olivia showing him any pictures.
And, for the next few days, that was how it went.
Leo came home early from work each day to find Olivia, sometimes sitting on the couch on her computer, sometimes working in the kitchen, sometimes just getting home from a day of taking pictures out in the city.
They’d sit down together for dinner, sometimes food they cooked together, sometimes something Olivia had made on her own, and sometimes a fancy meal in one of Leo’s preferred restaurants.
In the mornings, they’d eat breakfast together, too, with Leo lingering over coffee longer than he should, often arriving to work after he usually did.
Surprisingly, his work didn’t seem to suffer all that week, even though he spent more time at home with Olivia or out in the city with her than he’d ever spent away from work before.
Leo and Olivia didn’t sleep together again.
They didn’t even touch, beyond an innocent brush of hands as Olivia passed him the pepper at dinner or a press of their legs in the back of a cab.
Every day, Leo struggled not to take her into his arms and kiss her again, just once.
Every day, he managed to hold himself back.
If he gave in to the magnetic pull that brought him to her again, he knew he’d never be able to go back.
The next weekend rolled around. On Friday evening, Leo finished up his work, looked at his computer, and decided that he didn’t need to come in over the weekend. He could do an hour or two of work from home each day, to keep things up, but that would be enough.
This was the opposite of what his parents, even Kyle, would have wanted him to do, but Leo didn’t mind. After all, Olivia would only be in his life for a short while, and he wanted to enjoy his time with her while he could. Once she returned to Seattle, he’d dive back into work.
When he arrived home that evening, Olivia was in the kitchen, wearing a flowery apron that he hadn’t known he owned. She grinned at him. Her hands were covered in flour, and there was a streak of flour on her cheek as well. Her hair was coming loose from its bun to frame her soft features.
“You’re home! The pizza isn’t quite ready yet.”
“Did you make the crust?” Leo asked. “Or did it snow in here?”
She rolled her eyes at him playfully. “I made the crust. Don’t worry — that one is a little beyond you.” She grinned. “We’ll work up to it. Would you like to slice tomatoes, though?”
“Sure.”
Leo put on some music, and the two of them danced around the kitchen as they cooked. Olivia told Leo all about her day out in the city, how she’d explored a new corner of Central Park and taken pictures of squirrels leaping between branches like tiny superheroes.
“Are you finally going to show me some of your pictures?” Leo asked.
“Maybe after dinner. How was your day?”
Leo told her all about his long meetings, about how his assistant had accidentally served coffee with regular almond milk instead of unsweetened almond milk to a client, resulting in a tussle, and how he’d wrapped things up for the weekend.
“Really?” Olivia’s eyes shone. “Does this mean you’ll be home this weekend?”
Leo tried to ignore the way his heart soared at her enthusiasm. “It does. Would you like to do something?”
“Definitely.” Olivia tossed the pizza dough between her hands like a master chef before setting it down on a round pizza stone that Leo also hadn’t known he’d owned. “What do you have in mind?”
“There’s lots more of New York to see. We could go down to Coney Island, if you’d like.”
“That sounds great.” Olivia rinsed her hands and took a pot off the stove.
It was bubbling with a deliciously aromatic tomato sauce that she must have made herself, too.
“Oh, and I wanted to ask — has there been any word on the divorce? I feel bad leaving it to you to sort out all this legal stuff.”
Leo’s heart plummeted. Over the last week, he’d mostly managed not to think about the divorce, not since he’d seen the postnup and slipped it into his drawer.
Part of him had even forgotten that getting a divorce was the whole reason Olivia was here.
He didn’t want to tell her about the postnup, and he hadn’t heard anything else, so he shook his head.
“The lawyers said it might be another week or two before all the paperwork is ready. I’m sorry — I know you only wanted to stay for a few days.”
“Oh, well, what can we do?” Olivia shrugged dramatically. “I guess I’ll have to keep hanging out with you, exploring New York, and living in this gorgeous penthouse.”
Leo couldn’t help noticing how she’d mentioned the penthouse, even though it had been the last item on her list. A momentary flicker of doubt went through him. Was there still a chance that Olivia was here to enjoy the life of the rich and perhaps win some money for herself?
But no. This was Olivia. He knew her.
“I guess you will.” Leo shrugged, too. “Such misery. I really feel for you.”
“Oh, yes. You’ll have to treat me to a funnel cake at Coney Island so that I can forgive you.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Then maybe I also need to go on a ride or two.”
“That’s a big ask… but I’ll try to make it happen.
” Leo smiled at her, and the conversation moved on, away from the divorce.
Leo was glad. As soon as the papers came through, he and Olivia would go their separate ways.
But until then, he was going to enjoy this — and try not to think too much about the future.