Chapter 12 Jack & Jill #3
“Stop! I was a bartender,” I say in my best no-bullshit voice, “and I will call the police on you if you start fighting, so you both better calm the hell down.”
“Oh, I like her,” Sean says.
At those words, something snaps inside Ollie like a broken string, and he rushes forward and punches his brother in the face.
“No! Don’t you dare!” I yell. I’m not even sure which of them I’m trying to stop.
Sean is grinning as Ollie breathes hard, and then they are grappling and shoving each other like teenage boys. Separating them seems impossible. “I’m calling the police!” I call.
“It’s okay,” Ollie says to me as he shoves Sean a few steps away and then staggers back, waving one hand vaguely without taking his eyes off his brother.
“We’re fine, love,” Sean replies. Sean rushes forward and hits Ollie hard, knocking him down, then backs up again.
“Ollie—” I begin.
“Just go,” Ollie says to me from the ground, holding his jaw. “It’s fine.”
I have a strange thought, watching them glaring at each other.
This whole time I’ve been worried about Ollie finding out about my trashy background, and here he is getting into a fistfight with his brother.
Maybe we’re more alike than I realized: two people who chose steady careers because we have the same inner capacity for chaos.
I’ve never been a fan of men getting into fights; it’s one of those things that’s idealized in movies but horrible and silly in real life.
But a worry eases in me, just knowing Ollie can be this messy.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” I ask.
Ollie nods once, and I turn and head inside. They are grown men and can deal with the consequences on their own actions, as Jody would say.
Why did I even try to stop them? I probably made it worse.
I walk back inside the ballroom to hear the winners being announced. Ollie was right; he didn’t win anything. The winners are Connor and Eliana.
I can’t bring myself to care much, but sheer curiosity brings my attention to Eliana’s expression. She smiles brightly at the room as everyone applauds. I wonder what Connor is thinking about his choice to break off their dance partnership.
Maria still has the microphone. “And I just want to say from a personal perspective how great it is to have Eliana back on the East Coast!”
Eliana takes the microphone. “Thank you.” She seems ready to go full beauty queen, clutching the mic like she’s about to make a drunken speech at a wedding.
“And I just want to announce that I really hope Ollie and I continue to dance together, because he is really special. And we make a great team.”
Boy, she’s laying it on thick. I’m wondering how much of that is to rub Connor’s nose in what he’s missing.
Then Eliana glances around. “Ollie?” she says. “Where did he go?”
“He left the building,” someone shouts. There’s a ripple of mirth across the room.
“He left the building?” she says. “Oh.” Her voice is small as she hands back the microphone to Maria with a downcast expression.
In any other circumstance, I would feel terrible for her, but I can’t help but feel a bit smug.
I glance around the room. Someone is filming this, their camera on Eliana’s uncertain face as she turns away.
The crowd eventually starts to disperse. When I look around for my things, I find Jody, Ben and Helen standing together, demanding to know what I was doing during Ollie’s dance.
“What was that about?” Helen asks. “Who was that man?”
“Long story. How was Ollie’s dance? I missed it.”
Jody shakes her head. “Terrible. He was not on his game at all. I think that’s probably why Eliana wanted to boost him up.”
“Well, he had a family member show up, so he was distracted.”
“The brother who stole his wife?” Helen asks, a sparkle in her eyes.
“How did you even know about that?”
Helen shrugs. “Dance gossip.” I think about Katy from Murano being here, and wonder if she’s the kind of person who posts on dance blogs. Maybe she is the dance blogger.
Jody sighs. “Alright. Let’s go to dinner. And no more talking about terrible men. Let’s talk about terrible women for a change.”
“I’ve got one of those,” Ben agrees.
On our way out, I see Ollie in the lobby, one eye slightly bruised. His brother seems to be gone now, and he looks shaken and a little unsteady. I want to give him a hug, but I don’t. I step closer, though.
“Are you okay?” I ask quietly.
“Sorry. That was my brother,” he says to me. He looks tired, I think. Tired and sad, though his body is shaking a little from the adrenaline.
“I know,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry if I made it worse. I was trying to get him out of there before you saw him so you could focus on the competition. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, sorry, I just…I saw you go outside with him and I just…” Ollie shrugs, embarrassed.
“I didn’t want him to mess with your head when you were competing,” I offer as an apology. It was me who distracted Ollie, not Sean, in the end.
“Why?” he asks, staring at me. “Why did you care?”
“Because I care about you.” I look away. “I wish I didn’t sometimes, but I do.”
Ollie has a curious expression on his face as he looks at me. I vaguely notice that Helen, Jody and Ben are still nearby.
“Look, if you want to get back together with your ex-wife…” I begin.
He looks at me like I’m insane. “What? No.” He frowns. “We keep doing this, don’t we? Doubting each other.”
I nod slowly.
“And I’m sorry about the fighting. I promise it was out of character,” he replies. “I only hit him once.”
“Is that Australian for non-violence?”
Ollie gives a short bark of a laugh. “I just… Phoebe and I are done. Sean was blaming me for something I had nothing to do with.”
“Okay.”
“And I want to say something to you.” He looks vulnerable in a way that instinctively makes me want to flee. “It can be right here, if you want. Just listen. Please.”
I’m stuck now, frozen in place. I feel both grateful and embarrassed that my friends are listening.
“You know that I originally learned to dance for Eliana,” he says quietly.
So this is going to be about her. “Yes, I know.”
“And then you learned to dance for me. And nobody had ever done something like that for me before. Not even as a kid. I was always the one doing things for other people, learning to dance for Eliana, going into law for my dad. So when you did that, it was…intoxicating. I knew I was in love with you on our first date.”
The words take my breath away. I don’t know where to look. I notice Ben out of the corner of my eye, staring politely at the floor.
“When we danced on the street that time,” Ollie continues, “I was scared about how much I felt. And then your ex showed up, and he’s this handsome guitarist for the Big Lie, and I thought, Of course.
Of course this is who she actually wants.
There was no way someone that beautiful wouldn’t already have somebody. ”
I catch Ben out of the corner of my eye mouthing to Jody, “The Big Lie?”
“So I pulled away,” Ollie says. “Because I was so sure you’d pick him. He had everything on his side, you know? Your kid, and the fucking motorcycle.”
“That wasn’t even his motorcycle.”
Ollie holds up a hand. “And when you told me you loved me, I felt like as soon as I said it back, you were going to disappear. Like you were waiting for me to get vulnerable and then you’d go.
And I knew you deserved better, so I broke it off.
But the point is, I stopped fighting for you.
Remember when you told me that I quit the field after my divorce?
I did the same thing with you, didn’t I?
I let your ex-husband win because I couldn’t handle getting my heart broken.
But I don’t want to do that. I want to fight for you.
” He grimaces, looking at his bruised hand.
“Not literally, I hope. But I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours wracking my brain for how I was going to prove that to you.
I had these ideas about flying you to Paris or Fiji for a weekend. ..”
“Norway is nice,” Helen mutters behind me. It makes me laugh in spite of myself. Ollie throws her a glance and then continues.
“But I realized, that’s not what you have been asking for. You haven’t been asking me to take you on fancy weekends or to expensive restaurants.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t mind,” I say softly.
Ollie looks serious. “Yes, but what you told me you wanted the most was for me to be there, consistently, and not change my mind. You wanted me to keep showing up, over and over, the way your ex never did. And the problem was, I couldn’t figure out how to do that without acting like a stalker and showing up at your house all the time. ”
“Ollie,” I begin.
“Let me finish. Here’s what I’m proposing.
What if I move to your neighborhood? So that I can be there if you want to get an early dinner before you put Hannah to bed?
And so I can help if you need someone to pick her up because your work ran late?
What if I could help you with little things, and errands, and give you more time to relax, and spend time with your kid… and hopefully spend time with me?”
My brain is struggling to compute what he is offering. He would move to my neighborhood so he can help pick up my drycleaning? Nick expected me to move to Atlanta when he wanted to try again.
Ollie continues softly. “I want to prove to you that I’m capable of doing something real, not just for one weekend but every day. For as long as you need me. And I want to prove it over and over again. Will you let me do that?”
“You’d give up your apartment?” As a New Yorker, that seems like the most improbable thing of all. He really must be madly in love to offer that.
“Well,” he says shrugging. “I own it, so I would probably rent it out.”
“Oh my God.” I hear Jody’s voice. I glance at her. “That’s a really good offer,” she grumbles. “Even I know that.”
“It is,” I agree, fully meeting his eyes at last with what is probably a huge, goofy smile. “It’s a really good offer.”