At my sister’s recommendation, I’ve read countless romance novels and binge-watched entirely too many romantic comedy movies. In fiction, Livy would fall in love with me and we’d live happily ever after. In reality, I only have tonight, and won’t see her again until March. I still need to figure out how the hell I’m going to convince her that we can be together when I’m in another country. I thought I had more time to come up with a way to make it work. For now, I need to be okay with whatever she’ll give me.
Olivia joins me and I’m left speechless. She’s gorgeous when she’s wearing makeup and camera ready. But bare-faced, relaxed, wearing my clothes? I’m obsessed. I pull out one of the dining chairs and gesture for her to sit, resisting touching her while I push in the chair as she takes a seat.
“It’s been too long since we’ve shared a plate of nachos,” she chuckles, glancing over her shoulder with a bright smile lighting up her face. “It sounded good when I was looking at the menu. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” I sit across from her—the only safe place for either of us. “I actually ordered some before I found out you did as well.”
In an instant, the levity drains from her face as she notices only one drink on the table. “I thought you said we’d have one drink together.”
“Oh, I already had mine.” Not wanting her to feel awkward, I get up and retrieve a beer from the small fridge. Once I’m seated again, I raise it in a cheers. “To you and all you’ve accomplished.”
Livy blushes, peels the cap off her margarita, and taps the plastic cup to my bottle. “Thanks, but I had help, you know.”
“It’s okay to be proud of yourself and celebrate.” Jaw tight, I hate how she qualifies her achievements; she’s arguably done more in the past decade than I have.
I open the to-go container, and the nachos are a far cry from ones we’ve shared before. It still brings back memories—all good, except one. The last night we spent together, I stupidly thought it would be romantic to relive our first date. The only thing it did was make it hurt even more to walk away from her. A feat I didn’t think was possible.
“What’s wrong?” she quietly asks.
I blink away the thought, unsure exactly how long I’ve been staring at the plate of chips. “Nothing,” I lie, and take a long pull of my beer.
“I thought we were going to be honest with each other.”
“You’re right.” Leaning forward, I rest my elbows on the table. “I’m sorry. This is harder than I thought it would be.”
Olivia reaches across the small table, covering her hand with mine as she teases, “I promise I won’t flirt with you anymore.”
“No, that’s not it.” I swipe my thumb over her knuckles and take a deep breath.
“Then what is it?”
“I missed years of time with you, just like this.”
“Why did you wait until I was elected before calling?”
“No matter how much I wanted to, it would’ve been selfish of me.” I sigh, interlacing our fingers. “You were married. I was engaged. Then once your husband passed away, you began your political career.”
“And you became Prime Minister,” she adds, taking her hand back.
I chuckle humorlessly. “Yeah. We’ve always had shitty timing.”
She helps herself to the nachos, waiting until she's done chewing before asking, “What happened with—what’s her name?”
“Meredith? I really wanted to make it work.” For all the times we talked on the phone over the past few months, I’ve successfully avoided discussing my ex. My eyes fall to the container in front of us and I grab a loaded chip. Any excuse to delay the truth for a moment longer, even if she deserves it. “On paper, we were the perfect couple,” I finally admit, then take a bite.
“Kind of like on dating apps where you find someone who is too good to be true?”
I shake my head, covering my mouth as I chew, then take a sip of my beer. “Not exactly. She just wasn’t… you, Livy. She wasn’t you.”
“Isaac,” she breathes, but I hate the pity in her tone.
“Please let me get this out. Part of me held out hope that one day we’d find each other again. Maybe after grad school, or maybe I’d end up with UNICEF and could move to California. But then you got married. I really tried to move on once I heard. Meredith knew I wasn’t over you, and it was only fair to let her find someone else who could love her the way she deserves.”
Livy nods in understanding. “Phil was my best friend, but he wasn’t you. Even now, I’m still trying to get over you.”
Her bittersweet confession makes my heart swell. “Then maybe we should both stop trying?”
“If only it were that simple. Aubrey was right; I should’ve had someone from my staff call you back when I won.”
