“Nope. But I’m Jonathan’s best man, so I guess that makes me a very, very local celebrity.”
“No, it’s not that… What’s your last name?”
“Greenberg.”
“Wait, are you Zack Greenberg the writer?”
“That’s me.”
“No way! I just preordered your book. I was a big fan of your Substack.”
Olivia could feel her brain struggling to make sense of this. “Youread his blog? The one where he argued for massive wealth redistribution and claimed that billionaires belonged in jail?”
“That’s abitof an oversimplification,” Zack said.
“You work at a hedge fund,” Olivia continued, stating the obvious.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate opposing points of view, especially well-written, well-reasoned ones,” Andrew said pleasantly.
“Well, how about that.” Zack grinned at Olivia. “Your friend is a fan.”
Something flickered in Andrew’s eyes, and his smile seemedto fade just the slightest bit. “I didn’t realize… Are you two…” He made an awkward gesture with his hands.
“Together?” Zack supplied.
“Yeah,” Andrew said sheepishly. “Sorry. I know there’s no real polite way to ask that question.”
“I’ll let the lady answer. She’s the one who’s weird about labels.” Zack turned to Olivia and winked.
Olivia forced a laugh to stall for time. Zack’s plan had sounded outlandish when he’d proposed it earlier today, but now it seemed, well, less outlandish. Maybe she was just imagining it, but Andrew did seem a little ruffled. Perhaps Zack’s reductive explanation of the male psyche had been spot-on. “Well…” She looped her arm through Zack’s. “We were hoping to keep it under wraps this weekend, since it’s so new. But I guess that was silly. You can’t hide—”
“A love like ours,” Zack said, moving his arm to her waist.
“I was going to say, you can’t hide anything with your friends and family around, but yeah, sure.”
“Cool,” Andrew said. “Yeah, cool. That’s awesome.” He placed his empty plate back on the stack at the end of the table. “I just realized, I should check and see if Emerson needs a ride. Will you excuse me?”
“Wowwww,” Zack said quietly as Andrew strode off. “I didn’t expect it to workthatquickly. My man is pissed!”
“Oh, come on.” Olivia rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress the tingle of excitement coursing through her body. “Okay, you can let me go now.”
“You sure? He could come back at any minute.” Zack tightened his hold. “He’s probably just running to the bathroom. Mr. HBS probably has IBS.”
Olivia looked away so Zack wouldn’t see her laugh; she didn’t want to give him that satisfaction. Across the room, she spotted Lulu watching them with a curious smile.
“Okay,” Olivia said, turning back to Zack. “You’re on. Let’s try out your ridiculous pretend dating plan. But just for the weekend. Then we’ll ‘break up.’ Okay?” That would give Andrew enough time to realize he’d made a terrible mistake. And possibly convince Lulu that she didn’t have to worry aboutbothher daughters this weekend.
Zack nodded. “You got it, babe.”
“And definitely never call mebabe.”
“Honey?”
“No.”
“Sweet cheeks? Babycakes? What’s that French phrase?Ma petite choue?”
“Little cabbage. So romantic.”
