“Well, shit,” I say quietly.
“My thoughts exactly.”
When I get back to my desk, Ollie has texted me:We should talk.
I feel a brief flash of nerves as I text a reply.I have to get Hannah by six, but I could duck out a few minutes early to chat somewhere nearby?
His reply follows quickly:Sure.
And then he adds:By the way, I was lied to. Someone told me that if you put enough accountants in a room, there’ll be an orgy.
I type back:If you don’t put it on the meeting agenda, it’s not going to be in the meeting.
We endup sitting in the back of an Irish pub a few blocks from work, well before the evening rush, hidden in a scuffed wooden booth tucked behind a column.
“So,” he begins, “I noticed that neither you nor I jumped in to announce that we were in a serious, monogamous relationship.”
I smile. “I didn’t want to spring that on you and have you look surprised, like, ‘That makes one of us.’”
“Me neither.” He gives me a meaningful glance. “But are we, I mean…it’s probably too early to have this discussion.”
“I was hoping you weren’t juggling six other women, but I was going to wait another date or two before I put the ankle monitor on you.”
“Right.” He smiles, too. “But just to be clear, I’m not seeing anyone else.”
“I’m not either. To be honest, I can’t imagine wanting to.” At his look, I hurried on. “I just mean it’s been a long time since anyone could compete with a nice cup of tea and a home renovation show.”
“Good, yeah. That’s how I feel, too. Less so about home renovation shows. Those are too high stakes for me. I get worried as soon as they start fighting about wallpaper. But what is our move, here? We don’t seem to be keeping to the spirit of Destiny’s request. I mean, legally, I don’t think they can actually require us to be single; that might have some discriminatory overtones. But they wouldn’t like it. And I don’t mind resigning from the committee, but that would force you to resign too, potentially, unless I didn’t say who I was dating. I didn’t know if you’d rather avoid the committee entirely, or if this is helpful for you professionally.”
“Well, the problem is, I had to beg for my job back last summer, so I need opportunities to prove to them that I’m a loyal soldier. Brant volunteered me for the committee because he thought it would help. And he keeps mentioning layoffs, so…”
“Right. Similar with me. I only just got back from requesting a transfer. So it sounds like we’d both like to stick it out.” He seems to be picking his words carefully. “Do you want to postpone things between us until after the committee is done?”
“Do you?”
“Personally? No, I really don’t.” He smiles ruefully.
“Me neither,” I agree. “I mean, I suppose we could just say that we’re friends. And then make it public that we’re dating later on.”
“Has your friend Vivian told anyone we’re dating?”
I frown. “I mentioned we had a date, yeah. Have you told your friend Katy?”
There is silence for a moment. “Shoot.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “We’re not a secret now.”
“I don’t want to ask you to lie…” he begins.
“You can ask me to lie,” I say quickly.
He grins. “This feels like a very shaky start to a relationship.”
“Can we tell everyone that we decided we’re better off as friends because you’re still hung up on your ex-wife?”
He raises his eyebrows sky high. “Why is it me who has to be hung up on my ex? What about you and your musician?”
“I was picking the more believable scenario,” I reply.
