Page 14 of All the Right Words

‘It’s fine.’

OK, that was a dead end. ‘Hobbies?’

‘No time,’ Olivia said ruefully.

The conversation paused as the drinks arrived. While they drank in silence, Harper tried to figure out what her next question could be. So far, she’d only hit a series of dead ends. Harper wanted to go deeper with her. But she couldn’t find an in.

The food came not long after that, and as they got halfway through, Olivia took a run at resurrecting the conversation. ‘So, how long have you been single?’

‘Couple of years. You?’

‘Same.’

Olivia nodded. Harper carried on eating.

***

They said goodbye outside the restaurant with a light hug. ‘Thanks for coming tonight,’ Olivia said brightly. ‘It was really great.’

‘It was,’ Harper lied. Though she’d felt chemistry with Olivia, they couldn’t translate it to anything real when the opportunity arose. It was pretty disappointing.

‘Well, let’s do this again soon,’ Olivia said.

Harper nodded non-committally. ‘Bye then.’

She walked off into the night to catch a cab home.Oh well, she thought.

Nine

Gina was tucked up in bed with a book when her phone rang. She couldn’t imagine why Olivia was calling her at nine-thirty the night of her big date with Harper. She wondered if she had to pick it up. It was outside business hours. But she took the call.

‘Hi,’ she said.

Olivia groaned into the phone. ‘God, I’m sorry to call at this hour. I know it’s…

‘Is something wrong?’

‘It’s just… The date didn’t go well.’

Jesus, was she calling for a chat about her love life? ‘No?’ she asked without a lot of interest.

‘I just kind of… froze up. I couldn’t seem to be interesting,’ Olivia moaned.

‘What?’ Gina said. ‘But you’re so confident.’

‘I can be confident at work. But something you should understand about me… I’veneverbeen good when it’s personal. I just clam up.’

Gina was surprised, but she didn’t want to dig into it. ‘Look, maybe if you explain that, she might give you another chance,’ Gina told her. She hoped that would be the end of the conversation.

‘Are you crazy? You want me to tell her that I got flustered around her? That’ssounsexy.’

‘It’s my only idea,’ Gina told her flatly.

Olivia sighed heavily down the phone. ‘I don’t think I can do that. I mean, what would I even say?’

Gina was not enjoying being an agony aunt, but she was boxed in. ‘I guess you could say, roughly, that you know the evening wasn’t so great, but that you were feeling a little nervous because you wanted to…’

‘Wait, I need to write this down.’ Gina listened to Olivia rummaging in her bag. ‘Shit, I don’t have a pen. Why do Ineverhave a pen?’ She paused. ‘Could you maybe… text me a draft?’