Page 49 of Outlier

Why had I thought it was a good idea to ignore a beautiful woman with an obvious crush on me, and tell my friends how annoying I found her? What was wrong with me?

I could have been with Vicky for months at this stage if I hadn’t been such a blind idiot.

“Ollie,” Vicky put in. “Don’t be mean to Mike. I like him, and he doesn’t think I’mempty insideordevoid of personalityanymore.”

Ollie’s eyes flashed. “Wait a minute. How do you know he thought that in the first place?”

“He told me,” Vicky said with a shrug. “He thought I was trying to–”

“Vics, why don’t you go and have a chat with the girls a minute?” I said quickly, cutting her off before she could get me in any more trouble with her brother. “I’ll sort things with Ollie, okay?”

“Come on, Vics,” Lottie said, pulling Vicky away towards Tabitha and Lucy. “You’ve got some explaining to do, you little minx.”

“What the fuck?” Ollie said once the girls were out of earshot in Felix’s office. “I thought you couldn’t stand my sister? What’s changed?”

“I was wrong, okay?” I said for what felt like the hundredth time. “I’m a dickhead, and I was wrong.” I shifted on my feet before clearing my throat. Talking about feelings with my mates was not something I relished. “I really like her, Ols,” I told him in a quiet, sincere voice. “I wouldn’t have started something with her if I didn’t.”

Ollie swiped a hand down his face, glancing over to where Vicky was being interrogated in Felix’s office, then back at me.

“Vics has had a rough go of things. I worry about her, and I know I’ve taken my eye off the ball recently.” He sighed. “Look, I know you saw her meltdown at the gala, but that’s only reallyscratching the surface. A couple of weeks before that she…” he trailed off, and I felt a shiver of unease down my spine.

A couple of weeks before the gala was when I’d ripped into her at her house when I thought she was propositioning me.

Ollie shook his head as if to clear it. “Listen, I love you as a friend, and I trust you, but you’ve got to know what you’re dealing with. Don’t hurt her, okay? She’s vulnerable, Mike.”

“I’m not going to hurt her, Ollie,” I told him, my voice firm. Clearly, I’d hurt her enough already. I needed to find out what happened after I stupidly gutted her at her house.

She must have had some sort of meltdown again. But I didn’t want to push Ollie on it too much there and then, plus, the girls were now heading our way.

Half an hour later, Vicky, Felix, Lucy, Ollie and I were standing outside a Michelin-starred poncy nightmare, which I knew had precisely bugger all on the menu that Vicky could eat. Lottie had gone to collect Hayley from school so wasn’t there to advocate for Vicky as she normally would.

“We’re not going there,” I said, gently pulling Vicky into my side, ignoring Ollie’s death stare.

“It’s okay, dickhead,” Felix said. “They won’t take away your working-class-salt-of-the-earth card just because you ate somewhere with a Michelin star, you know.”

I glared at the inconsiderate bastard. “Choose somewhere else,” I said through gritted teeth.

Holding Vicky against me just strengthened my resolve. There was literally nothing of her; I could feel her ribs, for God’s sake.

“Mike,” Felix snapped. “Stop being an awkward bastard and?—”

“Mike’s right,” Ollie put in.

When I looked over at him, he was watching me and his sister with something close to approval in his expression.

“We’re not eating here.”

“How about that place we found the other day, Vics?” Lucy said in a gentle voice. “The Italian place. Remember?”

“The one that made me the sauce with no onion in it?” Vicky asked.

Lucy smiled. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

Vicky shook her head. “We should make a majority decision. That’s the most logical way.”

“Okay, well, I want the lobster, so let’s go with the original one, that’s—ow!” Felix glared at Ollie, who’d just kicked him in the shin. “Fucking hell, Bucks.”

“We’ll eat at the Italian place.”