Page 12 of The Hardest Hit

“Right. When the police showed up to take me home. And then I couldn’t exactly ask in front of them.”

Alia laughed at her. “Slut,” she said.

“Shut your pie hole,” said Olivia. “He was great, and even if I never saw him again, I will not apologize for having fantastic, not to mention extremely safe and consensual sex.”

“Sorry, I was teasing! I’m happy for you! What are you going to do?You know where he lives. Can you write him a note and drop it in his mailbox or something?”

“I thought about it, but what if he doesn’t call?I was thinking maybe...well, we kind of made a joke about the same time next Tuesday, so I thought I’d go over next Tuesday.”

“Whew.” Alia blew out a lungful of air. “Gutsy. Could go horribly if he’s with someone else or not home or something. Or it could go great and he could swoop you off to his bed for a fuck fest of epic proportions.”

“I’m hoping for option two. If he’s not home then I’ll leave a note and if someone is over then I will say I dropped by to give him a bottle of wine as a thank you and then I will leave and go home and cry.”

Alia paused. “That is actually a good plan.”

“It should be,” said Olivia. “I spent the entire first half of my day thinking about it instead of working.”

“Sounds right,” said Alia, who had previously expressed the theory that only thirty-five percent of any workday should be spent working. Olivia laughed and they spent the rest of lunch talking about Alia’s aunt and her chronic social media over-sharing.

Olivia returned to her desk and was about to settle down to actual work when her phone rang.

“Hey Sofs,” said Olivia, picking up her younger sister’s call.

“Hi Liv,” said Sofia, her tone drooping and sad. “I don’t want to bother you. I’d just thought I’d call and see how you were doing.”

Olivia felt the old, gut, clenching anger.

“I’m fine,” said Olivia.

“Well, you know, it’s OK not to be. This is a rough time of year for all of us and you’re so far away from home. You don’t have to keep up a front.”

“Nope, totally fine,” said Olivia. “I’m just out here in the city, sleeping with strangers and researching the evolutionary glory of squid. Keepin’ it real. Sinner for life! Peace out!”

“Oh, Liv,” sighed her sister in exasperation. “Why do you have to make a joke out of everything?”

“Why do you have to sound like a weepy church lady? Why can’t you just call and chat?”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” said Sofia.

“Well then, my apologies. How are you doing?”

“Well, I’m fine,” said Sofia.

“Did you do anything fun for Halloween?”

“I helped out at the church haunted house.”

“That was always fun when we were kids. They still doing the hard-boiled egg eyeballs?”

Sofia laughed. “Yes. But Mrs. Button the butcher’s wife brought in a cow brain. I was not all right with that much amount of realism, but the kids loved it. And mostly, I had a good time except for Jimmy Green.”

“What did that dipwad do?” asked Olivia.

“Oh, he keeps pestering me,” said Sofia with a sigh, and Olivia frowned. Pestering was code for groping when no one was looking. “I’ve complained to the pastor, but he just said I shouldn’t be so cute.”

“That’s unacceptable,” said Olivia. “It’s sexual harassment and it needs to stop.”

“You’ve been up north too long. I’ll just have a word with Grams and she’ll talk to his wife. It’s just annoying is all.”