Chapter Five

Max pulled into Olivia’s driveway, grabbed the flowers from his front seat, and walked up to her door. More flowers were probably too much for a second date, but he’d walked by a flower shop that day and had bought them on impulse. He hoped she liked them.

Olivia swung open the door. God, she looked incredible tonight.

“Hi,” she said.

He smiled at her.

“Hi to you, too.” He held up the flowers. “You didn’t tell me what your favorites were, so I just sort of guessed.”

She took them from him and beckoned him into the house.

“These are beautiful, thank you. Let me put these in some water and we can go.”

He followed her through the hallway and into the big, bright kitchen.

“For someone who doesn’t cook, you got a house with a great kitchen.”

She laughed and took a tall, narrow pitcher out from a cabinet.

“I know—isn’t it a waste? It might make me want to cook more, though. Ellie looked at houses for me, and she loved this one so I grabbed it, but she cooks a lot more than I do.”

He watched her fill the pitcher up with water and arrange the flowers in it. He might have to bring her an actual vase next time.

“I can’t believe you haven’t gotten a car yet,” he said as they got in. “That’s very un-California of you, you know.”

She put her seat belt on and set her bag in her lap. Whenever she didn’t smile at something he said, he was afraid he’d made her mad. Oh God, had he gotten that used to yes-men around him who laughed at everything he said?

“I know,” she said. “But it seems like such an ordeal. There are so many choices. Domestic or foreign? Normal or electric or hybrid? Sedan? Sports car? SUV? And that’s all before I have to do that thing where I go to the dealership and test-drive it and deal with all the sexism from a dealer and negotiate the price or whatever. It’s all exhausting.” She looked over at him, and her face relaxed into a smile. “I know, you’re rolling your eyes at me—you spent all week dealing with national security secrets and actual significant problems for humanity, and I’m sitting here whining about how hard it is to buy a car.”

He put his hand on her shoulder for a second as he turned around to back out of her driveway. He didn’t need to do that; he had a backup camera, he could see perfectly well to get onto the street. But she didn’t seem to mind.

“Trust me, I’m definitely not rolling my eyes at you,” he said. “It makes sense that something in your personal life would fall to the bottom of the to-do list. That’s often how it is for me, anyway.” Though the idea of taking that much time and energy to make a decision like that was foreign to him. He would have just stopped at the first dealership he saw and bought whatever looked good to him. That was exactly what he’d done the last time he’d bought a car, as a matter of fact.

He decided to change the subject, since the car thing seemed to stress her out.

“Speaking of work, how’s the new firm going?”

She moved her bag to the floor, then back to her lap.

“Well, really well. Lots of meetings with potential clients, and we’ve gotten some work from one of the clients I used to work with in my old firm, so that’s great. And Ellie and I have done a ton of networking this week, so we hope that’ll bear fruit soon.”

He turned to smile at her as they waited for a light.

“Oh, that’s great news. I know a few people who have started their own firms, and the beginning is always stressful, but it seems like you’ve hit the ground running.”

She nodded.

“It seems like it. And I had a really great time volunteering at the community center’s food pantry this week. Well, it’s both a food pantry and community kitchen; do you know their model?”

He shook his head.

“I don’t. Tell me about it.”

She spent the rest of their drive to the movie theater doing just that, and he was captivated the whole time. Olivia seemed to really care about the place and the work they did, after only one time there. It made him like her even more, this enthusiasm and joy for a project that was built to help people who needed it.

“Speaking of,” she said. “I saw you on TV the other night, talking about the need to improve the food stamps program. I liked what you said.”

He tried not to smile too big.

“You saw that? Thanks for watching.”

That had been some good timing on his part. It probably helped that he actually cared about that issue.

“Do you like that part of the job? The TV, and all of that? It’s one thing to mess up in front of a judge, and another to mess up live, in front of millions of people.”

He laughed.

“Thanks, now I’m sure I’ll have that going through my head the next time I’m on TV. But actually, yeah, I do like that part, and it helps that I’m good at it.” He winced. “Does that sound arrogant? I don’t mean it that way . . . well, only partly, I guess. But in the past year or so I’ve had to be honest with myself about what I’m good at in this job and what I’m not good at—I’m good at TV spots, speeches, and talking to constituents, and it helps that I enjoy doing all of that.”