The past few weeks they’d spent as much time together as possible. He almost always had at least one event to attend while he was in L.A. for the weekend, often more, but other than that, he was with her almost the whole time. They’d been at her place and at his, at the movies and at the beach, and one rainy Saturday night when they were both in bad moods, he’d ditched his previous idea for a date, told her to put on all the rain gear she had, and drove them out to Anaheim for four glorious hours at Disneyland, where the rain cleared up just in time for the fireworks. They got in the car afterward, soaking wet and freezing cold and both smiling from ear to ear.

He’d kept waiting for her to respond in some way to what he’d said that night at the bowling alley, but she hadn’t. Their night at Disneyland had been the perfect time for it—they’d held hands on the roller coasters, they’d walked around with huge smiles on their faces, they’d stood, arms wrapped around each other, during the fireworks, and he’d known the entire time that he was no longer falling in love with her—he’d fallen completely. But she hadn’t said anything, so he didn’t bring it up again.

Did she feel the same way? He had no idea. He tried to be mature about this, to not feel hurt, but he couldn’t help it. Sometimes he just wanted to say “I love you, Olivia! Do you love me?” When he’d shown up at her house wearing a red wig, she laughed so hard she’d cried, and then she looked at him with this tender, loving look in her eyes, and he was sure she was going to say it. She hadn’t, but that look from her gave him hope.

It felt like a physical ache, how much he missed her, how much he would miss her even more in the days to come, how much it would suck to get on that long flight back to California on Friday morning and know he wouldn’t see Olivia at the other side of it.

He tried to shake it off. This wasn’t a big deal. He’d see her the following week; it would be fine.

When Kara left his office, he put his head down to try to read through his stack of briefing papers for the hearings the next day, but he couldn’t concentrate on them. The whole reason he and Lana had broken up, shortly before he announced his run for the Senate, was because he’d been so busy he hadn’t made time for her, and he’d realized he hadn’t cared enough to make time for her. He couldn’t conceive of not making time for Olivia. He pulled his personal phone out of his bag.

Bad news—completely forgot I’m not coming to LA this weekend. I’m in the Bay Area all weekend. A school event, a dinner, and huge fundraiser I can’t believe I forgot about

Wait. He had an idea just as he sent that.

Hey—want to come with me? I could do my events, you could see your family, and in between, we could see each other

He dropped his phone in his pocket and bit his lip. Would she go for this? He hoped so.

A few hours later she texted back.

Hahaha that sounds delightful but you know it’s impossible

As soon as his meeting was over, he texted back.

Why is it impossible? You told me you were overdue for a weekend at home—you can have that! See your sister, go to your old favorite burrito places, and spend the nights with me Plus, otherwise, we won’t get to see each other until next weekend

After only a few minutes, she texted back.

Let me think about it. Talk to you later?

He knew Olivia well enough by now to know she never made a snap decision, but God, that part of her frustrated him. He wanted her to be excited, say yes, say she loved him, and not have to stop and think about it every time.

He would just have to convince her, that was all.

Olivia could not believe she’d let Max talk her into coming to the Bay Area this weekend. She still hadn’t told her family about Max, and there was no way she’d make it through the weekend without telling at least her sister. But as soon as she walked out onto the pavement at the Oakland airport and took a deep breath, she felt her shoulders relax. Sometimes, it was just really fucking good to go home.

She still felt conflicted about her decision to move to L.A. instead of the Bay Area. It made perfect sense business-wise: there were already a lot of firms that did what they did in the Bay Area and fewer in L.A., their handful of anchor clients was mostly based in Southern California, and, most important, Ellie was already settled in L.A. with her family.

But even though she’d lived away from the Bay Area for a long time now, it was still home, in the way New York had never been and L.A. wasn’t yet. Her whole family was here, and even though her mom drove her up the wall half the time, the rest of the time her mom was making her crack up, cooking her favorite foods, or bragging about her. And she always had fun with her sister.

That was probably why she’d finally said yes to Max. After all, Olivia had barely seen her sister since she’d moved back to California.

At first she hadn’t told Alexa about Max because she knew Alexa would have a lot of questions, and Olivia knew she didn’t have the answers. Plus, she didn’t want to get her sister all excited for nothing, and she knew Alexa would be excited about this. But if Olivia was going to stay with Max in his hotel room this weekend, and not in her sister’s guest room, she would definitely have to tell Alexa about him.

Just then, Alexa pulled up in front of her. She jumped out of her car and grinned at Olivia.

“Is that all you brought for the whole weekend?”