Collide (Collide, #1)(18)

Olivia tossed her purse on the couch. “I left the damn thing here.” She walked into the kitchen and yanked it from the counter. Looking over to Emily, she beamed a smile. “You’re looking hot. What’s the special occasion?”

“Mine and Dillon’s nine-month anniversary. He’ll be here soon,” Emily hastily replied, walking over to her. “You were sleeping when I got home last night. You have no idea who I met.”

“Yeah, I was wondering why you were gone when I returned.” Olivia stabbed her passcode into her phone. “Okay, let me guess. Uh, Brad Pitt?”

“I’m being serious, Liv. You’ll never guess, so don’t even try.”

“No! I want one more shot.” Olivia paused. “Hmm, President Obama?”

“This is going nowhere real fast.” Emily laughed and sank into a seat at the table. “I met the one and only…wait for it…wait for it…Gavin Blake.”

“Totally hot, right?” Olivia asked, bringing her phone up to her ear.

Emily smiled. “Yes, completely.”

“Now admit my description of the walking god was on point, since, if I recall correctly,” Olivia tapped her finger on her chin, “when I gave you the prior mentioned walking-gods description, you begged to differ that any man could be that delicious looking.”

“Yes, you pretty much hit the nail on the head,” Emily laughed. “But I’m more than sure you want to hear the details of our prior meetings.”

Olivia quickly slid her phone shut. “Prior?” She crossed the room in two strides and lounged into a seat. “You have my attention. Spill it!”

Leaning her elbows on the table, Emily tented her fingers under her chin. “Let me see…oh, yes…he’s the man I had the encounter with at the Chrysler Building while delivering the food that one day.”

Olivia’s brown eyes widened, but she remained silent, unwavering shock oozing from her face.

Emily dropped her tone huskily. “Yes, and he’s the little stalker who came to my job, leaving me his name and number—oh, and a pretty decent tip, too.”

“Shut the front door, woman! Mr. Tall, Dark, and Fuckable Handsome is Gavin?” Olivia squealed.

Emily nodded and laughed.

“Are you messing with me, Em? Cause if so, that’s seriously f*cked up.”

Leaning back in her chair, Emily crossed her arms, a smirk tipping her lips. “I swear.”

“You should just go out with him,” Olivia shrugged. “Obviously, he’s made an impression on you, and you’ve made one on him.”

Her words, so seemingly casual, threw Emily off. “What do you mean?”

“You have this dopey, dreamy look on your face. I know you’re imagining jumping his bones.”

“You’re joking, right?”

Olivia rose to her feet and made her way to her bedroom. “Are you asking if I’m joking about the dopey look on your face, going out with him, or jumping his bones?”

“Olivia, you know what I’m talking about.”

“You’re acting surprised that I would say any of those things, Em.”

Shocked, Emily swiftly followed behind her. She leaned against Olivia’s door and placed her hands on her hips. “Are you really serious about what you just said?”

Olivia peeled off her clothes, strolled to the bathroom, and stepped into the shower. “It’s no secret how I feel about Douchebag.”

“Ah, that’s right. Because how you feel about my boyfriend is what matters here,” Emily interposed sardonically as she walked into the bathroom.

“Why not give Gavin a try?” Olivia asked coolly.

Emily ticked the reasons off on her fingers. “One, I love Dillon. Two, I love Dillon. And three, guess what? I love Dillon.”

Olivia mocked Tina Turner in her finest sultry singing voice. “What’s love got to do with it?” She laughed.

“You’ve completely lost it, Liv. And, even if I weren’t with Dillon, you’ve killed the ever-wanting-to-entertain-Gavin-Blake opinion from my mind.”

Olivia poked her head out from behind the shower curtain. “How did I kill your opinion of him?”

“Let me see…he’s a ladies’ man is the first thing that enters my memory.” Drawing in a deep breath, Emily paused in thought. “Oh, and you don’t think he’s capable of staying with any woman longer than a week is another. Shall I go on?”

Olivia shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. Emily handed her a towel. “Right, that was after his fiancée, Gina, broke up with him when he started acting like that. Before the infamous split, he was a total package.” Olivia wrapped the towel around her body.

“He was engaged?”

“Yeppers,” Olivia piped back, sliding into a pair of black shorts and a white tank top. “They dated for almost five years, then one day he came home, and she was gone. Packed her shit and moved out of his apartment while he was at work.”

Confusion creased Emily’s brows. “Why?”

“To tell you the truth, he never told my brother exactly what happened. And when I’ve asked him about it, he doesn’t want to discuss it, so I have no idea,” she replied, pulling her makeup bag out of the drawer. “But you saw him. That man’s been blessed by the proverbial f*cking-hot-as-sin gene. He’s worth millions and—really, I’m not kidding—he’s a decent guy.”