Party of Two (The Wedding Date #5)(66)

“Not for a few weeks, their general counsel is going on vacation, so we have some time. They’re emailing us the details now.”

Olivia sat down at her desk and rubbed her hands together. This was the big chance they’d been waiting for. Who cared about a handful of phone calls from reporters now?

But . . .

“Ellie, I know we talked about this when I was deciding whether to go public with Max, but . . . what if this whole thing affects our firm? What if people think I’m not serious about my job, or that my focus is on my relationship, not my career, and don’t want to hire us?” She put her head in her hands. “I made that decision too fast; I shouldn’t have done it.”

Ellie dropped into the chair across from her.

“Liv, honey. Part of the reason we started this firm in the first place was that we were tired of caring what a bunch of assholes think about us, remember? The assholes will think what they think, but we don’t want to work for assholes anyway—better to have something like this to show us who they are. And plus . . .” Ellie winked at her. “Did you ever think this might be excellent publicity for us?”

She hadn’t thought of that, as a matter of fact.

“But, El—it feels gross, somehow, for us to get publicity and business because of who my boyfriend is.”

She’d always done everything, gotten everything, because of her own hard work and on her own merits. It had never occurred to her to try to use her relationship with Max for her own gain.

“Do you think two guys who started their own law firm wouldn’t use their rich daddy’s name and connections to get ahead?” Ellie asked. “No, of course not. We all have to use anything that’s to our advantage in this life. Of course you didn’t go public with Max to get us business, you and I both know that. But if some news stories about your new boyfriend give us the opportunity to make sure people know that we’re damn good lawyers, it’s just our way of making lemonade out of the lemons that are the dozens of phone calls we’ve already gotten this morning.” She grinned. “At least one of the stories already out about you calls you an accomplished Harvard-educated lawyer—just the kind of branding we like to see.”

Ellie, as usual, had an excellent point.

“Make sure you answer the phone ‘Monroe and Spencer!’ ” Olivia said.

Ellie grinned.

“Oh, I have been.”

Wes looked up from his phone as Max walked into their apartment.

“If it isn’t ‘now-taken Max Powell’ as I live and breathe!”

Max dropped his briefcase on the floor.

“Shut the fuck up, will you?” He really wasn’t in the mood to joke about this.

Wes laughed at him.

“These headlines are cracking me up. ‘Max Powell, off the market!’ ‘Has the bachelor senator given out a rose?’ ‘Just who is the woman who won Max Powell’s heart?’ ” Wes laughed again. “Wait, here’s another one— ”

Max stopped him before he could go on.

“I don’t want to hear it, okay? I’ve heard enough of them already today.”

Even though Kara had told him she thought people would be interested, he didn’t expect this level of interest in his dating life at all. He’d expected maybe one or two articles about it, but nothing like the volume that there’d been only that day. All of it had been mostly positive, which his staff was happy about, but that didn’t really matter to him—what mattered was that Olivia didn’t seem happy about it at all.

Wes turned to look at him as he went into the kitchen.

“What’s wrong? You knew this was going to happen, right?”

Max got a beer out of the fridge and shook his head.

“I knew something would happen, I just didn’t realize people would care this much.” He dropped down on the couch next to Wes. “I don’t care about the headlines about me, whatever. But when they talk about Olivia like that, it makes me so angry. Especially since I told her it wouldn’t really be a big deal, and . . . now I feel like a jackass.”

Wes’s eyes widened.

“You told her it wouldn’t . . . Okay, well, in the grand scheme of things, you’re right. This should all blow over in a few days. Maybe even tomorrow, depending on what else happens in politics tonight. Did you tell her that?”

Max shook his head.

“I haven’t even talked to her—she talked to Kara earlier, but we’ve been playing phone tag all day—I called her as soon as I could, but it went to voice mail, then when she called back, I was in the middle of a TV hit. I just tried her again, and nothing.”

He’d texted her an apology as soon as Kara had told him what was going on, and Olivia had said it was okay, she was dealing with it. But he hated that he’d given her something to deal with.

Wes picked up the remote.

“Don’t stress. You’ll make it up to her this weekend.”

Max shrugged.

“I hope so.”

He could tell Wes felt bad for him, though, because he turned the TV from MSNBC to baseball. He even clicked past soccer to land on it.

After thirty minutes of watching soccer with his phone in his hand, Olivia finally called. He jumped up and went into his bedroom before answering.

“Hey. I hate this, I’m so sorry,” he said when he picked up.