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“I was just calling to check in on you,” he said to me, something off in his tone of voice. “Are you about to go to the premiere?”
“Yeah…just waiting on my driver.”
“God, it’s insane that he hires drivers for all his employees. You’d think you were all a bunch of celebrities.”
“Excessive, but whatever.” I forced a laugh that didn’t sound quite right, even to me.
“Are you excited? Should be a bunch of big names there.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I’m totally regretting this dress though. I think my boobs might fall out at any moment.”
“TMI, but okay, thanks for letting me know.” He grimaced on the other end of the line. “Are you going with anyone?”
Ah, there it is. The reason for the call. He knows more than he let on.
I decided to play it cool. “Um, no. I don’t think so. Zena is going with her husband. That leaves me to fly solo.”
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing, you know.”
“I never said that it was.”
“Right…” His voice trailed off. “So, Katie knows that you’re pregnant now. I just wanted to let you know that. She got pissed at me when she found out I had been keeping it a secret. Women are crazy.”
I laughed, thinking of poor Katie’s reaction, but then my voice dropped off. “Does she know who the father is?”
“Yeah, she knows who the father is.” He paused. “And so does the father, apparently.”
“I know.”
“I know that you know.”
“This is why you’re calling me, isn’t it? To give me some lecture about how it’s all my fault—and there’re consequences to my actions—and you told me so.”
“Well, those are relevant, but no.” He let out a sigh. “I was actually just calling to make sure that you’re okay.”
“You know, I would’ve stayed if he’d asked me to… But I’m always okay. And I’ll be okay when I get to LA,” I croaked.
“No, you don’t have to be okay, Olivia. It’s okay to be heartbroken and sad about it. I can only imagine what you’re going through right now, and I know that Eli was really pissed off.”
“Yeah, but I deserved every bit of his anger.”
“Come on, don’t beat yourself up like that. You had no idea how he was going to react, and in your defense, he was a dick to you—he knows that.”
“Yeah, but that didn’t stop him from tearing me apart. He told me how much he loved me, and that he wanted me to stay. He even asked me to go with him tonight as his date—like, public-view kind of date. Then I fucked it all up. He saw the picture before I had a chance to tell him myself. This is all on me.”
“Listen, I’m glad that you’re taking responsibility for your actions, but he needs to do the same for his. He put you through some shit with making everything so secretive—and then also being a jerk to you. You deserve the best, and after everything you’ve been through when it comes to relationships, I don’t want anything less for you. If Eli can’t step up and be that guy, then he’s just not the right one.”
I blinked back the tears, touched by my brother’s words. “That’s literally the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Okay, don’t get fucking sappy on me or something. I’m just trying to get you hyped up to go to this premiere and kick ass.”
“Right, gotcha.” I laughed softly. “Did he say anything about what he wanted to do with the baby?”
“Um, yeah, we talked about—”
“Oh, shit,” I cut him off. “My ride is here.” In the time that I’d been on the phone, I had missed the black limo pulling up to the curb outside. “I need to go. I’ll call you after.”
“Okay, have a good time.” His voice was brighter than I expected, sounding like a mom sending her kid off to prom.
