“So it’s just okay for me to get slandered?”

“What exactly has Olivia done to you? Except pick up your slack?”

“Right.” Bree laughs. “Precious Olivia can do no wrong. The office sweetheart. Asher’s plaything. A notch in Levi Booker’s bedpost. Tell me, Liv, have you signed that NDA yet?”

I don’t know where any of this is coming from, but I suspect there’s more going on with Bree than she lets on.

“Bree, you should go,” Asher says. “You’re upset with the wrong people.”

“Is that what you think?”

Tears brim her eyes. I’ve never seen Bree cry before. It’s not something that was on my list of sights to see. What kind of person wants to see someone cry? Not me. I’d rather comfort someone.

But I don’t think Bree wants a hug right now.

I’m pretty sure if I put my arms anywhere near her, she’d strangle me.

“Bree—”

“Fuck you, Olivia,” she whispers.

She leaves as quickly as she came. We stand in stunned silence, the chorus of Frosty the Snowman playing in the background. This must be how the tiny people in snow globes feel when they get shaken up.

“Well, I certainly enjoyed watching the Grinch trying to steal Christmas,” Emanuel says. “I’m gonna go find something stronger to put in this hot chocolate.”

Asher watches as he walks away before turning back to look at me.

“You okay?”

“Never better,” I laugh. “I don’t know why she suddenly hates me so much.”

“Jealousy will do that to a person.”

“Why would she be jealous of me?” I ask. “She lives in an apartment in Greenwich Village. Her parents are television producers. She met Oprah. I sleep in a bedroom with no heat, have seventy-five thousand dollars in student loans, and eat cereal for dinner.”

“I don’t think her jealousy stems from material things,” he says. “You’re a good person, Olivia. Money can’t buy that.”

A warm and fuzzy feeling sends tingles through my body. It’s familiar—the same feeling I got when I spent the night with him.

“I thought I was a pain in the ass?”

“You are,” he says. “But that doesn’t make you any less of a good person.”

“I appreciate that.” I smile. I forgot how nice it feels to smile with him. “I don’t think Bree is bad—”

“Uncle Asher!” Chloe slides between us.

“Indoor voice, darling.”

“Valentina’s nurse says she has to go rest, but we can go read her a story,” she says. “Can you help me sound out the big words?”

Asher laughs. “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

“Olivia, you can come too!”

I smile. “I have to go supervise the craft table.”

“Okay,” she says and thrusts a piece of red paper at me. “This is for your mom.”