The Dropped Acorn was adorable: an outdoor spot beneath the redwoods, set up with little tables in the woods and fairy lights strung overhead. Much to my delight, Oliver and Phoebe were down to feast. Everything on the menu and in the display case looked utterly delectable, and between the three of us we ordered heaping crunchy salads with peanut dressing, medium-rare salmon over forbidden rice, an avocado BLT on homemade sourdough, two orders of french fries, the Fourth-of-July-inspired strawberry shortcake plus the two extra cookies and a lemon tart that Oliver noticed at the eleventh hour and threw in to the order. He paid for everything before Phoebe and I could argue and waved me off when I tried to give him some money.

We took our haul out back, Oliver balancing four plates on his arm and a fifth in his free hand. A few people were staring at him in that way people did when they recognized someone famous, though I also wondered if it was because of how impressive it was that he carried all our plates, or if the stares had to do with how loudly he was moaning now that he’d bitten into a cookie.

“Why didn’t we get two of the double chocolate? You have to try this.…”

“Oliver,” I said.

“Celia,” he said.

“How do you deal with, like… all these people staring at you?”

“What makes you think they’re staring at me and not you?”

“Ha ha. Seriously. How do you deal with this?”

“I’ve been in way worse places,” he said.

“We’re used to actors in the summer,” said Phoebe, breaking off a piece of cookie. “We try to not treat them like zoo animals.”

Oliver nodded in agreement. “Everyone’s actually been pretty good about respecting my privacy. Besides the one person outside my window, and that one person who I caught spying on me from a tree.”

“I wasn’t spying,” I said.

“Knew I could get your goat,” said Oliver with a wink. I had to take a bite of lemon tart to recover. Was he flirting with me?

“It’s really not been so bad,” he insisted. “Except when you, like, walk in on employees of the theater festival watching your sex scenes.”

“I’m sorry,” said Phoebe. “Come again?”

“Okay, I want you to know that I did put that episode on, but it was because of the Kenna/Louisa storyline. I honestly forgot that scene was even a part of it,” I said.

“You forgot that I had sex while on roller skates while on a merry-go-round? Do you have any idea how hard that scene was to film?! And now you’re telling me it was forgettable?!”

“It’s hard to compete with Kenna and Louisa!”

“Ugh, I know. They’re so cute together. That scene where they finally kiss…”

“It was so good,” I said.