“That’s all too accurate,” she said.

They were silent for a while as they both dove into their burgers and fries, but he didn’t feel the need to rush to fill the silence. The table was just small enough that they kept accidentally touching each other under the table … though, after a while, it stopped being an accident, at least on his end.

She was gorgeous, she was smart, and she was funny, but more than anything, she was interesting. He felt like he could talk to her for hours. And holy shit did he want to kiss her.

“You were correct,” Olivia said as she put down her burger. “The burgers are great, but the fries need some work.”

It wasn’t that Max would have liked her less if she hadn’t agreed with his french fry opinions, but … well, he was just very relieved she did.

“It’s so hard to find a place that has a good burger-and-fry combination—one is almost always significantly better than the other one, and I don’t understand why.”

Olivia picked up her drink.

“Put that on your platform.”

They grinned at each other.

“Is your family still in Northern California?” he asked.

“Yeah, my parents and my sister,” she said. “They’re thrilled I’m in L.A. now, let me tell you. You and my sister would get along well—she’s also obsessed with both food and politics. She emailed me a long list of all of her favorite places in L.A. before I got here, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to get to them.”

She had a tiny dimple in one cheek that only appeared when she smiled really big. How unexpected and charming.

“Now I want to see your sister’s list,” he said. “That must be weird for you, to be in a new place and needing advice from other people to figure out daily life, after being in New York for so long. I imagine you built a whole life there, with friends and work and everything else.” He hated the sad look that came over her face, so he hastened to give her an out. “Sorry if that’s too personal, we don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to—I was just thinking about it because of how I sometimes feel in DC.”

She shook her head.