“Olivia. You know the only reason you walked in here was because you wanted me to tell you to go out with him, so go out with him! What do you have to lose?”

What did she have to lose? So much: her control over her own life, her freedom, her focused concentration on her work, her ability to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted without consulting someone else or worrying about anyone else’s work calendar or schedule or finances or desire to pick up and go to Portugal for a weekend. That’s what she had to lose.

Fine, even though she’d never actually picked up and gone to Portugal for a weekend.

Plus, what if she actually got attached to Max? Despite what he’d said, she didn’t think there was any way it could lead to anything serious. Sure, he said he wanted a girlfriend, but he probably actually only wanted someone to have regular Saturday night plans with whenever he was in Los Angeles, someone who would drop everything and hang out with him at ten at night after events and let him vent about his stressful career and applaud him when he was on national TV, maybe text him a few times throughout the week, and that was it. And that was all well and good, but what if his stupid charm made her fall for him?

Ellie pointed a finger at her.

“Come on. Out with it.”

Olivia sighed, and said what had been in the back of her head all weekend.

“What if I end up actually liking him? Really liking him, I mean. If that happens, I have so much to lose, Ellie! What if he gets me to like him and then he gets to know me better and doesn’t like me anymore, which is what always fucking happens? I didn’t move out to L.A. to get my heart broken.”

Olivia knew she didn’t have to say anything more; Ellie knew all the details of the other times her heart had been broken.

“Do you remember what you said to me when you and That Asshole broke up?” Ellie asked, after a few moments.

Olivia loved how Ellie refused to even use her ex’s name.

“I said a lot of things to you then—which thing do you mean?”

Ellie picked up her coffee cup.

“You said that he never made you feel wanted, and you couldn’t do this again until a man made you feel like he wanted you, all of you. Well?”

She’d completely forgotten that she’d said that. But it was true then. And was still true now.