Page 87 of Forty, Flirty & Fake-ly Yours

"I'm not scared. I'm being sensible."

"Says the woman who just inhaled half a batch of raw cookie dough."

"It was for scientific purposes," I protest. "Testing sugar ratios."

"Now you really sound like him."

Through the windows, Seattle's eternal grey seems to thicken.

My phone lights up with another message. This time from Alex:Whatever's going on with you and Gray, please don't let it ruin tomorrow. Mackenzie really wants you two knuckleheads both there.

"See?" I show Olivia the text. "I have to go. For Mac."

"For Mac," she echoes. "Not because you're hoping to fix things?"

"Nothing to fix." I reach for more cookie dough, but she moves it away. "It was never supposed to be…this, anyway. It was just supposed to be business."

"Business doesn't usually involve rooftop make-out sessions."

"How did you?—"

"Douglas Franklin's group chat with Connor's grandmother is very detailed."

Before I can process that particular horror, Bianca calls from the living room: "Mom! Can we show Aunt Roz our new song? It's called 'Love Cannot Be Decoded!'"

"It has a dance break!" Mia adds. "With robot noises!"

"Sure," Olivia calls back, then turns to me. "Fair warning: there's a lot of binary code-related heartbreak metaphors."

"Of course there is."

As if on cue, electronic beats fill the house, followed by Bianca's surprisingly on-point lyrics about system malfunctions and emotional processing errors.

"The firewall's down, the heart drive's full!" Mia spins in circles. "Delete, delete, but feelings rule!"

"Your children are way too invested in my love life," I tell Olivia.

"Says the woman who's planning to attend her fake boyfriend's best friend's engagement party after their very real breakup."

"It's not a breakup if we were never really together."

"Right." She starts gathering ingredients for what appears to be a third batch of cookies. "Just like Derek and I weren't really in love when you locked us in that supply closet."

"That was different! You two just needed a push."

"And you don't?"

My phone buzzes one final time. Grayson:Car service arranged for tomorrow. We’re good to go

"You know what your problem is?" Olivia asks, reading over my shoulder.

"Besides you being all up in my beeswax?”

“Besides that. You and Gray are both so busy trying to protect yourselves that you're missing the obvious."

"Which is?"

"That sometimes the best matches are the ones that don't make sense on paper." She hands me more cookie dough. "Like a former lawyer-turned-matchmaking chief of staff who falls for a barista-turned-doctor. Or a tech CEO who needs a matchmaker to teach him about real connection."

---