Page 26 of Lucy Loves Him Not
“So, thereisbread?” Mom checked.
“Like three different loaves.” I laughed from the pantry closet.
“I’ve been experimenting with different breads, too,” Olivia said.
“How is my palette more refined than my 29-year-old sister?” Gracie asked, holding up a package of ramen noodles, one of the only other things we’d found in her pantry.
But that night we learned Olivia really had perfected the art of the grilled cheese. Olivia made us a stack of them for dinner with a simple tomato soup Mom threw together and it was delectable.
“Is Annoying Adam still annoying?” Gracie asked as she tore her gooey sandwich apart.
“It turns out Annoying Adam is Very Cute Adam.” Olivia wiggled her eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, come on. He’s got that swoopy, dark hair and those baby blues. Plus, he’s built like a swimmer.He’s Lucy’s exact type.” Olivia was alarmingly effusive. “Just because you don’t trust him doesn’t mean you’re not attracted to him.”
“You met him?” Gracie asked Olivia with jealousy.
“Yeah, at the coffee shop. I crashed their meeting,” Olivia said proudly.
“Liv said he seemed very apologetic during your coffee date,” Mom said as she dipped a spoon into her bowl of soup.
“Coffeemeeting,” I corrected. “He did apologize.”
“Is that right?” Gracie asked. “Was it a real apology, or one of those ‘sorry youthoughtI was being rude’ apologies?”
“When I saw him, he seemed as if he genuinely felt bad. He was surprisingly earnest, really telling me he didn’t want the festival to lose its heart or something like that,” Olivia said as she dipped a corner of her sandwich into her bowl of soup.
“His apologyseemedsincere that day at the coffee shop. And today we actually got along better than I’d expected. He says a lot of encouraging things at work. But those are just words. He has also said some not-nice things before, too, you know.”
“You have a point,” my mom said.
“Like how do you know which is the real Adam?” I flung my hands into the air in exasperation.
“Couldn’tbothbe the real Adam? We’re all human. We’re all a mix. Sometimes we say the wrong things. Sometimes we learn a lesson. Sometimes we’re wrong. Then other times we’re encouraging, kind, and trying to do better,” Olivia said in her Professor Rhodes’ voice. “Simply different sides of the same guy.”
“Hey, I know he might be wondering the same thing about me.When will this girl storm into my office again?” I said. Because, Lord knows I’d shown Adam a few different sides to me.
“I think Liv makes a good point, though. Adam might not bejustthe guy from the phone call orjustthe encouraging guy from today. He’s probably both and more,” Mom said, beginning to gather our bowls and plates.
“You’re more than the girl who yelled at him on the phone—” Gracie started.
“I didn’t yell at him on the phone!” I clarified.
“I’m just saying you’re more than that. You’re more than the girl who wants to run the summer festival. There’s so much more to you. He’s probably already seeing that. And you’ll probably see there’s more to him, too. You two might even become friends!” Gracie was dreaming now.
“Work friends, at least.” Olivia cackled then added with a wistful tone. “Work friends trying desperately to ignore their attraction to each other.”
“We’ll see,” I said to Grace, pointedly ignoring Olivia’s comments. “Right now, we’re working on talking without fighting or as he says, ‘snippy comments.’”
“Snippy comments?” my mom asked from her spot placing our dishes in the sink.
“Adam says I make lots of snippy comments,” I explained.
“So, you’re showing him a particular side, huh?” Gracie poked me in the side. “You’re snippy with him?”
“Listen, I get that we’re all human with different sides, but all his sides seem toget under my skin.” I buried my head in my hands.
