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Looking back, it probably hadn’t been the best idea.
Olive had absolutely no idea where she was.
She’d been wandering around for a good ten minutes now, and she was fairly certain she was even farther away from her actual destination than she’d been before. God, where had she ended up?
At first, she’d thought she had a general idea of where she was going. Somehow, though, the neighborhood had started to feel more and more unfamiliar. She’d initially convinced herself that she still had a plan. Now, however, she was beginning to suspect that every step was taking her farther away from where she was supposed to be.
She stopped and looked around.
The street was almost deserted.
Eventually, she approached a passerby and asked which neighborhood she was in. The answer wasn’t particularly reassuring. In fact, Olive had never been here before—not to mention on foot.
She’d gone into the city with Anh, but they’d eventually split up because Anh had a date with Jeremy. Olive had assured her that she could easily make it home on her own. After all, she could always call an Uber. That was proving a little difficult now, though, considering she didn’t have any money on her.
She’d only wanted to explore the area a little. So she’d gone for a walk. Apparently, she’d gone a little too far, considering she now had absolutely no idea where she’d ended up. She barely knew this part of the city.
She cursed herself for not simply turning around back when she’d still had some idea of where she was.
Especially since it was starting to get dark. The thought of being out here alone after dark was making her increasingly nervous.
With slightly trembling hands, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it.
No signal.
Of course.
She held it a little higher, as if that might somehow make a difference. For a brief moment, a single bar appeared on the screen.
Then it disappeared again.
“Great.”
Olive opened her maps app. The little dot moved agonizingly slowly across the screen, seemingly with absolutely no intention of telling her where the hell she was.
“Come on,” she muttered.
After two minutes of waiting in vain, she finally gave up.
She took a deep breath.
Okay.
This wasn’t that bad.
Probably.
A woman was walking down the street toward her. Olive waited until she was closer before approaching her.
“Excuse me.”
The woman stopped and smiled politely.
“Can I help you?”
“Um, yes. Do you happen to know where we are?”
The woman’s smile faltered slightly.
Olive waited.
“Oh, of course.” She named the neighborhood, and Olive’s smile disappeared.
“Oh.”
The woman looked at her questioningly.
“Is everything all right?”
“No. I mean… yes. Everything’s fine.”
Olive tried to manage a convincing smile.
“I just thought we were closer to…” She trailed off. “Never mind. Thank you.”
She hesitated for a moment.
“Do you happen to know how I can get back toward downtown?”
The woman gave her rough directions, but also recommended that she call an Uber or a taxi instead. It was getting late, and walking all the way back would take a while.
Olive nodded several times.
“Right. Thank you. Really.”
She started walking again, doing her best to follow the directions she’d been given.
After about ten minutes, she stopped once more.
No.
This couldn’t be right.
She was much farther out than she’d thought.
Olive swallowed.
Finally, she pulled out her phone again and decided to call Malcolm. Maybe he could come pick her up.
“Olive?”
His voice sounded muffled, with several other voices audible in the background.
“Hey.”
Olive frowned.
Then she remembered.
The conference.
Of course Malcolm was at a conference today.
“Olive, I’m right in the middle of—”
“It’s okay.”
She tried to sound as casual as possible.
“I just wanted to ask if you happened to know where—”
“I really have to go. I’m sorry. Just text me, okay?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
The call ended.
Olive stood there with her phone still pressed to her ear.
Great.
She slowly lowered her hand.
Who else could she possibly call to come get her at this hour?
Her eyes moved down her contact list.
Then her thumb stopped over a name.
Adam.
A few weeks ago, she never would have imagined simply calling him like this. But by now, they weren’t just fake-dating partners anymore. They were friends, too. Right?
She felt comfortable around him. She always enjoyed spending time with him, and surely there was nothing wrong with asking a friend for a favor.
Besides, she was fairly certain Adam wouldn’t just turn her down.
Right?
She hesitated for a moment.
Then she pressed the call button.
She listened to the ringing, feeling increasingly nervous.
He picked up after the second ring.
“Olive?”
His voice came through the speaker, slightly muffled.
“Um, hi. How are you?”
There was a brief silence.
“Is everything okay, Olive? You sound tense.”
“Nothing.”
“Olive.”
She let out a quiet breath.
“Okay. I might have a little problem.”
Somewhere in the distance, she heard a group of people shouting and laughing loudly. She flinched involuntarily.
“Where are you?”
His voice had changed. He suddenly sounded more alert, more attentive.
Olive could practically picture the frown on his face.
“Um, yeah. Well… that’s kind of the problem.”
She laughed nervously.
“What do you mean?”
She hesitated.
“I think I’m lost.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Are you alone?”
Adam sounded considerably more concerned now.
“Yeah.”
Olive swallowed.
“I was supposed to go into the city with Anh, but we split up because she spontaneously made plans with Jeremy. And, well… I wanted to make my own way back, but I thought I’d walk around a little first. It was nice here.”
She paused briefly.
“Until now.”
At that moment, she heard a loud clatter. A second later, a car door slammed somewhere nearby.
“Adam?”
An engine started.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“Adam, you don’t have to—”
“Olive.”
His tone was calm but firm.
“You’re alone in a neighborhood you can’t even identify, and it’s getting dark.”
He paused briefly.
“That’s not safe.”
Olive wanted to argue, but she couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Can you send me your location?”
“I don’t know if I can. I barely have any signal.”
“Try.”
She opened her maps app again. The little dot moved agonizingly slowly.
“Hang on…”
She waited.
“No…”
She stared at the screen.
“No signal.”
“Try anyway.”
Several seconds later, a notification finally appeared confirming that her location had been sent.
“Got it.”
Adam let out an audible breath.
“God, Olive. Where are you?”
His voice sounded almost irritated, but there was something else beneath it. Something Olive knew well enough by now.
Concern.
“I’ll be there in about thirty minutes,” he said. “Stay where you are so I can find you if the signal drops again.”
Olive swallowed.
“Yeah. Okay.”
Thirty minutes wasn’t actually that long.
But she was fairly certain it would be completely dark by then.
She looked nervously down the street.
The surroundings suddenly seemed completely different from how they’d looked an hour ago.
Darker.
Quieter.
Unfamiliar.
“Adam?”
Her voice trembled slightly.
“Everything okay, Olive?”
“I…”
She trailed off.
“Hey.” He immediately sounded tense again. “What’s wrong?”
Olive pressed her lips together.
“Can you stay on the phone while you drive?”
She sounded a little embarrassed.
“You don’t have to, obviously. It’s fine if you can’t, but—”
“Yes.”
His voice softened.
“It’s okay. I’ll stay on.”
Olive let out a relieved breath.
She sat down on a bench beneath a streetlight and placed her phone beside her.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
A small smile crept onto her face.
“Maybe for coming to get me, even though you probably had much better things to do tonight.”
“It’s okay, Olive.” He cleared his throat. “It’s no problem. I wasn’t doing anything important anyway. Maybe just watching TV.”
“Oh, what were you going to watch? A movie? I love movie nights. Especially the ones with lots of popcorn, chocolate, and all kinds of other good snacks.”
She paused as she remembered that Adam tended to deprive himself of pretty much everything good in life.
“Or, in your case, maybe broccoli? Or just raw vegetables? I don’t know.”
She heard him snort and could easily picture the dark look on his face.
“No, smartass. Like I said, there’s a middle ground between eating nothing but sugar and eating raw broccoli.”
“Although veggie sticks aren’t that bad,” he added.
Olive rolled her eyes and giggled.
“I’m sorry, Adam, but I don’t think we could ever have a movie night together if those were the snacks. I’m out.”
“That would be a real shame.” He paused. “I suppose I could make an exception. I don’t actually mind popcorn.”
Olive perked up.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Salty popcorn is fine.”
Olive groaned.
“You cannot be serious, Adam,” she complained. “Who eats salty popcorn?”
Still, she couldn’t help smiling.
“It doesn’t taste disgustingly sweet, for one thing,” he explained.
Olive smiled, able to picture him so clearly that, for a moment, she almost forgot where she was.
Until she heard voices.
She fell silent.
A few people were walking down the street. She couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, but they were loud.
She slowly got to her feet.
“Adam,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“There are… some people here.”
“Where?”
Olive looked around, and her anxiety suddenly returned.
“Across the street.”
She walked a little farther up the road.
“I’m going to move a bit.”
“Don’t go too far from the streetlight.”
“Okay.”
She tried to keep her voice steady.
“I think I’m at an intersection or something. There’s a park nearby.”
“Can you describe what you see?”
Olive looked around.
“A big road. The park is on my right. And across the street, there’s…” She squinted. “Some old building.”
There was a brief silence on the other end.
“Okay.” Adam sounded focused. “I think I know where you are.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Olive let out a relieved breath.
“Then everything’s—”
Her phone flickered.
The screen went black.
Olive stared at it.
“Adam?”
No answer.
“Adam?”
She pressed the power button.
Nothing.
“No.”
Her heart began to race.
She stared at the black screen and tried again.
Nothing.
Of course.
Of course her phone had to die right now.
Olive slipped it back into her jacket pocket, pulled her jacket tighter around herself, and desperately tried not to panic.
It was completely dark now.
Thankfully, the people from earlier had disappeared, but somehow that only made the whole street feel even emptier.
Olive looked down the road.
Adam knew where she was.
He would come.
He’d said he was coming.
All she had to do was wait.
The next ten minutes, however, felt considerably longer than that.
She kept looking down the street, hoping each time to spot Adam’s black Prius in the distance.
Cars passed by.
None of them were his.
What if he couldn’t find her?
What if he was looking in the wrong place?
Or drove right past her?
Olive folded her arms across her chest.
No.
He would find her.
But what if he didn’t?
What if she had to spend the entire night out here?
Her breathing grew faster.
“Okay,” she murmured quietly to herself. “Just stay calm.”
She stared at the paving stones beneath her feet.
Inhale.
Exhale.
This was ridiculous.
Adam was on his way. He knew where she was.
And yet, she could feel her hands beginning to tremble.
A single tear slipped down her cheek.
Great.
Olive quickly wiped it away.
More cars passed, and she waited tensely, desperately hoping Adam had been right and would be there soon.
Then a car pulled over.
At first, she barely noticed. It wasn’t until a door opened and someone hurried toward her that she lifted her head.
“Olive—”
Adam didn’t get any further.
Olive was already running toward him. She threw herself into his arms and clung to him as though she were afraid he might disappear again.
For a brief moment, he froze in surprise. But before she could wonder whether she’d been a little too forward, Adam’s arms closed firmly around her.
He pulled her against his chest, one hand settling on her back, the other cradling the back of her head.
“Hey.”
His voice was calm.
“Hey, Olive. It’s okay.”
It didn’t help much, though.
Olive only started crying harder, burying her face against his chest.
She was trembling.
Adam slowly rubbed her back.
“I’m here.”
Olive tried to say something, but all that came out was a strangled little sound.
She felt his nose brush against her hair as he held her protectively in his arms.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he murmured softly against her hair.
She almost didn’t hear him.
Olive closed her eyes and tried to focus on his voice and the warmth of his body. It was honestly astonishing how safe she felt around him, considering they hadn’t known each other for all that long.
“I know,” she finally managed through her tears.
After a while, she began to calm down.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Adam loosened his hold slightly, but didn’t let her go just yet.
“Hey. No.”
He gently wiped a tear from her cheek.
“You don’t have to apologize.”
His eyes stayed on her face.
Then he frowned.
“You’re shaking.”
Olive glanced down at herself.
“I’m cold.”
“I figured.”
A small, worried smile crossed his face.
“Come on. Let’s get you home.”
He guided her to the car and opened the passenger door.
Olive sank into the seat without protest.
The warmth inside the car enveloped her almost immediately. She leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment.
Adam got in on the other side and started the engine.
The car pulled away quietly, and Olive watched the view outside her window. The streets passed by in a blur of darkness.
She was exhausted. They weren’t talking, but the silence was comfortable. After everything that had just happened, she didn’t have to think about what to say, and Adam didn’t seem to expect her to.
A few minutes later, Olive found herself yawning.
“Tired?” Adam asked.
“No.”
He glanced at her briefly.
“Of course not.”
A small smile appeared on his face.
Olive rested her head against the headrest again.
A little while later, her eyes drifted shut.
“Olive.”
His voice slowly brought her back to consciousness.
She blinked sleepily.
Adam was looking at her, his expression warm and gentle.
Only then did Olive realize the car had stopped.
She looked out the window.
Her apartment building stood in front of her.
“Oh.”
She sat up a little straighter.
“Um… sorry I fell asleep.”
“You don’t have to apologize for that.”
Olive gave him a tired smile.
“Well, then…”
She reached for the door handle, but paused.
“Thank you, Adam.”
She looked at him.
“For coming to get me. And… for everything else. You know.”
A small smile appeared on his face.
“Of course, Olive.”
She was about to get out when Adam stopped her.
“And, Olive?”
She turned back toward him.
He hesitated for a moment.
Then he said, “You can always call me if you need anything.”
His gaze stayed on hers.
“I’d be glad to help.”
Olive swallowed.
“Thank you.”
Her voice sounded a little thick.
For a moment, she wasn’t quite sure what to say. Then she leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
“Thank you,” she whispered again.
Adam’s cheeks turned pink, and he nodded.
“Always, Olive.”
Olive felt her own cheeks grow warm.
“Well, then…”
She opened the door and stepped out.
Just as she was about to close it, she paused.
“Oh!”
Adam looked at her questioningly.
“Tomorrow’s Wednesday.”
“Yeah?”
“Are we still seeing each other?”
His expression softened.
“Of course.”
Olive beamed at him.
“See you tomorrow, Adam.”
“See you tomorrow.”
She closed the door and headed toward the entrance.
Just before opening the front door, she turned around one last time.
Adam was still there.
He was waiting until he knew she was safely inside.
Olive smiled.
Then she disappeared into the building.