He had been a catch. An attractive, charming, successful man who owned his own restaurant. He'd been featured in the biggest restaurant-industry magazines as an up-and-coming entrepreneur and five-star-worthy chef. Of course my mom thought Nico Marshall was the perfect man for me.
"We used to be so good together," he said, rubbing my shoulder. "Don't we owe it to each other to give it another try? Come home with me. Please."
Yeah, Nico could be charming. But he was also the man who'd jabbed tiny pins into me with every sneaky little comment he made about my body, my enthusiasm for sex, the way I ate, and anything else that didn't conform to his standards for appropriate behavior.
"I've changed," he said. "Please, Mara, give me another chance."
My husband wanted my forgiveness. My ex-husband. I had loved him once upon a time, but I'd believed I'd gotten over that. Had I really? Did I still love him, even a little bit? God, I didn't know anymore. The week had been confusing and wonderful, almost like a dream.
This morning, everything had seemed crystal clear. Now I was trying to see through a fog of confusion.
Nico acted sincere.
What about Ollie? I adored him, but we'd met this week. I didn't know him that well, to be honest. I wanted to know him better, but now Nico had to throw this at me. Should I give in to his contrition and give him another chance? Should I tell him to buzz off and run back out there to find Ollie? All my old fears and anxieties came flooding back while I studied Nico's face. Maybe he would be different this time. Maybe Ollie would get sick of my neuroses and my hang-ups, and he'd leave me too. Maybe Nico was the best I deserved.
Dammit, that was Nico talking, getting inside my head.
And still...those doubts kept niggling at me.
"I don't know," I told Nico. "Give me some time to think."
"Sure. Take all the time you need."
Nico's smile seemed a little sad, but also a little hopeful. He wandered out of the house.
I waited a few minutes, standing there in the kitchen thinking about my life, the mistakes I'd made, the two men who wanted me. Was I a fling for Ollie? His ex-girlfriend wanted him back. They had history, while I was just the crazy girl who'd fainted in his arms.
Was fate trying to tell me something? If so, I had no idea what.
Finally, I went outside and looked for Ollie. I spotted him at the far end of the lawn with Damian---and the Kitten Brigade. They all seemed to be playing charades, so I walked over there.
The girl who had been making gestures to depict who-knew-what finished up right as I got to the group.
"How was that the Eiffel Tower?" Damian asked. "You looked like an uptight whooping crane."
Ollie snorted. "Like you've ever seen a whooping crane."
"I did see one. In a PBS documentary."
"Yeah, right." Ollie rolled his eyes. "The day you watch PBS is the day I join a monastery."
Ollie noticed me, smiled, and waved for me to come over to where he and Damian sat on the grass. I settled onto the ground beside him, my knees tucked under me.
He leaned in to whisper, "How'd it go?"
I shrugged.
"It's Heidi's turn!" one of the girls shouted.
Heidi trotted up to the spot the other girl had just vacated, positioned directly in front of the crowd. Another girl handed her a folded slip of paper. Heidi opened it and read whatever was written on the paper. Her brows crinkled, her nose too.
Must've been a hard one.
She crumpled the paper and tossed it into a large paper cup that seemed to be acting as a trash can. I could see other crumpled papers inside it.
Heidi began to pantomime. She waved her arms and tipped sideways, raising one foot off the ground.
Ollie watched her with a rapt expression.
A beautiful, naked woman showing off her body in front of her ex-boyfriend, the man I was currently sleeping with? No, that didn't bother me at all.
In the kitchen with Nico, I'd wondered if I should take him back. Now, I was jealous of Ollie ogling Heidi. I finally understood the concept of being torn between two men. Or maybe I was just crazy, like most people thought.
Heidi waved her arms with more enthusiasm, tipping left and right, making her breasts bounce.
Damian made a catcall.
The other girls clapped and shouted out silly things like, "You're a drunk astronaut!"
Ollie kept staring at Heidi, his lips parted and curved into a relaxed smile.
"Don Quixote," I called out.
Everyone froze and fell silent. All eyes turned to me.
Heidi's face blanked. "Wow, that's right. How did you know?"
"You were making like a windmill and tilting. Don Quixote tilted at windmills."
Heidi blinked several times, still seeming shocked. "You're really smart, Mara."
"Um, thanks."
Ollie looked at me, grinning.
And naturally, Nico appeared right then. He ambled over to the group and sat down beside me, sandwiching me between him and Ollie.
Nico patted my knee in a too-intimate way. "Hey, Mara. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll think about what I said. It's not too late for us."
I scooted closer to Ollie.
And Ollie squinted at Nico, his lips flattened.
Nico smiled at me in a way an ex-husband should not be smiling at his ex-wife when she was with someone else. I wanted to deck him. Then push him into a colony of velvety tree ants. While he was naked. So yeah, I didn't want Nico anymore. His pleas in the kitchen might've made me doubt that for a while, but I was over it.
Ollie grabbed my hand, jumped up, and dragged me toward the guest house.
My heart pounded. My ears
