Olivia’s POV
Throughout the ride to the date venue, I couldn’t move or breathe. I sat erect and stayed quiet, my brain still coming to terms with everything that had been going on in my life.
The silence in the car was suffocating, broken only by the sound of the car engine and the traffic outside. My hands were folded tightly in my lap, my knuckles white from the tension. Every few seconds, I found myself stealing glances at Gabriel - or Alex’s twin brother, or whoever he was - trying to process the impossibility of the situation.
*How could two people look so identical? It was like looking at Alex through so kind of twisted mirror. Sa jawline, sa profile, sa way of holding his shoulders while driving. Sa fucking everything.*
Gabriel must have noticed my discomfort because he didn’t say anything. He just drove on, occasionally glancing at with concern, as if he was afraid I might bolt from the moving vehicle.
anwhile, that douchebag in the back kept tapping away at his phone, his notification sounds disturbing the peace and quiet of the ride. *Ping. Tap tap tap. Ping. Tap tap tap.* The repetitive noise was driving insane, like torture.
*How could soone be so inconsiderate? Did he think this was his personal office? Did he have any awareness that his constant phone activity was making an already awkward situation ten tis worse?*
Each notification sound made my shoulders tense more, and I found myself gripping the fabric of my dress to keep from screaming. The erald green dress that had looked so elegant in my mirror now looked rumpled.
*What was I even doing here? How had my life spiraled so completely out of control that I was sitting in a car with my crush’s identical twin while being chaperoned by the man who had humiliated both as Oliver and Olivia?*
*And why - WHY - did Gabriel have to look exactly like Alex? It was like the universe was playing so cruel joke on , dangling everything I wanted right in front of while making it completely impossible to have.*
As we drove on, I tried to focus on the view outside instead of the chaos in my head. But every ti I started to calm down, Maxwell’s phone would ping again, jerking back to the reality of my situation.
*Ping. Tap tap tap.*
I wanted to turn around and snatch that damn phone out of his hands. I wanted to demand answers about why he was here, why he seed to enjoy making my life miserable, why he couldn’t just leave alone. But my voice seed to have disappeared entirely, lost sowhere between shock and anxiety.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only twenty minutes, we pulled up in front of an expensive Italian restaurant. The place looked so beautiful and exquisite that under normal circumstances, I would have been impressed by Gabriel’s choice.
But these weren’t normal circumstances. Nothing about this evening was normal.
Gabriel turned off the engine and sat for a mont, his hands still on the steering wheel. I could see him gathering courage in the set of his shoulders.
"Olivia," he said softly, "I know this has been... strange. If you want to go ho, I completely understand. We can always try this another ti when you’re feeling better."
Before I could respond - not that I had any idea what to say - Maxwell’s voice cut through from the backseat.
"Oh, she’s fine," he said dismissively, finally looking up from his phone. "Just a little dramatic. Nothing a nice dinner won’t fix."
The cruel way he said it only made my blood boil. How dare he speak about like I wasn’t sitting right there? How dare he dismiss my feelings when he was the one who had caused half of them?
Gabriel shot his friend a sharp look in the rearview mirror. "Max..."
"I’m just saying bro, if she can’t handle a simple dinner date, maybe she’s not ready to be dating at all."
That did it. Sothing snapped inside , and I felt a surge of defiant energy. I wasn’t going to let Maxwell Wellington intimidate anymore. I wasn’t going to let him win.
"Fine," I said, my voice coming out stronger than I felt. "Let’s go eat."
Gabriel looked surprised but pleased. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," I lied, already reaching for the door handle. "I’m starving."
Gabriel quickly got out of the car and ca around to my side to open the door.
"Thank you," I said, accepting his hand as I stepped out of the car.
He was a gentleman after all. Turns out I’d misjudged him.
"Of course," he smiled, and for a mont, I forgot about everything else. His smile was cute and beautiful that it almost made forget about the disaster this evening had already beco.
Almost.
Because just then, Maxwell erged from the backseat, straightening his jacket and looking around the restaurant with the air of soone who owned the place.
"Nice choice, Gabriel," he said approvingly. "Very... romantic."
The way he said ’romantic’ made it sound like a disease.
Bastard!
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