“That sounds . . . like a stressful way to live. As for me, so many things finally came to a head.” She paused and looked at him for a long moment before continuing. “I was a partner at my old firm, but too often there were white male associates who got far more respect than I did, and the older partners loved to yell at me. I was just sick of it. I was tired of people doubting my ideas and intelligence, tired of just having to take the abuse, tired of working incredibly long days with no time for myself, and very tired of winter in New York. Finally, one day, after holding my rage in at work one too many times, I walked out of the building and called Ellie and told her I was in.”

“I’m really sorry you had to go through all of that,” he said.

He touched her hand again, and this time she slid her hand into his.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate that.”

“You’re a month into the firm now?” he asked. “How’s it been so far? All that you dreamed of?”

He rubbed his thumb back and forth over her hand, and she smiled.

“I’m not really sure quite what I dreamed of, but it’s been great so far. Granted, it’s been stressful—it’s just me and Ellie, and we’re doing everything ourselves, from casework and meeting with clients to research to building bookshelves to updating our website to the seemingly endless amount of paperwork the State of California wants from us. But it’s incredible to be my own boss, and to do things the way I think they should be done, every single time.”

Boy, could he ever relate to that.

“Did you know anything about running your own business before?”

She shook her head.

“Nope, we’ve both learned on the fly. We both reached out to a lot of other women we knew who have started their own firms and their own businesses, and got a ton of advice, though—thank God for all of them. Some of that advice saved us from making some really bad and expensive mistakes.”

She was so animated when she talked about her firm. He liked that.

“You and Ellie have been friends for a long time, right? I bet it’s such a change to work with someone you can really trust,” he said.

The waitress set their burgers and fries in front of them, but Max ignored the food.

“Oh, it’s been great to work with Ellie—the two of us have such different strengths, but we still work really well together. And yes, I trust her implicitly, but we also signed a very detailed contract.” She grinned. “That was a very fun day, actually.”

Max grinned back at her.

“The true way to any lawyer’s heart,” he said.

Olivia picked up her burger.

“That’s all too accurate,” she said.

They were silent for a while as they both dove into their burgers and fries, but he didn’t feel the need to rush to fill the silence. The table was just small enough that they kept accidentally touching each other under the table . . . though, after a while, it stopped being an accident, at least on his end.

She was gorgeous, she was smart, and she was funny, but more than anything, she was interesting. He felt like he could talk to her for hours. And holy shit did he want to kiss her.

“You were correct,” Olivia said as she put down her burger. “The burgers are great, but the fries need some work.”

It wasn’t that Max would have liked her less if she hadn’t agreed with his french fry opinions, but . . . well, he was just very relieved she did.

“It’s so hard to find a place that has a good burger-and-fry combination—one is almost always significantly better than the other one, and I don’t understand why.”

Olivia picked up her drink.

“Put that on your platform.”

They grinned at each other.

“Is your family still in Northern California?” he asked.

“Yeah, my parents and my sister,” she said. “They’re thrilled I’m in L.A. now, let me tell you. You and my sister would get along well—she’s also obsessed with both food and politics. She emailed me a long list of all of her favorite places in L.A. before I got here, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to get to them.”

She had a tiny dimple in one cheek that only appeared when she smiled really big. How unexpected and charming.

“Now I want to see your sister’s list,” he said. “That must be weird for you, to be in a new place and needing advice from other people to figure out daily life, after being in New York for so long. I imagine you built a whole life there, with friends and work and everything else.” He hated the sad look that came over her face, so he hastened to give her an out. “Sorry if that’s too personal, we don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to—I was just thinking about it because of how I sometimes feel in DC.”

She shook her head.

“No, it’s okay, you’re right. That makes sense you would feel that way, too—I can only imagine how weird life is for you.” She was quiet for a moment. “It was hard to leave a place where I built a whole life to go somewhere brand-new. I do have some friends here, and of course I work with one of my best friends. But she’s been living in L.A. for a long time, and she’s married, and has a kid, and has her own life here, so . . . it’s different, you know?” She shrugged. “Is that how it is for you, too?”

He nodded.

“It is. I’ve been in DC for . . . I guess just over a year now, but I feel like I barely know the city, and then when I come home, life here has gone on without me. I have a handful of good friends I’ve known for years, but these days my schedule is so weird I barely see them, and . . . well, it gets lonely.”

He hadn’t said this out loud to anyone. He’d barely even said it to himself. He didn’t know why he’d said it to Olivia, except she looked at him like she was really, truly listening to him.

“Yeah, that sounds hard.” She reached her hand back across the table, and it felt natural for him to slide his fingers into hers. “You can’t really say, ‘Yes, you should book a sitter so we can all have dinner two weeks from Friday,’ then two weeks from Friday you’re still on an airplane, because you couldn’t leave the Senate until some asshole finished spouting his nonsense.”

He laughed so hard at that people turned to stare again.

“That’s a very accurate way of describing my job.”

She grinned at him, then popped another fry in her mouth and made a face.

“I can’t stop eating these, even though they’re not very good. Kind of like In-N-Out fries—we all know they’re terrible, but that doesn’t stop me from eating a whole order.” She shook her head. “Maybe I just need to find some hobbies, or something.” She took a sip of water. “You grew up in L.A., right? Whereabouts?”

He was surprised she didn’t know this about him. Most people did.

“I did. In Beverly Hills.”

Her eyebrows shot up. She opened her mouth, paused, and then continued.

“I’m impressed that you know the Eastside so well, if you grew up over there.”

He shook his head at her.

“We both know that’s not what you were going to say. Come on, out with it.”