Page 13 of Love on the Byline
“Is this a joke?” She scowled at Bran.
“Uh, no?” Bran replied, sounding confused. Moving forward,he held out a hand “Brandon Cody, but you can call me Bran. And you are?”
Oh, Jesus. Fuck. Really? Ollie tooka step forward, struggling because his muscles were suddenly rigid withtension.
Her expression turned murderous. “Blake.” When Bran didn’trespond, she added, “Dillon.” Her last name was like a single gunshot aimed athis head.
“Nice to meet you, Blake Dillon.” Bran continued to hold outhis hand, smiling broadly now.
Blake stared at it as if he held a steaming pile of feces.“Nice to meet me? You can’t be serious.”
“Blake, er… Hi,” Ollie finally managed to croak. Clearinghis throat, he reminded himself he was an adult and not the gangly teen she’dknown in college. Correction, still gangly, just older.
Blake’s look of disgust morphed into a smile that put thesun to shame. “Oliver?”
Jesus, he’d forgotten that she did that, how she used hisfull first name more often than not. It soundedheavenly coming from her lips. With only a few syllables, she had erased yearsof his practiced composure. Words eluded him.
He waved awkwardly, as if she weren’t standing less thanthree feet away. “Hi,” he said again. Closing his eyes, he cursed under hisbreath. “Good to see you.”
“What on earth are you doing here?” She took two stepsforward but caught herself, her brows pinching together again in confusion.
“You know her?” Bran asked him.
“Seriously?” she snapped.
“Dude.” Ollie shook his head. He loved Bran, but he could besuch an ass when it came to remembering things. And people. “This is Blake.From U of P?”
Giving her a onceover, Bran’s frown deepened. Zero recognitionon his face. Even Ollie was stunned.
“Jesus,” she said, spinning away from them both. “This has to be a mistake. I’m calling my editor.”
“Wait,” Ollie said, remembering there was a reason she wasthere. “Hang on, you work for the Gazette?”
She turned to him, her expression sheepish.“I… Yeah. I’m supposed to shadow Brandon Cody this week, but—”
“That’s me.” Bran grinned as he not-so-subtly checked herout, something to which she took clear offense. Or maybe it was the fact thathe didn’t seem to remember her.
Which, how?
Every interaction Ollie had had with Blake in college, nomatter how small, was burned into his memories like tiny brands. Sitting nextto her in English Lit, running into her at the library or crossing the quad, hehad soaked up every encounter like a sponge. And yet, it was Bran who seems tohave left the more visceral impression upon her. Ollie shouldn’t have beensurprised. Bran was hard to forget, hard to ignore. He was larger than life,even back at school, and their last encounter had taken a wrecking ball toOllie’s friendship with her.
“You really don’t remember me, do you?” she asked, her scowlrounding out at the edges, softened by disbelief.
Glancing briefly at Ollie, Bran rubbed the back of his neck.“Uh, well, Ols said I knew you at school. Did we, uh…?”
“Blake was a year behind us at U of P,” Ollie rushed tosupply. “And you two…met a couple of times. She was a reporter at the university paper. The Ledger.”
“The…? Oh!” Bran exclaimed. “The school newspaper, right. Shit, I’m sorry. Sometimes, everything that happened beforeI moved out here seems like someone else’s life. I forget everything all thetime. Don’t I, Ols?” He turned to Ollie. Help me out here, hisexpression begged.
“Yep. Yeah. All the time,” he confirmed. It wasn’t even alie. “Scatterbrain, this one.”
“I’m sure you bullied the editor into killing stories allthe time back then.” Blake crossed her arms and leveled him with a fierceglare. “Seems nothing has changed.”
Dawning realization seemed to steal over Bran, and hisentire demeanor shifted from panic to embarrassment to—was that regret?—before finally settling on mild irritation.
“Oh, that,” was all he said.
An uncomfortable silence descended upon the room, and Ollieidly wondered if the whole interview situation could be salvaged. More thanthat, he was eager for it to happen. He didn’t want Blake to disappear from hislife again so soon.