Olivia's POV
My heart nearly stopped as I saw who was sitting in the back seat.
Maxwell Wellington? What was he doing here?
And most importantly, why was Alex sitting behind the steering wheel? Did I enter the wrong car?
What the fuck was going on!!!!
I immediately started apologizing, fumbling for the door handle. "I'm so sorry, I think I got into the wrong car..."
A hand shot out and gently caught my wrist. "Wait, where are you going?"
I turned to look at the driver, but shock wouldn't let me form words. It was Alex's face, Alex's voice, Alex's everything. Alex doesn't know who I am. He shouldn't even be here. In front of my house!!!
"You're Olivia, right? It's me, Gabriel."
*Gabriel?*
*GABRIEL?!*
*This couldn't be happening. This absolutely could not be happening. The universe was not this cruel. There was no way - absolutely no way - that Gabriel, my blind date, was Alex Gregory. The Alex Gregory I'd been obsessing over for months. The Alex Gregory who was engaged to perfect Vanessa. The Alex Gregory whose best friend had humiliated me and was now sitting in the backseat watching this entire disaster unfold.*
*But if this was Alex, then who had I seen with Vanessa? My brain was short-circuiting, trying to process what was happening.*
I couldn't contain myself anymore. The shock, the confusion, the sheer impossibility of the situation broke through every filter I had.
"HOW CAN YOU BE GABRIEL WHEN YOU'RE ALEX?!" I screamed, my voice rising with hysteria. "THIS IS INSANE! YOU'RE ALEX GREGORY! I KNOW YOU'RE ALEX GREGORY!"
At this point, I didn't care about my cover being blown. I didn't care that my boss was sitting in the backseat. I didn't care about anything except the fact that my brain was melting from the impossibility of what was happening.
Suddenly, Maxwell's annoying voice sounded from the back seat, dripping with smugness.
"I knew it! I knew you looked familiar." He leaned forward slightly, and I could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "You're the lady that came to my office, right? The one obsessed with Alex? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but this is Gabriel, Alex's *twin brother*, not Alex."
I felt like the world had tilted off its axis. For a moment, I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, couldn't think.
*Twin brother?*
*TWIN BROTHER?!*
*This was clearly Alex! I'd spent months studying every detail of his face, every expression, every gesture. I knew the way he held his shoulders, the way he tilted his head when he was thinking, the exact shade of his eyes. This was Alex Gregory sitting in front of me, and no one could convince me otherwise.*
*But twin brother? How could that even be possible. Alex didn't look like someone who could have a twin. How could there be two Alexes roaming the face of the earth! Was the universe trying to smother me?!*
*No. No, no, no. This was too much. My already fucked-up life couldn't handle this level of cosmic joke.*
The whole situation was too overwhelming. I couldn't process it, couldn't deal with it, couldn't even begin to understand what was happening to my life.
I had to get out. Now.
I yanked the door handle and practically fell out of the car, my legs shaky and unsteady. I needed air. I needed space. I needed to get away from this nightmare before my brain completely exploded.
This had to be a dream. Somebody please wake me up!!!
"Olivia, wait!" Gabriel called after me, his voice filled with concern.
But then I heard Maxwell's irritatingly smug voice again: "Just forget about her, Gabriel. Let's leave. She's clearly unstable."
I whipped around and stared at Maxwell through the car window, my chest rising and falling with pure rage. The audacity of this man! He'd humiliated me in his office, tormented me at work, and now he was sitting in my date's car calling me unstable?
What the fuck was wrong with that man!
I glared at him through the transparent windows, my hands clenched into fists. But he didn't even spare me a glance, just sat there looking bored and superior.
That was it. I was done. I turned and started storming toward the house, my heels clicking angrily against the pavement.
Just then, the front door burst open and my mother appeared, her face filled with excitement and concern.
"Olivia! Where are you going?" she called out, practically running down the front steps. "What happened? Why aren't you in the car?"
"Mom, I can't do this," I said, my voice shaking. "This whole thing is insane. I need to go inside."
But Mom was having none of it. She grabbed my hand with the determination of a woman who had spent weeks planning this moment.
"Oh no, you don't," she said firmly, literally dragging me back toward the car. "I didn't spend all afternoon getting you ready just so you could have a panic attack in the driveway."
"Mom, you don't understand..."
"I understand everything," she interrupted, pulling me along like I was a reluctant child. "You're nervous. It's completely normal to be nervous before a first date."
By this time, Gabriel had gotten out of the car and was walking toward us, his face full of concern and confusion.
"Mrs. Hopton, is everything alright?" he asked, his voice gentle. "I'm so sorry if I did something to upset Olivia."
"Oh, sweetheart, you didn't do anything wrong," Mom assured him, still gripping my arm. "Olivia's just a little overwhelmed. She gets like this sometimes when she's excited."
*Excited? EXCITED?! I was having a mental breakdown, not planning a wedding!*
"I'm really sorry about this," Gabriel said, looking directly at me with concern. "Maybe we should reschedule? If you're not feeling well..."
"Nonsense!" Mom thundered before I could respond. "She's perfectly fine. Just a little case of first-date jitters."
And with that, she practically shoved me back into the passenger seat, buckling my seatbelt like I was a toddler.
"You two have a wonderful time," she said brightly, closing the car door with a slam.
As I settled back into the seat, trying to process the fact that my mother had literally forced me on this date, I heard a quiet scoff from the backseat.
"Dramatic," Maxwell muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.
That was the last straw. I didn't even know when the words left my mouth, but suddenly I was turning around in my seat and demanding:
"What's he even doing here anyway?"
Gabriel started the car, glancing at me with apologetic eyes. "I'm really sorry about this, Olivia. Max insisted on coming along. He said he wanted to make sure I didn't embarrass myself on my first date in two years."
"More like I wanted to make sure you didn't get catfished again," Maxwell said dryly from the backseat. "Though honestly, after this display, I'm starting to think we should have stayed home."
I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment and rage. "Excuse me?"
"Nothing," Maxwell said with fake innocence. "Just making an observation."
Gabriel shot his friend a warning look in the rearview mirror. "Max, we talked about this. You promised to behave."
"I am behaving," Maxwell replied. "I'm sitting quietly in the backseat like a good little chaperone."
I turned back around in my seat, staring straight ahead and trying to ignore the fact that my life had officially become a sitcom. A really bad sitcom where nothing made sense and everyone was either crazy or cruel.
*How had I gone from a simple blind date to sitting in a car with my maybe-crush's twin brother while being chaperoned by the most insufferable man on the planet?*
*And more importantly, how was I going to survive the next few hours without completely blowing my cover and losing my mind?*