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Chapter 24
More than anything, I was angry with myself. Everyone had told me, time and time again, about the person Olivia really was, but I wouldn’t listen.
I say this a lot about romantic relationships, but I think that it can apply to a platonic friendship just as much.
But if somebody outside of your relationship says something akin to “haha, wow. That Olivia sure is a piece of work. Why are you friends with her?” Maybe you should ask them why they'd say something like that.
We tend to wear rose-colored glasses when we're in relationships. And yes, even friendships, sometimes. And while we should sometimes take things like that with a grain of salt, you should always try to think of where their words are coming from.
Especially in a situation like the Olivia and McKenzie relationship. At first, it was just Jared. And then Drew. And then Gavin. And then Kat. And then Andie. Literally everybody who saw the two of them together told McKenzie to get away from Olivia. Like not just one person, but multiple people.
So yes. She should feel bad for not listening after so many people told her to get away.
“What do you think about me starting my own firm?”
Get in, bitches. We're cutting toxic people from our lives and living our best lives away from them.
I could see the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel I had been prisoner of, and the source of the light was Drew. I was home.
Chapter 24 summary: McKenzie wakes up the next morning and rehashes everything that happened the day before. She feels so angry at herself that she'd been duped by Olivia, despite multiple people telling her to stay away from the toxic shitshow.
Drew comes in, and hands her phone. It's Jared, who says that he and Andie are coming down to be there for the two of them during this difficult time. McKenzie protests, since Jared will have to come back eventually because of his own work. But Jared says that McKenzie is his friend, and that's what friends do.
Drew then asks McKenzie if she thinks he should start his own law firm. That working under his father, it's only about money, and never about cases like Nate's. McKenzie thinks that this is a good idea, and encourages him to do it.
They then bang.
Chapter 25
Court proceedings worked in Nate’s favor regarding his case against Olivia. The judge granted him custody after the baby was born. They named her Maya, and I had to admit I’d been wrong about him. He stepped up to the plate, caring for his daughter like a good father should. Olivia ended up moving to Chicago to be closer to them, having been granted visitation rights with the child. What I never expected was for those two to make amends. Just over a week ago, Nate phoned me with the news that he and Olivia were seeing one another. Talk about nearly giving a man a heart attack. I had to bite my tongue to keep from giving him a piece of my mind.
I know that the narration would never dive this deep into the topic, especially not in the second to last chapter. But I like to imagine that a huge part of Olivia even getting visitation is her undergoing some serious therapy.
That, in itself, is a happy ending, and I was proud to say, we lived happily ever after.
Chapter 25 summary: Time passes. Drew opens up his law firm. Nate ends up with full custody of his daughter, and Olivia moves to Chicago for her visitations with the kid.
Drew proposes to McKenzie. McKenzie is pregnant. I saw both of that coming, and at this point, I'm just eager to put this series behind me.
Epilogue
Two year ago, Kat finally had enough of Jonathan and his overbearing ways. With the help of her three children, she left him. In the weeks following, she filed for divorce, hiring Peltier/Wise to handle her negotiations. That infuriated Jonathan more than the divorce, but the proceedings didn’t last long. During one of their meetings, Jonathan suffered a stroke. It left him in a coma, and weeks later he passed away, having never reawakened.
The comeuppance story that I didn't know I needed!
Through it all, we found what we were seeking, and if I had it to do all over again, I could honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing.
The End.
Epilogue summary: Four years later. Because I really care about this. Drew and McKenzie had twins, Connor and Chloe. She's pregnant with the third one, and in active labor. Kat finally worked up the courage to divorce Jonathan, but then he died in the middle of that.
And uh... yeah. That's about it as far as plot goes. “The end” indeed!
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Chapter 4
As for Kat, well, I now knew where Drew inherited his inclination toward alcohol. I’d yet to see that woman without a drink in her hand.
Considering that she's married to a literal piece of poop, I can't possibly imagine what reason Kat would have to drink.
Hell, when she introduced himself, Jonathan had criticism over THE WAY THAT SHE INTRODUCED HERSELF.
Natasha Carrere, Morgan’s maid of honor. A sweet woman but horny as hell, and her sights were set on Jared. I found it quite funny, really. Even though Olivia
announced Jared and I were some sort of thing, she didn’t seem to care. Who could blame her? Jared really was a bit of a catch.
To be fair, literally anybody with eyes can see that Jared isn't romantically involved with McKenzie.
The narration isn't showing or saying anything, but people can always tell when two people aren't actually romantically involved. Just like how Jonathan instantly knew that McKenzie/Drew was a thing...
Honestly, Jared deserves his happy ending.
“Have Jared and Natasha hooked up?” He shuddered. “Oh, god. The thought of Jared…” His face distorted in a look of disgust.
“Everyone has sex, Andy. Even your parents.”
“My parents!” he screeched.
“Yeah, and from the way your mother talks, that cold fish of a father of yours is hot in…”
“No! God, no. You have not been talking to my mother about sex. I can’t believe you actually discussed this stuff with her.”
[Image description: Emma Stone looking disgusted and horrified over something. It is captioned with “I had to read this and so do you.”]
No secrets. No regrets. Just me and him, together and in love.
Chapter 4 summary: As the week passes, McKenzie finds that she literally has zero alone time with Drew. At all. Not even at night, since the house is old and creaky, and everybody knows where people are moving around.
Jared comes to her early one morning and says that Drew has arranged for McKenzie to slip away from the other ladies, so that the two of them can have some quality time. So she does this, and meets him at a coffee shop.
She tells him that the ladies had been randomly talking about sex, and Olivia wouldn't STFU about being with Drew sexually. It was to the point where even Morgan was side eyeing her for her BS. This pisses Drew off that Olivia is still spreading lies about them being in a relationship, but McKenzie... desperate to hold onto her singular friend, tells him to let it go. For some reason.
Then they leave to go do some tourist stuff.
Chapter 5
“Perfect.” She stretched out her hand, motioning toward the door. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 5 summary: They walk to the Harvard campus, and too much time is spent with Drew explaining various buildings and trees to her. Oh, and as you can imagine, there's a building named after the Wise family.
They go “crash” a class, where Drew knows the teacher. The three of them go talk in the teacher's office after the class is over, where Niles expresses his delight over McKenzie.
As they're talking, Drew thinks about how Niles and Jonathan were once really close. To the point where Drew viewed Niles like an actual father. (Well, to be fair, the bar is on the ground with that.) But something happened between Niles and Jonathan, and Drew didn't see Niles again until he went to Harvard.
