Chapter 8 — Olivia

I didn’t know what had happened at the bar, but I couldn’t stop touching my lips. It was such a powerful kiss; I’d half-expected him to lift me up and fuck me in the bar. I started giggling like a schoolgirl as I grabbed my purse and headed out of the bar.

What was he thinking?

What was I thinking?

He was getting married to Scarlett and he was kissing me in public. I shook my head at the idea of it. It was only a kiss…

Damn, this guy just knew what he wanted, and he didn’t mind taking it. I’d been too stunned to step away or protest, but as the kiss went on, I knew I needed to tell him to stop, but I didn’t get the chance as he ran out of the door. I wasn’t the kind of woman that he could mistake for one of the girls in the office.

Yet I had a feeling that he wasn’t thinking of me that way at all. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left me at the bar wanting more. I wondered if that was the reason he didn’t even offer to take me home. Then again, it was a good thing, because I would have invited him in, with only one thing on my mind. I let the memory of his kiss replay in my head, but it was only a fantasy, nothing more. He was Scarlett’s and I knew that.

His photo in 'Forbes' did no justice to the real-life person. The man was full of mystery, darkness, and intelligence.

Only a couple of stops on the subway and I was home, still touching my lips and thinking about him in ways that I shouldn’t be. Not only was he engaged, but more importantly, he was my boss.

As soon as I arrived home, I remembered that my phone had rung at the bar and I didn’t even bother to check who was calling or more importantly, if it was an emergency. Guilt gnawed at me, but Aunt Veronica seemed fine when I walked in.

“Good evening, dear. I was just about to do some more popcorn. Would you like some?” Aunt Veronica asked, curlers in her hair and fluffy slippers on her feet.

She looked as if she’d more than made herself at home as I opened the door and I realized that I was panicking for nothing. I looked at my phone to see that no one actually called. It was just some junk email and I needed to turn off the notifications. I only did left them on because I was working in the office and felt that I needed to be on top of my email if I was away from my desk.

“No. I was thinking that I would get some sleep. I have an early start in the morning.”

“Oh, come on. You need something to help you relax and I know that there’s nothing like a comedy and some popcorn to do that.”

I turned to shut the door as I saw that my aunt should have been the person to call when I needed a hand with Mom from the start. I’d turned to my brother just to give him some responsibility for once in his life, but he was too far gone. There was no way that he would start being responsible now, not when he’d avoided it all his life.

“Oh, come on, Olivia. I just thought we could talk a little. Have you eaten?”

I shook my head, realizing that I hadn’t eaten since lunch. I had forgotten the downside of being in an office, my time was not my own. It wasn’t the same as when I worked from home. I had this rigid schedule and I always made sure that Mom and I ate together. Yet, sometimes if Mom had a bad day, it would consist of just clearing up her mess and sorting her out so that I could get on with more work.

I’d lost a lot of weight, more than I realized. I’d noticed this morning as I put on one of my old suits and I remembered laughing at the irony of always making sure that I was on top of my diet and exercise regime so that I didn’t have any issues fitting into them. I’d been doing neither within the last two years and it was too big. I assumed that I would have the same issue with the rest of my old suits, but it was nice having to wear something more than jeans and a T-shirt. That seemed to be my only choice of clothes lately.

“No, I haven’t eaten since lunch, but it’s ok. I’m not that hungry anyway,” I said as I remembered that there would be some days that I would pass out on my bed, thinking that the only thing I’d eaten all day was a couple of slices of toast and being too exhausted to do anything about it.

She giggled as she waddled out of the kitchen with the popcorn bowl in one hand and then back to the living room for more television entertainment. She’d married a military man and had spent most of her life living in different countries and being at home, waiting for him to come back home safely to her. When he was injured and dismissed from duty, he left her. He went back to where he’d once been stationed in South Korea saying that he had met someone there and that he didn’t want to come back to the States. Since then she’d been living off her divorce settlement and spending her time in front of the television. She said that she’d spent so much time traveling that she was making up for lost time by keeping still for once.

I did love Aunt Veronica, but sometimes her eccentric ways and obsession with the television irritated me. She talked about the characters as if they were friends of hers, and when one show’s season closed another show seemed to open up. That was the downside of Netflix: she was always spoiled for choice.

“Well, no wonder you’re so thin. You need to eat more.” She sighed as she glanced at my frame from head-to-toe.

“The Chinese restaurant around the corner is so much better than mine. I couldn't stop ordering from there for lunch. Oh it was so nice. Even sis really enjoyed it and you know how much she hates Chinese. You wouldn’t believe it, but I ended up ordering from them again for dinner too. She ate everything up; I didn’t need to encourage her to eat more. She always used to pick at her food when we were younger. I hated that and so did Mom.”

“I left food in the fridge,” I told her, thinking of the strict diet that I put Mom on. It was supposed to help her illness. All the MSG and salt in that Chinese food would wreak havoc on Mom’s body.

“Salad and vegetables. We’re not rabbits, dear. You hold on, I’ll order the same thing that I ordered for us today. Dawn loved it, she even asked if we could go there to eat tomorrow, instead of just ordering carry out.”

“Did she?”

I wanted to ask the question; the one that’d been bugging me ever since I spoke to her on the phone.

“Did she recognize you?”

She sighed as if she were thinking about the question. “At times she did. She even asked me at one point where Mark was stationed this time. I was thinking that if she remembered Mark, that good for nothing, useless, two timing pig, then why didn’t she remember the important part, that we weren’t together anymore and the reason why.”

Wow, she even remembered Uncle Mark?

“Then when I told her that he was in South Korea. That’s when she told me that Mark loved the girls in South Korea. I wish she’d told me that back then. I would have made sure that he never went back there.”

She chuckled as she dialed the number to the Chinese restaurant, and I wanted to tell her not to bother. I didn’t feel like eating, but I knew that if I went to bed there’d only be one thing on my mind.

Ross Hamilton.

My boss. Who was getting married. I needed to keep things professional. Even if he didn’t want to. At the bar, something pulled him back from taking things further. Or rather, someone — his future wife.

“Now, that’s done. I hope you have a twenty on you to pay when he arrives.”

Oh right, I’d have to pay for it, I thought as I looked over at her. She’d taken it upon herself to order for me, but now I’d have to pay for food I didn’t want in the first place.

“What happened to the money I left for Brett earlier? There was a fifty on the table.”

She chuckled. “Oh, that’s gone. You need to leave more money next time.”

“Oh, why?”

“Because tomorrow we’ll eat in, not out, and we may want a bit more than what we had today. Maybe some wine and oh, I don’t know. I just go with the mood. I never plan what I’m going to eat when I go out. We were on a budget because you only left fifty,” she sighed. “But we just about managed.”

“Aunt Veronica...”

I was about to tell her that I was on a budget. Sure, Ross had nearly tripled my salary seeing as I had to go in the office, but I couldn’t go through money like water until I got paid. I’d been on a budget for so long that even the transport costs and having my clothes dry-cleaned felt as if I was overspending. I’d only been in the office for one day and so far I’d spent a lot more than I should have done, because I was hoping that the fifty would stretch to tomorrow, or even the next day considering there really wasn’t anything to spend money on when Mom had everything she needed and there was food in the house. Luckily it seemed that Brett spent his own money when he went to McDonald’s for Mom’s food, because there should have been less than fifty when Veronica ordered from the Chinese restaurant, not just once but twice.

“Don’t worry, dear. You worry too much. Besides, we ordered the second Chinese with your card. The one that you told Brett to use if there’s an emergency. If it’s too much bother for you to leave money, then we’ll just use that tomorrow.”

Now, it all made sense. Brett hadn’t used his own money after all. Dammit. I slumped down on the sofa as I thought about all my extra money being wasted on restaurant bills.

She continued to say while munching on her popcorn, “I’ll get the guys in my apartment to help move my things and if you don’t have enough on you, then don’t worry.”

Her fat fingers patted my hands, which were resting on the sofa, as she took a quick break from eating her popcorn.

“Don’t get stressed about leaving money, I’ll just keep using the card and I can charge it to that. One thing’s for sure. Dawn’s really happy to have me around. You should be too. Now, let’s watch 'Santa Claus Diet.' Seriously, this show is to die for.”

Then she chuckled once again. “Look at me, coming out with funny jokes.”

It must have been a private joke because I didn’t get it. I still had my bag in one hand and my jacket on, so I dropped my bag in the hallway and took off my jacket and slung it onto the back of a chair. With a heavy weight on my shoulders, I headed to the kitchen to grab one of the few bottles of wine that I’d had hidden in the house for too long and joined her watching the show until my very expensive Chinese order arrived.

“Oh dear, why didn’t you get me a glass?” she asked as her eyes darted in my direction. That was when I saw the show and understood about her joke. Maybe she was right. Her being here would bring some warmth to the house; it had been cold for so long. And anything that was a distraction from what had happened in the bar was a good thing. Even if it meant watching a show about vampires. I understood why she said that it was to die for. I must admit, all this time that I'd been back home, I'd never eaten at the Chinese restaurant and the take-out was good. She failed to mention that not only did she order for me, but she’d ordered for herself again and she planned to eat there tomorrow.

I realized that my priorities were messed up as my mind drifted away from the show. My boss was engaged, and I had to think about just working for the next six weeks, to get the increased paycheck and nothing else. I kissed him, I shouldn’t have and somehow in the midst of being back in the office, I felt like Rapunzel being allowed out of her tower and I’d got carried away.

I couldn’t believe all the things that Aunt Veronica had done with mom and I hated to admit it that maybe having her here was better for mom. I just had to make sure that she didn’t put me into the poorhouse while she was here and I would have a word with her tomorrow. A stern one. I was too tired, to have the conversation now, but there had to be a compromise, and mom would have to stick to her diet, and we’d go out for one Chinese on the weekend. I’ll tell her that in the morning, making sure that she understands me, loud and clear, because I paid the bills, and there would be no more splurging at "my" expense.