Olivia Young

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OLIVIA WASN’T A PRUDE, she really wasn’t, but she couldn’t help herself. When she saw what she and Nick had walked into, or almost walked into, she was beyond embarrassed. There was a big difference between watching people get it on in the movies and seeing it in real life. Even seeing two total strangers on the verge of getting it on wasn’t as awkward as walking in on your best friend and her man. She hadn’t even considered the possibility of Abel being at Caroline’s place in the middle of the day. Caroline was a freelance writer, which meant that the odds of her being home if somebody randomly stopped by were pretty high. That was why she hadn’t bothered giving her a call before she had stopped by. What she hadn’t counted on was Abel being there with her in the middle of a Friday work day. What she definitely hadn’t counted on was the two of them being right on the brink of doing the deed. Abel was sprawled out on the oversized couch wearing nothing but his boxers, through which Olivia could clearly see a good-sized erection. Caroline was hovering on top of him, legs straddling him enthusiastically, wearing nothing but a lace bra and thong. Even from her vantage point of being halfway in the hallway, Olivia could hear that both of them were panting loudly. Another couple of moments and she and Nick would have walked in on more than the beginning of the deed.

“Christ! Abel, man, I’m sorry. Shit!”

“Don’t be sorry,” Abel answered agreeably as a red-faced Caroline hurriedly climbed off of him and pulled her dress on over her head, “not the end of the world.”

“Caroline,” Olivia added, sure that her own face was every bit as scarlet as her best friend’s, “I’m so, so sorry. I was knocking, I swear, but...”

She allowed the words to trail off mid-sentence. Just to be sure everyone understood where she was going with her comments she fixed Nick with a pointed, albeit brief, glare. When she looked at Caroline again there was a smile in the corner of her friend’s mouth and Olivia knew she had gotten her point across. It was no secret that there was no love lost between Olivia and Nick. Caroline had once hinted at the fact being a bit of a problem for her and Abel. Olivia had been stubborn in her appraisal of Nick, telling Caroline that if she wanted her to get on board with Abel’s friends, maybe they shouldn’t be such jackasses. And clearly, she had been right. This was a perfect case in point. If it hadn’t been for Nick, the two of them would have stayed put on the front stoop where they belonged instead of barging in on something they were most definitely not supposed to have seen.

“It’s fine, babe!” Caroline chirped, discreetly placing a pillow over Abel’s pelvis area while she stood to greet her unexpected guests, “we should be listening more closely for the door if we’re going to leave it unlocked.”

“Don’t say it,” Abel laughed, pulling on his own clothes while Olivia made a point of looking elsewhere, “you’ll only give Nick encouragement and he doesn’t need it.”

“Clearly,” Olivia muttered under her breath, her irritation with the man rising as the moments passed by instead of things going the other way around.

“Anyway,” Caroline continued, frowning ever so slightly at Olivia, which was her way of warning her to try and behave, “there’s nothing for you two to feel bad about. We should have been listening, we were just–”

“Busy?”

Nick laughed while he spoke, like he’d just delivered the wittiest line in the world. Olivia fought back an intense urge to deck him, or at least to remind him of what a total moron she thought he was being. Abel and Caroline were both laughing, though, and Olivia had already gotten the message loud and clear that Caroline wanted her to play nice. So instead of saying anything she gave a small smile that felt like cardboard. It felt fake, which was what it took for her to get along with a guy like Nick. And she wanted to get along with him, too, at least for the time being. She wanted to do it for Caroline. All it took was a cursory glance for Olivia to be able to see that Caroline was over the moon about something. It was such a happy look that Olivia couldn’t help getting caught up in it a little bit. She kept looking from Abel’s face to Caroline’s, waiting for some kind of information to go by.

“Okay,” Nick said bluntly, beating her to any kind of question she might have chosen to ask, “what gives?”

“Don’t know what you mean, brother,” Abel answered with a sly smile.

“Bullshit you don’t know what I mean. You've got a look on your face like you’ve been up to no good. What’s going on here?”

“Well,” Caroline giggled, blushing again and every bit as much as she’d done when she’d been walked in on practically naked, “we’ve got some exciting news. Or at least exciting to us. We’ve decided to move in together.”

“No shit?” Nick said, his voice taking on a somehow flat tone it hadn’t had before.

“That’s wonderful!” Olivia gushed, rushing forward to embrace her friend. When Caroline wrapped her arms around her the bag full of goodies got jostled and almost hit the floor. Caroline took a step back and glanced down at the sack curiously.

“What’s all this?”

“Oh, nothing, really. Just a few odds and ends.”

“It looks like you’ve brought the fanciest picnic ever. Are we celebrating?”

“Of course we are! We’re celebrating your fantastic news!”

Caroline gave her a look like she didn’t really believe what she was hearing but she didn’t pursue it. Olivia briefly considered telling Caroline her news anyway but kept her mouth shut. For her, the kind of promotion she had just received was some of the most exciting news a person could get on God’s green earth. For other people, people like her friends, for example, that wasn’t the case. The last thing Olivia wanted to do was steal Caroline’s thunder. The two of them had been friends for all of her life, for as long as she could remember, and Olivia had seen Caroline struggle through one nasty relationship after another. She had seen her look for real, loving companionship in all of the wrong places and had spent many a night holding her in her arms while she sobbed after suffering her latest heartbreak. Olivia didn’t love the fact that Abel came with a big lump of man-child shaped baggage like Nick, but other than that she thought Abel was a great guy. He was definitely the kind of guy she could see Caroline eventually getting married to, so them moving in together was something big. Something truly worth celebrating.

“What are you waiting for, lady?” Olivia asked brightly, storing her news away for another day, “Let’s open some bottles!”

“Shit,” Nick laughed, the sound of which made Olivia cringe a little bit, “I second that. Who would have thought, the two of us actually agreeing on something? That means it must be the right move.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Olivia said stiffly, doing her best to put that plastic smile back on her face, “good to know you agree.”

“Sure thing, doll. Anytime.”

Olivia cringed again but bit her tongue. Abel pulled himself up off of the couch and after he and Caroline both did a quick once over to make sure they were both decent, they started setting out a veritable feast. Olivia hung back some and watched as they did simple, unimportant things like set out bowls of dip and platters of cheeses. She watched the way they looked at each other, the way they shared loving little touches without even realizing that they were doing it. They loved each other. If there had been any question in her mind before seeing them in their cramped kitchen, it was gone. Their love was a physical thing, something that charged the room with an energy she had never felt touch her own heart, and Olivia felt her insides twist into a knot. She was well on her way to getting everything she wanted in life, the promotion to junior partner bringing her one step further. Even so, and this was something she hated having to admit even to herself, she was lonely. She didn’t have that somebody in her life to dance in the kitchen with. There was nobody to brush the hair out of her face when she smiled. Feeling a little hole in the center of herself, she grabbed a glass of wine and took a deep, long sip.