Olivia Young

––––––––

“SO, LIKE, WHAT’S YOUR deal, lately, anyway? What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing, Patricia. Nothing’s going on with me. This is what it looks like when somebody is working hard. Maybe you should give it a try sometime.”

"Geez. First of all, I do work hard. Anybody working as your secretary works hard. You make sure of that. Secondly, you can pretend everything's good with you all you want, but I don't believe you. Something is definitely up. You don't have to tell me what it is. I know we aren't, like, friends or anything. I'm just curious. I'm kind of wondering how long things are going to be like this."

Olivia sighed and looked up from her computer at the young, blonde woman standing in her doorway. Patrizia Art was her secretary, and unlike some of the secretaries in the firm, Olivia liked her. She wasn't the best worker in the world and maybe not the smartest girl in the world, but she did work hard. She was also prone to calling Olivia out on her bullshit and although nobody liked having that done, Olivia was bright enough to understand that she needed it from time to time. At the moment, however, she was not in the mood to answer any questions. One of the reasons she'd been working even harder than usual in the days following her unfortunate run-in with Nick was so she didn't have to think about the answers to those questions at all, either out loud or inside of her own head. That was one of the things she liked so much about hard work. If you did enough of it, you could block out almost everything. Except, of course, when a secretary started asking questions.

“It’s not going to ‘be’ like anything, Patricia. Things have been nuts since the promotion. You know this. I’m just trying to make sure the partners know they made the right decision in choosing me. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few of them had their doubts. I want to prove them wrong.”

“Yeah,” Patricia answered, twirling her hair around one finger and looking sort of bored, “that’s fine. Don’t really believe you, but it’s fine. That’s what I told your friend, anyhow.”

“My friend? Which friend might that be?”

“You know, your bestie. The one who calls you up here all of the time. I told her you were busy–”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you told me not to take any calls.”

“Oh, right.”

“Anyway,” Patricia went on as if she’d never been interrupted, “I told her your big promotion was sucking up all of your time and good moods, and she told me to have you call her, like, as soon as possible.”

"Oh, God. Thanks, Patricia. That will be all."

“Okay. Are you sure you don’t want to tell me what’s really eating at you?”

“Nothing is eating at me. Please shut the door on your way out.”

Patricia rolled her eyes, snapped her gum, and did as she was told. Olivia waited until the door was fully shut and sighed, looking thoughtfully at her phone. She loved Caroline, of course, she did, but she wasn't sure how she felt about making this call. She had felt a little bit weird ever since learning that Caroline and Abel were moving in together. She was happy for her, for both of them, but it felt like there was a barrier up between them that had never been there before. This was a big life step that, up until now, neither one of them had taken. Now, for all of her job success, Olivia had been left behind. She didn't know why Caroline needed her to call as soon as possible, but if there was more news involved, Olivia wasn't sure that she would be able to handle it. That and Patricia had outed her about the promotion. Caroline was sure to have plenty to say about her keeping that little tidbit of info to herself over the last couple of days. Normally, the two of them didn't keep any secrets from each other at all, not even about the little stuff. Now Olivia was going to have to come clean, and as she listened to the phone ring, she felt her heart beating just a little bit too hard.

“What the hell, lady?” Caroline half laughed, half yelled into the phone after only the second ring.

“Well, hello to you, too. Is this how we’re greeting each other now? For the record, I’m alright with it, but I’d like to know so that I do it right from now on.”

“That depends. Are you going to keep holding out on me?”

“I’m going to guess this is about the whole promotion thing?”

“You’re guessing? How many things are you keeping from me?”

“Only that,” Olivia laughed, “I swear.”

“You better be telling me the truth.”

“I am.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? It’s a big deal! You always tell me when big things happen to you. We’ve always done that for each other.”

“I know, I know. It just wasn’t the right time.”

“How could it not be the right time for something like that?!”

“Because I found out the day you and Abel decided you were moving in together, that’s why. I didn’t want to steal your thunder. And, truthfully, it didn’t feel like my news was as big as yours.”

“Of course it is. Now I feel like an asshole.”

“Please, don’t. It was my choice. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Well, maybe, but I definitely feel like an asshole for what I’m going to say next.”

“Okay,” Olivia laughed, glad to have everything out in the open like it should have been all along, “not a good way to preface something, but shoot.”

"I was wondering if you could come over again," she spoke quickly now, everything coming out in a rush, "you totally don't have to, and I feel like a shit asking you to now, but there's something I want to tell you and I'd love it if I could do it in person. Do you think you could manage it?"

"I swear, Caroline, I will do my absolute best. It's going to be sometime later in the day, though, maybe not until tonight. This promotion is awesome, but it really has ratcheted up my work load."

“Sure! Of course! Whatever you need. You know I’ll be here, just like always. Whenever you want to come over, all you have to do is knock.”

“Sounds good. See you later.”

Olivia really did have work to get to, a lot of it, but after she hung up with Caroline all she could do was sit at her desk. She had never been the kind of girl who could tolerate somebody telling her they needed to talk to her later. As soon as she became aware that there was something for her to know, she needed to know it. Also, she could hear in Caroline's voice the hesitance to ask her to come, and it broke her heart a little. She didn't want things to change between the two of them. She glanced at the mountain of paperwork on her desk and resigned herself to playing catch up for the next couple of days. She grabbed her things and headed out the door, not even bothering to tell Patricia before she went. She didn't feel like dealing with whatever jokes Patricia would think of at her expense.

************              *             

“HELLO? ANYBODY HERE?”

Olivia stood frowning in front of Caroline's door. She was in the middle of a serious case of déjà vu, and she was less than thrilled. The only thing different this time was Nick wasn’t standing there beside her, which should have been a blessing but maybe wasn't, at least not completely. After all, it had been Nick who had gotten them through the front door. It was true that he had done so by barging in on them nearly naked, but at least he hadn't just stood out on the landing forever like some kind of a moron.

“He’s not the only one who can do shit like that,” she muttered to herself grumpily. Never mind that she had been the one to deliver the lecture on how rude it was to barge into somebody’s apartment without being invited in. She could imagine what he would do if he was there with her. She could imagine the way he would be smirking at her for being too chicken to just open a door that was almost certainly open and walk on inside.

“Hello?” she called softly, shutting the door behind her, “Anyone here?”

At first, there was nothing. Olivia stood in Caroline and Abel’s living room with her hands on her hips, the first flames of annoyance jumping up inside of her. It wasn’t like she had a right to be annoyed. She had flat out told Caroline she wouldn’t be there until much later. It wasn’t like Caroline was just supposed to wait around for her to show up with bated breath. She was just about to sit down and wait for her friend to show up when she heard a weird noise coming from behind the closed door of the apartment laundry room.

“What the hell?”

Her defenses were immediately up, and she briefly considered calling the cops in case there was an intruder. Instead, she approached the door cautiously, listening. More likely than not, it was Caroline herself. It would be pretty ridiculous for her to call the cops over something like that. She got right up to the door, then stopped, startled by the voice she heard next.

“Hello? Is there somebody out there? If so, could you be a friend and open the fucking door?”

“Nick?!”

Olivia threw the door open and found Nick standing at the back of the laundry room/pantry, a sheepish look on his face. Immediately, all kinds of things went through her head, each one more deranged than the last. What if he was some kind of weirdo sex maniac or something? He had a reputation for being able to land any woman he wanted, but that didn't necessarily mean that he didn't have perverted tendencies. Maybe he was snooping around inside of Caroline's laundry room and looking for her delicates or something. Even the thought of it pissed Olivia off, and she stalked forward, fully prepared to deliver him a swift slap across the face if that was the case.

“Wait! No! Don’t let that door shut!”

“What? Why? What the hell is wrong with you, Nick?”

Instead of answering her he shoved past her, just in time to bang his fist on the door. When he turned back to look at her, his face was contorted with something that very closely resembled legitimate anger.

“Awesome, Olivia. Fantastic. Great job. Really, way to go.”

“What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that the door is busted.”

“Clearly it isn’t. I just used it.”

“That you did, because you were on the outside of it. It won’t open from this side. Thanks to you, we’re stuck.”

Olivia's jaw dropped. All of the sudden, she was acutely aware of how small the space in the laundry room actually was. With the door shut there was hardly any room left between the two of them. She was stuck, and with the last person on the planet she wanted to see.