Chapter One

Alex hung up the phone with a sigh. She loved her family, she really did. But sometimes they were too much. Everyone had an opinion of her family; rich, stuck up. Alex knew different, they were kind, loving and always supportive of her. She grew up in money but her parents were never tight with it. She had two brother and two sisters, all older than her. They'd all grown up close, and were successful in their own right. But worst of all, from her perspective anyway was that they had all got married and settled down, and ever since Alex's mum had been hinting at her to do the same, the pressure of which finally got to her and she blurted out she had been in a steady relationship for a while and it was serious.

Alex's family knew she was gay when she was a teenager and they never treated her any different or loved her any less, she is who she is and that's all they care about. Her mum had been on the phone with her for the past hour, convincing her to bring her 'girlfriend' to this year's Cabot family reunion in two weeks. The only problem was Alex didn't have a girlfriend to bring, let alone one named Olivia-which she had told her mum a while back in a pressured conversation about her personal life-again.

It would be fine, she knew it would. There was no problem not really. She could just tell her family she was no longer with Olivia, but then again why wouldn't she have told them already. No, no she had a better idea, she's just ask Olivia to go with her, easy, why wouldn't Olivia want to go to her parent's for a weeklong family reunion pretending to be her girlfriend when she could just about stomach her-yeah she was screwed.

Alex walked into the precinct a week later, she had been avoided speaking to Olivia after she attempted to ask her about the reunion four days before when she embarrassingly went over to the detective's desk, stuttered a few unrecognisable words blushed crimson red and turned round to walk away without waiting for a response from Olivia. It all happened so quick Olivia didn't hear what Alex had originally said and everyone was left extremely confused.

Three days before Alex was set to head to her parents she decided to bite the bullet and just ask Olivia to go with her, explaining her situation. She knew Olivia would never get the time off this close but she figured if she asked, she wouldn't have to lie to her parents by saying Olivia was working.

Knocking on Olivia's apartment door at 7pm, Alex began pacing in the corridor. It wasn't until she looked up to see Olivia leaning on the door frame, arms crossed trying to suppress her laughter did she realise she's been caught and blushed once more. After a few seconds which felt like hours, she plucked up her courage and walked past Olivia and into her apartment.

"Take a seat" Olivia broke Alex out of her thought and pointed to the sofa in the middle of the room. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"No, No I'm good thanks, look, this is gonna sound really-really unbelievable but I have a problem and I really need your help"

Noticing the nervousness in Alex's voice, Olivia quickly sat down and told Alex to continue.

"You see, my parent, who contrary to popular belief are amazing people, and they've always only ever wanted the best for me and my brother and sisters are holding this year's Cabot family reunion. All the family go, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, you name it they all go. Anyway my family is huge, and by brother and sisters are all married and settled down, and three of them have kids. Anyway I'm going off here, sorry. So yeah The Cabot family reunion is starting this weekend for the week, and like I said my whole family will be there. But you see I may have accidently, under pressure told my mum that I had a girlfriend that I'd been seeing for a long time now but she was always too busy to come up to the family parties. And now, now she wants me to bring her to this reunion and won't take no for an answer. But that's not all; I may have also told her my imaginary girlfriend's name was Olivia. And you are the only Olivia I know, and I know you can't get the time off to come, not that you'd wanna pretend to be my girlfriend for a week but I was hoping if I told my family you were working they could maybe ring you and you could play along? It would mean the world to me, really. Then in a few weeks I can say we split up or something...Liv? Are you listening?"

Olivia was sitting there, staring at Alex, trying her best not to laugh, but she just couldn't help herself and laughter soon filled the small apartment.

"You're cute when you panic"

"Liv this isn't funny, please help?"

"Alex, breathe, relax, it's ok"

"No Liv it isn't, I screwed up I Know, but she' just wants me to be happy, and she was always trying to set me up on dates so I just said the first thing I could think of, then when she asked for a name, yours just came out, I'm sorry"

"Alex didn't I just tell you to breathe? Seriously it's fine, besides I've already packed for the week" Olivia said it with such a huge grin laughing at the shock on Alex's face.

"Huh?"

"Well you see, about six months ago, I got a very surreal phone call off once Mrs Emily Cabot, asking if I was the girlfriend of her daughter Alex, because I was the only Detective Olivia she could find working for NYPD. She rings me up once a week and we talk, mostly about you. She rang me two weeks ago asking if I'd be able to come to the reunion, I spoke to Don then to get the time off"

"YOU SPEAK TO MY MOTHER?"

"Hey, don't shout at me! If you hadn't have gave my name and job title she wouldn't have rang. I was doing you a favour" The whole time Olivia was smiling like a kid at Christmas whilst Alex was having trouble thinking. Alex groaned and covered her face with her hands.

"I can't believe this, I'm going to kill my mother-"

"Oh come on Alex, she was just looking out for you, besides I'm sure she likes me" Olivia still couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. "So I'll pick you up from work Friday and we'll set off from there? I told your mum we'd come down Friday night so we could have a quiet dinner before everyone arrived" Alex groaned again but nodded,

"Thanks Liv, really, you shouldn't have to do this but I'm glad you are, I'm lucky to have you as a friend"

"Alex, really its fine, your mum seems lovely, and I could do with a break from work, so Friday?"

"Yeah, sure Liv, well I best go and pack, seeing as we're leaving a day early, really thank you again, and I promise I'll sort this all out soon"

"Its fine, now off you go, see you in work tomorrow" and with that Olivia showed Alex out and went into her living room to pick up the phone. After having it ring a few times a woman answered at the other end "Cabot residence"

"Emily, it's Olivia, I've just spoken to Alex, we'll be setting off Friday evening like you suggested, yeah we should be there by seven, no- that's great, I'm looking forward to meeting you too, yeah ok, bye" With that Olivia hung up and went to double check her bags. She had a week to woo Alex and show her she cared for her too, hopefully this all wouldn't backfire.