AN: So I know I should be working on my other stories, but I started reading the Choice by Nicholas Sparks and I wanted to do my own version of it so here it is!
Olivia Pope was perfectly content to sit on her back porch alone with a glass of wine enjoying her view. Well not alone, Harper, her prize pure breed German Shepard, was curled up next to her on the swing. Still Olivia was content. Until her neighbors all day bar b que turned into an all-night solo party with him and from what Olivia could tell his drooling mutt. Every Saturday cars filled his drive way and his noisy friends came to play in his pool, boat, jet ski, wave runners, the man had a lot of toys. Typical single guy crap Olivia thought. Tonight however it had gone too far, not because of his friends or their screaming children, not even because it was now eleven o'clock at night and there was still light and music flooding the back yard, no. It was his damn dog. All week Olivia had noticed that Harper was moving slower, she no longer got excited to go jogging on the beach, she simply wanted to lie down at Olivia's feet. Olivia was rubbing her belly this morning and finally realized what happened to her precious pure bred. Olivia Pope wasn't a snob. She drank wine that most people had never heard of and the idea of wearing anything off the rack made her itchy, but she wasn't a snob. She preferred to say that she lived living well. She worked hard for her money and enjoyed spending it. She also volunteered at a local shelter and worked at a summer feeding program. Olivia Pope was not a snob. But the idea that her neighbors slobbering mutt impregnated her perfect dog made her crazy.
She is a district attorney in a small town in North Carolina; though she missed the city she loved the water. Olivia was listening to some of the cops talk in the halls of the court house, they were complaining about a new puppy that was too small and untrainable. Usually Olivia wasn't one for pets; they were a complication when one wanted to travel and wreaked havoc on her perfectly cream colored furniture. She ignored this conversation until she heard one of the offers suggest they might have to put her down if no one wanted her. Olivia immediately jumped and offered to take her home immediately. The idea that an animal would be put down for its wiliness bothered her to her core. Olivia was typically too wily, small, and untrainable.
At least that's what she heard from her mother, than law professors, than the district attorney she used to work for in New York. She had just come to Charlotte, moved into a big house right by the water. The Realtor had insisted she didn't need a security system, and Olivia had been procrastinating on getting one installed, if only because it was the first thing her mother asked about when she called. A big police school dropout dog might be the better option, at least that's what Olivia thought at the time. Now that Harper was full grown she was large and she loved running on the beach and snuggling on the couch, but she was also content to let visitors in after a quick sniff. Olivia had the alarm system installed while Harper trailed the installer happily sniffing at him. She may not have been the guard dog that Olivia had gambled on, but she was Olivia's only friend in North Carolina. Most of her friends remained in New York, a few went off to London or Paris, some to D.C., but the elitists that Olivia attended Georgetown with had fled "The South" for large cities. They balked at her when she told them her plans, refusing to believe that the formidable Olivia Pope would want to leave the perfect career of a New York A.D.A. for a job as a small counties D.A.
Olivia barely believed it herself, but she was sick of being reminded that she was Senator Eli Pope's daughter, that her job must have been acquired through nepotism. In 2016 you would think the shock of seeing a black female lawyer wouldn't cause heart palpitations in the upper crust of New York. Olivia was sick of the looks, sick of living in her father's shadow and sick of her mother redecorating her apartment when she wasn't home. She found an old college Professor that was retiring and he wanted to train her to replace him, less than a month after the decision had been made she bought a house and was moved in.
Now she had wished she put more thought into her neighbors, but who would have thought that a man living alone in a small town would make more noise than in her Upper East Side apartment. He let his mutt run around the beach and most of the neighborhood without a leash or supervision. Harper however stayed to Olivia's yard minding her own business. She didn't deserve to be saddled with puppies, and neither did Olivia. For the last hour Olivia had been obsessing over what to do with a pregnant dog and what to do with what were likely to be weird looking puppies. She watched her neighbor as he threw a tennis ball into the water and as the great brute run into the waves after it. Midnight rolled around and the lights were still on and the music still playing. That was the last straw. Olivia led Harper back into the house and went across her yard to confront him. She had never met him, despite living there for almost six months. He dropped off a welcome basket from Harry and David, to her shock, and again at Christmas, she had every intention of writing a thank you note, but she got busy and well, no one did that where she was from so social etiquette escaped her.
"Hey!" Olivia said sternly and was immediately accosted by the dog lumbering her way. She was on a mission and slightly off balance from the wine she had been drinking and was quickly taken down by the beast. The fall knocked the wind out of her and she was quickly seeing stars. Closing her eyes and shaking her head to help get in the right head space before she sat up she felt strong warm arms wrap around her than lift her and set her on her feet almost too quickly. She stayed upright however she swayed a bit causing his arms to reach out and steady her again.
"Hi." He said once he opened her eyes.
"Hi." Olivia answered in a breathy response, still trying to calm her heart rate back down.
"Sorry about that, he's a little excitable," Olivia snorted at this, he doesn't know the half of it, "I'm Fitz Grant and this is Tuck." Olivia glared at Tuck who was by his owners side panting. Fitz saw the look of anger in her eyes and shut down the nice southern routine. "And you are?"
"Olivia... Pope."