Disclaimer: I do not own Pushing Daisies…but how cool would that be?

Let Me Fall-
-Chapter Four: Outburst

Olive Snook was pretending to refill sugar dispensers. She was, however, doing nothing of the sort. Surreptitiously, Olive was watching, out of the corner of her eye, Pim Madison and Alfredo Aldarisio talking. There was something agitating about Pim's posture.

She sat with her legs crossed under the table, bouncing her foot dangerously close to Alfredo's legs. She rested her weight on her elbows, leaning forward slightly, setting her head atop her clasped hands. She wiggled and she animatedly told Alfredo some story. Alfredo smiled and nodded and replied. Pim laughed loudly, slightly louder than Olive thought necessary. Olive flinched as Pim lowered one hand to the table and tapped her fingers close to Alfredo's arm.

Had anyone else been talking to Alfredo, Olive knew she wouldn't feel so--she couldn't even describe what she felt. Olive also knew that if Pim had just been talking to Alfredo she wouldn't feel so-what-ever-she-felt. But Olive knew that Pim was not simply talking—but flirting.

Olive had known Pim too long not to recognize the signs. After all she had seen it happen many times before. The little bounce of the foot, her tapping fingers, that wiggle. It was all the same. Olive suddenly felt as though the years that had passed since she had last seen Pim had disappeared. Nothing had changed.

Olive had always envied how Pim handled her love life. Olive had never seen anything like it. Pim didn't hold onto to emotions and feelings like Olive did. If a man didn't return her feelings she forgot about him as well, moving on to the next one she saw fit. She flirted easily. She was carefree without being careless or overly exuberant. She didn't get hung up on one man nor did she obsess like Olive was prone to do.

Olive had tried to handle her love life like Pim did. But she just couldn't. Where Pim's emotions didn't hold her back, Olive's emotions made her hang on.

It was obvious by the way Pim was sitting that she had chosen her newest love interest in the city: Alfredo Aldarisio.

Olive sighed as she filled the last of the sugar dispensers. Looking for something to do she picked up the regular and decaf coffee pots and started to make her rounds. She was doing a good job at avoiding Alfredo and Pim's table but still keeping an eye on them when Alfredo motioned her over. With a silent groan, Olive walked over.

"Hiya Olive," her cousin said when she finally approached the table.

"Hiya Pim," Olive replied, tired.

"You two already know each other?" Alfredo asked, looking between the two women.

Olive nodded as Pim answered. "We sure do, we're cousins."

Alfredo's eyes went wide and he looked panic stricken. "C-C-Cousins?" He choked out.

"Yes," Olive replied, narrowing her eyes at Alfredo's strange reaction. Pim let out a small laugh. Olive's eyes narrowed further, "Don't you have a job to get to, Pim?" She asked as Alfredo fumbled with his jacket pocket and pulled out one of his mood enhancers; squeezing three drops into his mouth.

Pim smiled. "Actually, Dilly was kind enough to let me start next week so I could get settled into my apartment."

"Then shouldn't you be doing that?"

"I'm almost done, actually," Pim replied smugly.

"If you ladies will excuse me," Alfredo said standing up. "But I have to get going. It was a pleasure to meet you Pim. Goodbye Olive."

"Bye, Alfredo," Olive said as Pim waved sweetly, both watching as Alfredo left The Pie Hole in a rush.

"What did you say to him?" Olive asked skeptically.

"He's kind of charming in a quirky sort of way, isn't he?" Pim asked, directing a steady gaze on Olive and ignoring her question.

"I wouldn't know," Olive replied. She lied. Two days ago Olive had had the fleeting thought that Alfredo Aldarisio was indeed charming in a quirky sort of way. "And I would appreciate it if you didn't harass my customers."

"Believe me, cousin," Pim said with a smile. "There was no harassing."

"Well you must have done something to make him leave like that."

"What makes you think it was something I said?" Pim asked. "Perhaps it was something that you did."

"Whatever," Olive replied, walking away. Pim laughed and shook her head, staring at the spot Alfredo had been occupying moments before.

The fantasy started as it had the first time…

Olive stood in The Pie Hole, cleaning up after closing. She felt lonely and lost. Unsure like she had missed something; a feeling, of confusion.

She ran her hand along the counter, dragging her finger tips across the smooth marble surface. She stopped at the coffee cup that was sitting on the middle of the black surface. She tilted her head and cautiously picked up the cup, as if it would disappear upon her touch; when a noise behind her caught her attention. She turned to see Alfredo walk through the door.

"Olive," he said, breathlessly.

A smile formed on Olive's face as she set the cup down "Fredo," she said, walking over to him. She stopped just short of Alfredo, almost touching but not quite. Her eyes were drawn to his and she suddenly felt lost and found at the same time. "I knew it was you," she said, quietly, not even realizing she had spoken.

Alfredo smiled and leaned forward, closing the small distance that was between them.

As they kissed Olive's eyes slipped shut and she tenderly wrapped her arms around Alfredo's neck as his encircled her waist. She felt an indescribable warmth flood through her body. The feeling was unlike anything she had ever felt in her entire life.

Alfredo lifted her, pulling her off the ground and turning.

The spinning made her anything but dizzy. She merely clung tighter, trying to make any remaining space between them disappear.

There were often times in her life when Olive felt incomplete. But at this exact moment, Olive felt whole, for the first time in a long while, and she was certain she would never be incomplete again.

Slowly, Alfredo lowered Olive back to the ground as their kiss ended. Olive sighed, when she felt Alfredo's lips completely leave hers, and smiled. Lazily, she opened her eyes and felt her breath hitch.

Alfredo Aldarisio was standing before her no more.. His kind and caring features were replaced with the taunting features of one Jonah Burke. Olive gasped as she suddenly felt herself lose the ability to breath. She took a step back and nearly tripped, only to be saved by Jonah's arms circling around her waist.

"Olive, come one," he said. "We're going to be late."

Olive opened her mouth to respond. 'Late?' the question hung on her tongue, the word not actually making way out her mouth. She looked around feeling lost and confused.

She was no longer in The Pie Hole. Rather, Jonah was dragging her down an aisle of what appeared to be a wedding. Who was getting married? She panicked and looked down; relieved to see she was neither wearing a wedding dress or any type of white dress.

Jonah pulled her all the way down the aisle to the front row of seating. Feeling dazed Olive allowed Jonah to sit her down, vaguely aware that he had laced their fingers and was now holding her hand. She looked down at her hand in a haze as he gave her a comforting squeeze.

Olive shook her head and looked around. They were outside. The sun was shining and birds were singing. Flowers lined the middle aisle, in full bloom. Everything was bright and colorful, yet Olive felt some how disconnected. As if she were watching everything take place from outside of her own body.

Why was she at a wedding? Why was she at a wedding with Jonah? What happened to Fredo? Where had he—

Olive's eyes settled on the alter and she felt her body grow cold. Alfredo Aldarisio, the man who she had been kissing in The Pie Hole minutes ago, was standing at the alter in a freshly pressed tuxedo waiting to be married.

Suddenly music started and there was movement; Olive stood, automatically, in respect as the bride made her way down the aisle. Olive craned her neck around the people sitting behind her to see the bride. She felt her heart stop and had the feeling she actually knew what it was like to be dead.

Her own cousin, Pim Madison, was walking down the aisle in a modest, white, and beautiful wedding dress.

Olive felt her knees give out beneath her and she clutched the chair for support as she sat herself down. Her entire body felt like jelly. She couldn't think or move as everything around her became even more of a haze.

She was vaguely aware that the priest who stood at the alter was speaking. There was no sense of time. There was only the hole that had somehow been carved into Olive's heart. There was no way that Aflredo was marrying Pim. It couldn't be happening. And yet, it was. Olive couldn't move, couldn't speak, she couldn't do anything.

Jonah's hand was cold against hers as he cradled her smaller hand in his larger one.

"If there is anyone present," the priest's voice suddenly broke through Olive's haze. "who is against the joining of these two people speak now or forever hold your peace."

Swiftly, Olive pulled her hand from Jonah's grasp and stood. She had to stop this. She couldn't allow it to happen. Alfredo couldn't marry Pim. Olive wouldn't stand for it. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if it actually happened.

Olive took a step forward to protest but found herself falling. The wedding disappeared and she was alone. In a black pit just falling…falling...falling…falling…

Olive woke with a start, jumping and sitting up. She took deep rapid breaths, looking around frantically. She was in her room. She was home. She had been sleeping.

"A dream," she breathed clutching her chest, pulling at the material of her pajamas, trying to cool down. "It was only a dream."

Digby was lying, curled in a ball, next to her. Olive's spastic movements woke him and he lazily looked up at her.

"A simple dream," Olive continued speaking into the night, trying to calm herself. "Nothing to be worried about. Just a dream."

Olive looked over to Digby, who was keeping a steady eye on her.

"Don't give me that look," she said to the dog. "It was just a dream. It doesn't mean I have feelings for Alfredo."

Digby made a noise that was somewhere between a whine and a groan and uncurled from his ball; stretching out across the bed, resting his head in Olive's lap.

"It was only a dream. There's nothing to worry about," Olive spoke again, lightly patting Digby's head. "Right?"

Digby snored.

Olive groaned and flopped back onto the bed.

It had been four days, fourteen hours, and fifty-seven minutes since Pim Madison had once again made an appearance in Olive Snook's life. It had been three days, four hours and fifty-seven minutes since Pim Madison had known Alfredo Aldarisio. And in those three days in the time that the two had both spent at The Pie Hole they had yet to leave the others side. They sat in Alfredo's regular booth talking, the flow of conversation coming easy to them both. They wouldn't break in their conversation until one or the other had to leave. Pim flirted and Alfredo seemed blissfully unaware of it.

The clock in The Pie Hole kitchen struck the beginning of a new hour. Make it three days and five hours.

Olive Snook stood in the kitchen on The Pie Hole. She was at the counter, cutting butter into chunks for pies. She had a clear view of the dining area where she could see Alfredo and Pim sitting and talking. She huffed and cut into the butter with an angered force. The knife she used made a loud 'clank' with the metal table. Had anyone not known what Olive was cutting they would have assumed it was a tough meat by the shear force she was hacking away at the butter with.

She grumbled angrily as she continued to watch Alfredo and Pim in the other room.

Olive did not consider herself a jealous person. She usually did not hold such a form of contempt for other people. But as she watched Pim and Alfredo talk she could only describe the feeling that was coursing through her veins as simply that: jealousy.

She didn't understand why she was jealous. Why should it matter that Pim was talking with Alfredo? Why did it matter that Pim was flirting with Alfredo. It didn't matter. It shouldn't matter. It shouldn't bother her that Alfredo seemed to either be unaware that Pim was flirting or just ignoring it. But it did some how matter.

She couldn't be jealous. There was no possible way she could be. And so she wasn't, she decided as Alfredo took a sip of coffee. She would convince herself otherwise, despite the fiery burning that was occupying her very soul.

And yet, it wasn't just jealousy that was consuming Olive and driving her mad. It was another feeling. A feeling she knew an understood, but couldn't quite face. Because that was near impossible. She couldn't possibly feel that for Alfredo. It was preposterous. And yet, Olive knew, deep down, that perhaps it really wasn't.

"Hi Olive," Chuck said as she and the Pie Maker walked into the kitchen.

Olive jumped at the sound of company. She was able to suppress a scream but the knife she had been holding flew out of her hand. The three occupants of the kitchen watched in horror as the knife flew into the air before tumbling towards the floor; making way for Ned's foot. The knife clattered loudly as it hit the ground just short of Ned's foot.

Olive's eyes were wide, Chuck's hand covered her mouth, and Ned was frozen with horror as the knife bounced twice before settling still.

A sheepish smile appeared on Olive's face. "Well," she breathed, "At least it wasn't a butcher knife."

Ned's head tilted to the side and his jaw dropped even more. Keeping his gaze on Olive he bent and picked up the butter knife.

"Well that's what you get for startling a woman with a knife," Olive said indignantly, turning her nose up.

Chuck laughed, lowering her hand from her mouth. "Sorry, Olive," she said, walking over to the counter and leaning against its cool surface.

"That's alright," Olive replied. "And sorry Ned," she said as Ned set the knife on the counter.

Ned smiled. "Don't worry about," he replied, walking over to the sink.

"So, Olive…" Chuck began to speak but Olive quickly became oblivious to what was being said, her gaze once again falling to the other room where Pim and Alfredo continued to talk.

"Olive?" Chuck asked, when she realized Olive was not paying attention to her. "Olive?" She snapped her fingers in front of Olive's face, but was unsuccessful of drawing her attention.

"Olive!" Ned said rather loudly, finally making Olive jump and come back to the present around her.

"Would you stop scaring me?" she said, breathlessly.

"Sorry," Ned said sheepishly, "But Chuck was trying to get your attention."

Olive blushed. "Oh, sorry Chuck," she said somewhat absent-mindedly turning her gaze once again back to the other room.

Ned and Chuck shared a bemused looked before following Olive's gaze. They shared another confused look when they realized what Olive was looking at.

"You're cousin--she has been spending a lot of time with that same customer," Chuck said, grabbing Olive's attention before she was too far gone. Ned shrugged and went back to cleaning the dishes; making a point to make as noise as he could so as to not over hear Chuck and Olive's conversation.

Olive shrugged.

"What's his name again?"

"Alfredo," Olive replied, without a second thought. Olive continued to watch Pim and Alfredo as Chuck watched Olive. Olive twitched slightly as she saw Pim reach across the table and tap the table close to Alfredo's arm.

"Olive?" Chuck asked, waiting until Olive finally turned towards her. "Are you alright?"

"Peachy as pie," Olive replied, rather stiffly, never tearing her eyes from the other room.

"Are you sure?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" Olive asked, "It shouldn't matter whether or not Pim and Alfredo have been talking non stop for the last three days. It doesn't matter. I don't care. I'm fine," Olive said, quickly and tersely.

Chuck looked amused as she continued to watch Olive. Looking over the top of Olive's head to make sure Ned wasn't paying attention to their conversation, she leaned close to Olive and spoke: "Olive, are you jealous?" She asked, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice; she failing.

Olive turned towards Chuck faster than lightning. "I most certainly am not jealous!" She replied slightly louder than necessary before stomping from the kitchen in a huff.

The Pie Maker turned from his spot at the kitchen sink, looking at Chuck with a look of amusement, wonderment, and question. His silent message was clear: 'What was that about?'

"Don't look at me," Chuck replied. "I don't know a thing."

The pie restaurant that could be considered a "pie heaven", know as The Pie Hole, would be closing in one hour.

There were only six people currently occupying the restaurant: The Pie Maker, Ned, the woman he loved, Charlotte Charles, the waitress, Olive Snook, Olive's cousin, Pimento Madison, the traveling salesman, Alfredo Aldarisio, and the private investigator, Emerson Codd.

The Pie Maker, Chuck, and Emerson all sat in a booth, talking amongst themselves. Pim sat listening as Alfredo Aldarisio explained, in depth, about the herbal mood enhancers that he sold. And Olive Snook was brooding.

Olive sat at the counter of The Pie Hole, eating a cup of ice cream, though she could not taste the sweet treat. Her back was too the marble counter top, using it as a support and she sat, watching as Pim and Alfredo talked; she could hear their conversation but none of the words they spoke registered in her mind.

The five other occupants of The Pie Hole were so absorbed in their conversations that they did not notice Olive Snook staring intently, and with narrowed eyes, at the booth occupied by Pim and Alfredo.

Olive's bad mood had worsened throughout the day. She reckoned she was becoming damn near obsessed with the friendship of her cousin and Alfredo. "I'm becoming damn near obsessed," she whispered to her self, taking a bite of ice cream and choking on it, spitting part of it back out. She coughed, but no one noticed. She wiped her mouth clean and set her ice cream cup on the counter behind her. She was the only one who didn't have anyone to talk to. But she didn't care. "I don't want to talk to them anyways," she said, moodily to herself.

Olive continued to watch as Pim and Alfredo continued to talk. She told herself she couldn't wrap her mind around why it infuriated her so. Though, the truth was that she could wrap her mind around it, she just refused to believe what she had wrapped her mind around was actually true. She wouldn't admit to herself what she thought she was feeling she was actually, truly feeling.

Her eyes narrowed even further as Pim once again began to reach across the table towards Alfredo's arm. But this time something was different and Olive's world quickly changed.

As Pimento Madison was reaching across the table to rest her hand near Alfredo Aldarisio's arm, Olive Snook quickly came to the realization that, this time, Pim had no intention of stopping; she would reach across the table until her hand rested comfortably on Alfredo's arm. Her momentum was different; there would be no stopping short. She was going for broke.

Olive felt her breath hitch and she suddenly felt like she was thrown into some bad horror movie. The colors around her changed to black and white and time seemed to slow, until everything was moving at a snail's pace.

Alfredo, the poor innocent victim that he was, was blissfully unaware that the monster was staring him in the face, and would soon eat his arm. The other occupants of the room, Ned, Chuck, and Emerson, having no idea what was taking place next to them; only to realize it after the monster was revealed, giving them no time to escape before they, too, were eaten. And petrified Olive, who knew exactly what was going to happen, was too scared to move.

Pim's hand continued to reach across the table, breaking the half way point

Images began to distort and swirl, blending together until the only thing that was clear were Pim and Alfredo. Olive's heart rate increased and she could hear the pounding of it in her ears; making her vaguely aware that the "Jaws Theme" had begun to play in her mind. .

Duuuuh dum…Thump Thump…Pim's hand got closer…duuuh dum…thump thump…and closer…duuh dum, duh dum…and closer…duh dum, duh dum, duh dum…contact.

"Stop!!!"

Alfredo, Pim, Ned, Chuck, and Emerson all jumped when Olive screamed. They all turned towards Olive, to see the waitress standing by the counter, fists clenched at her side, staring at Alfredo and Pim.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!" She exclaimed again.

"Stop what, Olive?" Pim asked slowly, having never seen such an outburst from her cousin; especially directed towards her.

"Stop the—the touching," Olive motioned with her hand at Alfredo's arm. Alfredo looked down and realized, as if for the first time, that Pim was touching his arm. He jumped and awkwardly pulled his arm from Pim's grasp. "And—and---the flirting. And—and everything!" Olive waved her hands in front of her for emphasis.

"F-F-Flirting?" Alfredo asked, stuttering, looking panicked.

"Why should I?" Pim asked in a daring tone, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Because," Olive answered, losing some of her anger and looking more uncomfortable, aware of the eyes watching her.

"Why, Olive?" Pim pressed, leaning towards her cousin slightly

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because I like Alfredo!" Olive yelled.

There was a simultaneous gasp as Olive's hand shot to her mouth and she willed the words back into her mouth; not truly believing the words that had left her mouth, but knowing that they were, indeed, true. Alfredo looked shocked, Pim smirked, Ned's jaw dropped, Chuck's eyes went wide, and Emerson laughed.

Finally, after a moment of awkward silence, Olive lowered her hand and looked sheepishly at Alfredo. "I think I'll take you up on that dinner offer," she said, blushing.

Alfredo Aldarisio smiled.

Author's Note: Well there's chapter four! I hope you liked it :D

Thanks to everyone who left a review!! I really appreciate it!

Until next time,
Kate