A/N: I know it's been a while. I have other stories that I am trying to write as well. I don't own any of the characters.
After spending the entire weekend together, Charles and Olivia were back at their respective jobs. Bianca and Nicole were with Pauline and Noah was with Lucy. When Charles arrived at Empirical, he passed Liza.
"Liza, could you come into my office please?"
"Of course."
"Give me a few minutes."
"Ok."
Charles went into his office, shut the door, turned on his laptop and checked his emails. Then Liza knocked.
"Come on in."
Liza walked in and shut the door.
"Have a seat."
"Charles, I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other night. That was uncalled for but just so you know, I still have feelings for you. This isn't just going to go away."
"I appreciate your apology but I think you really need to be apologizing to Olivia. You need to accept that Olivia and I are together. When I first started having feelings for you, you were with Josh and I had to accept that."
"She seems very nice."
"She is."
"You really like her, don't you?"
"I do. I still care about you and probably always will but I was hurt when you lied to me for all those months."
"I know. There were so many times that I wanted to tell you the truth. Could I have Olivia's cell phone number?"
"Of course."
Charles wrote down Olivia's cell number and gave it to Liza before Liza went back to her desk. She put the number into her phone and then she called Olivia.
"Benson."
"Olivia, this is Liza Miller."
"What can I do for you, Liza?"
"I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other night. I still kind of have feelings for Charles. I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable."
"It was a little awkward and I did sense you were a bit jealous."
"Yeah, I kind of am. Can we meet for lunch?"
"How about dinner? I know Charles has a dinner meeting tonight. I can have my son's nanny stay a little longer I'm sure."
"That sounds great. What time works for you?"
"Sometimes I can never plan on leaving at a particular time because of a case."
"I get off at 5, so I will plan to stay in Manhattan."
"Where do you live?"
"I'm in Brooklyn, Williamsburg to be exact."
"Ok. Do you know where the 16th Precinct is?"
"Not exactly."
Olivia gave Liza directions on how to get to the Precinct."
"Ok. I will meet you there."
"That sounds like a plan. We can decide where we're going then."
"Great."
Liza hung up and then Diana bellowed for her coffee. She went to get her coffee and went back to her desk. Around lunch time, Olivia hadn't heard from Charles all day, so she decided to get lunch and take it to him. She picked it up and headed over to Empirical. She went up and saw Liza first.
"Hey, Liza."
"Hey, Olivia."
"Is Charles here?"
"I believe so. I didn't see him sneak out."
"Great."
"Olivia!"
"Hey, Diana."
"I take it you're here to see Charles?"
"Yeah."
"Liza, go pick me up a Cobb salad."
"Of course."
"Let me show you where Charles' office is."
"Thanks."
Diana took Olivia to Charles' office.
"Charles, you have a visitor."
"I do?"
Olivia walked into his office.
"Surprise! I brought lunch."
"This is a surprise! Is there something else, Diana?"
"No."
"Great. Shut the door please."
"Of course."
Diana shut the door and then Olivia put the bag on Charles' desk. They got the food out and started eating.
"Thanks for this."
"You're welcome. I'm having dinner with Liza tonight."
"Good. Is Lucy able to stay with Noah?"
"No. Amanda said she will pick him up and take him home with her."
"The girls are with Pauline for most of the week."
"She would be the last person I would want watching my son."
"I don't blame you at all. I wish we could both play hooky."
"I do too. I missed waking up with you this morning."
"I missed it too. I think the 5 of us are acting more and more like a family."
"I think we are too. Instead of heading to your empty townhouse, why don't you just come to my place tonight?"
"I could do that. I have my key."
"Good."
"What are you up to this afternoon?"
"As soon as I leave here, I have to go to the Courthouse."
"Ugh!"
"Yeah, I know. I need a vacation."
"I do too. I'll see what I can do, even if it's just us."
"I like the sound of that. I can't even tell you when I was last on a vacation. I love having you spoil me."
"That's because you're worth it."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
Charles and Olivia finished lunch and then Olivia left after she kissed Charles. Charles went back to work and Olivia headed to the Courthouse. The rest the day seemed to go by quickly. Liza left Empirical and called for an Uber to take her to the Precinct. She was outside waiting for her car when Charles came outside.
"Liza, I understand you and Olivia are having dinner tonight."
"We are. I'm meeting her at the Precinct."
"Good. I'm glad to hear it. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
Charles' car was already there, so he left to head to his dinner meeting. Liza's Uber arrived and then it took her to the Precinct. When she arrived, she got out of the car and went inside. Someone directed her to SVU and then she took the elevator up.
Fin, Amanda and Sonny were all at their desks and Olivia was in her office.
"Hey, Liza."
"Hey."
"Liv is in her office."
"Thanks."
Liza walked over to Olivia's office and knocked on her doorframe.
"Hey, Liza. Come on in."
"Thanks."
"I'm just about done here."
"No hurry."
"How was the rest of your day?"
"Not too bad. How about you?"
"After lunch, I had to be in court and now I am finishing up some paperwork."
Olivia finished up what she was doing and then she and Liza picked somewhere to go to eat before they headed out. They arrived, got their table and sat down. They had their order taken and then they waited for their salads.
"Is it me or is Diana rather bossy? She seems nice."
"She's both. She's mostly bossy and demanding though. I was made a Junior Editor but I'm still her Assistant. At one point, she had a thing for Charles too. I'm not sure how much Charles has told you about me."
"He told me that you lied about your age."
"Yeah. I quit my job at Random House to raise my daughter. My husband cheated on me and gambled away her college money. I was living in New Jersey until my divorce. I moved to Brooklyn and have been living with my best friend Maggie. She never liked David. I needed to get a job to help pay for Caitlin's tuition but no one would hire me because I was old. I met this guy, Josh, at a bar, who assumed I was the same age as him. Maggie thought that maybe I could tell people I was 26 to try to get a job. I ended up getting hired at Empirical and I started dating Josh. Once I met Charles though, I couldn't keep him off my mind. When I first babysat the girls, he and I seemed to have a real connection. I never had that with Josh and never will. Josh is a tattoo artist, so he lives the lifestyle of an artist. He likes smoking pot and playing video games. Things I really had no interest in. Maggie is an artist too. Anyway, the thing with Josh was fun while it lasted but it was really wearing me out sometimes. I told Josh about my real age and he struggled with it. We would break up and get back together, which happened several times. Charles has never been anything but nice to me. I was helping him with something had to do even while I was at a bluegrass music festival with Josh. Charles recommended this Bed and Breakfast near where we were and he paid for it. We had a moment when I had quit my job at Empirical because of an argument with Kelsey. Charles tracked me down and told me to think about coming back. He then kissed me but then I had gotten back together with Josh. Even while I was with Josh, I couldn't stop thinking about Charles. He was dating someone else and it made me jealous. We were at a book fair in the Hamptons and we had gone out for a walk. He showed me around and we had gone into this bar and Berlin was playing there. We danced and we kissed. We headed back to the hotel and we kissed again. I really wanted him that night. Little did I know was that Josh was there and he was planning to propose. Charles saw that Josh had 'marry me' on the bed in rose petals. After Josh and I broke up for good, I told Kelsey the truth."
"So, Charles was the reason you and Josh broke up?"
"Sort of but Josh wants a family. I don't want to go through all that again. He deserves to be with someone that can give him that. I would have said no to him. In a way, he was a lot like my ex-husband. I never told Charles this but I had a dream about us almost having sex in his office and it almost did happen for real but we were interrupted by the janitor. Pauline came back into the picture with her book. It really complicated everything. Working with Pauline, I thought maybe they would try to work things out. That never happened. They divorced and now he's with you. Not that that is a bad thing. I do want Charles to be happy and he just never seemed happy around Pauline. Ever since he has been with you, he does seem happy."
"I appreciate your honesty. Out of all the relationships I have been in, Charles is the only one that isn't job-related for me."
"As much as I would have loved to have been involved with him, I don't know that I could have dated the big Boss where I work."
"I dated someone from Internal Affairs for about a year, which is just as bad and for years, I never got along with the guy."
"You said the other night that you were with someone from Chicago. That had to have been hard."
"That was pretty much a friends with benefits thing. I sometimes wish there had been more but the distance was a big problem. Charles and I met by accident and really hit it off. He is so amazing with Noah."
"How old is he?"
"He's 6."
"Yeah, that's a fun age."
"He sometimes gets mad at me when I work a lot and he ends up spending more time with his nanny than he does with me. If she can't stay with him, I can usually get Amanda to watch him. He and her daughter Jesse are best friends. I love that Charles is so active with his girls."
"Those girls are his life. It was cute seeing him interacting with your son."
"He said he would have loved to have had a son. When he took Noah to a baseball game, Noah told me they had so much fun together. I enjoy doing things with the girls too."
"The girls are very easy to get along with. If you ever need someone to watch the kids, I'll volunteer."
"I will keep that in mind. Thank you."
"Things seem to be pretty serious with you and Charles."
"We're getting there."
Their food arrived and they talked more while they ate. After dinner, they both headed home. When Olivia arrived at her apartment, Charles was already there.
"Hey, Babe."
"Hey."
"How was dinner?"
"It went well."
"Good."
"Liza said if we ever need someone to watch the kids, she'll volunteer."
"Good to know."
Olivia sat down next to Charles and kissed him as he put his arm around her.
"How was your dinner meeting?"
"Boring. I would have much rather been here with you. I talked to my friend Bob. He and his wife would like to meet you."
"Is this the lawyer?"
"Yep."
"Ok. Set something up."
"I will do that."
"Did I ever tell you that you remind me of this lawyer I know?"
"No, you did not."
"He was a Defense Attorney and then he helped out when I adopted my son. He even defended me when I was being charged with a murder I didn't commit. You could be his identical twin. "
"Did you two ever date?"
"No."
"You ready for bed?"
"I'm not tired yet."
"Me neither."
They started kissing and then Charles got up. He helped Olivia get up and then they headed to her bedroom. They undressed each other, got on the bed and made love before they fell asleep in each other's arms.
Reviews are appreciated.
