I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
Valentine's Day-
Leslie's Point of View-
I went to Olivia's school picking her up, Olivia couldn't wait until tonight when Neal takes us out, and I think I was just as excited because I never know what to expect with Neal.
"How was school?" I asked as Olivia handed me a giant heart shape that held all of her Valentine cards that her class mates had given her.
"Fun! I have heart cookies in my backpack, we were all able to take some home from when we baked them in class...I had cupcakes, chips and juice in class today as a snack." She said jumping around.
"Yeah, that explains your hyperness...did you pass out all your cards?" I asked.
"Except two." Olivia said as she grabbed my hand.
"Which two?" I asked curiously as Olivia stopped taking her backpack off handing me one.
"Happy Valentines Day mommy." Olivia said.
"Thank you sweetie, I love you!" I said as I hugged and kissed my daughter on her forehead.
"Your welcome...my teacher sent home some paperwork..." Olivia said.
"I will look at it when we get home." I said as we walked rest of the way home and up to our apartment knowing Neal will be here about 5ish. I pulled out the cookies from Olivia's bag before I pulled out the paperwork seeing the class roster being one of the paperwork and the other being that they were going to test the kids hearing, eyesight and their heads for lice which I had to sign giving my approval. Olivia was going through all of her Valentines she had collected today and was putting the cany aside.
"Mom, may I have some of this candy?"
"Save it for a snack tonight or tomorrow..." I said as she grumpily put it aside as I put the paperwork back into her bag beside the children roster putting that aside for me to hand over to Neal to give to Elizabeth. I went and sat next to my daughter looking at all the Valentines and watching Valentine episodes of shows on Disney channel. "I'm going to go shower, you going to be okay?" I asked.
"Yes mommy!" Olivia said as I pulled out a new attire that wasn't my work uniform and that wasn't jeans and a shirt that may have been older. I wanted to look nice but yet not too nice because I didn't know where we were going. I left the door cracked open in case she needed me and I could hear anything that is happening in the main room. I got out getting dressed, towel dried my hair as much as I could before brushing it out and pulling half up into a ponytail. "Mommy?" I heard Olivia ask and I could see my daughter peeking into the bathroom in the mirror.
"Yeah Olivia?" I asked not turning around from where I was looking into the mirror.
"Why are you wearing those clothes?" Olivia asked.
"I want to look nice...don't you want to look nice?" I asked.
"Yes, you look beautiful, the clothes don't make you beautiful..." Olivia said.
"You have been with Neal too much...what do you want to wear tonight?" I asked.
"May I wear my heart shirt that I got from June?" Olivia asked.
"Yep..." I said, it was better than the dress she wore to school and I won't have to worry about her dirtying it up any more. I turned back around looking in the mirror brushing my teeth and looked into my cabinet seeing my old make-up I haven't used since about high school besides the nail polish. I pulled it down looking through it not wanting to use any of it since it was all probably bad and make me break out so I pulled out the nail polish going back out to the main room seeing my daughter pulling on jeans.
"May I put nail polish on too?" Olivia asked, I let her wear it once or twice a year because I don't want her to get accustom to wearing it all the time.
"Yep..." I said as I cracked the window so it won't stink so bad doing my daughters fingers with the pink nail polish I had.
"Now to blow them dry." Olivia said before blowing on her fingers as I begun doing my own nails not wanting Olivia to do my nails, not yet at least and started to blow my nails dry before I put my socks and shoes on before helping Olivia with hers when she needed it. "Mom, can you braid my hair?" Olivia asked.
"Yep..." I said as I went into the bathroom grabbing the brush bringing it back out with a tie brushing through her thick black hair separating it to braid for her. "I need to cut your hair." I said as I realized how long it was getting.
"No mommy, I don't want to cut my hair." Olivia said upset about it.
"Not now...but before your birthday..." I said.
"Okay mommy..." She said more excited she didn't have to cut her hair now, I wrapped the tie around the end of her hair a couple of times to hold it there.
"Mom, why do you color your hair?" She asked leaning against me.
"Because I don't like my black hair." I said.
"But I have black hair..."
"I love your black hair, it looks absolutly cute on you...on me no...you got your black hair from me..." I said.
"What did I get from my dad?" Olivia asked.
"Facial features, like your nose...your smile...and you act like him sometimes..." I said.
"Will dad ever come back?" Olivia asked.
"Let's not talk about dad right now..." I said.
"Did you love dad? Do you miss him on Valentines day?" Olivia asked, every Valentines day since she was old enough to talk she has asked these questions.
"You know I loved your daddy and I miss him, but yet I look at you and you remind me of him every day...you hold a part of both of us and that is all I need." I said as I kissed the top of her head when a knock came to the door, we both stood up and Olivia got ready to go to her hiding spot as I went to the door looking in the peep hole seeing Neal. I opened the door seeing Neal again and clearer holding two bouquets of flowers. "How'd you get in?" I asked.
"I jumped into the complex when someone on one of the lower floors came in...Happy Valentines Day." He said as he stuck out one of the bouquets.
"Thank you." I said as I stepped aside letting Neal in.
"Neal!" Olivia said now realizing that it was Neal, she ran over to him and practically jumping into his embrace.
"You behave?" Neal asked holding Olivia into his embrace and she wrapped her arms around his neck and her small legs tried to wrap around his waist.
"Yep...Happy Valentines Day...I made you a Valentine." Olivia said proudly.
"Did you?" Neal asked.
"Yeah..." Olivia said as Neal let her down and she ran to her bag pulling it out as I went and grabbed the list of students.
"This is for Elizabeth." I said handing it to Neal, he looked it over nodding as he folded it and putting it in a pocket on the inside of his suit jacket.
"Here Neal!" Olivia said running back over handing him the Valentine, he squatted down reading it aloud.
"Thank you Olivia, this is my favorite Valentine and these are for you beautiful." He said as Olivia smiled and he handed her the flowers.
"Thank you!" She said handing them to me and I put them with my bouquet. "Where are we going?" Olivia asked.
"You'll see, I think you will like it..." Neal said smiling as he stood up opening the door for us, I grabbed a couple of coats along with my wallett and keys before walking out and locked the door. Olivia stood between Neal and I hanging onto both our hands as we headed downstairs and out of the building letting Neal lead us to our destination. "Here we are." Neal said.
"Chuck E. Cheese?" I asked looking to Neal.
"I love this!" Olivia said excited as I looked over to Neal.
"It's family friendly." Neal said smirking and I rolled my eyes as we walked in seeing that no one was there.
"Wow, this place is dead..." I said.
"Yeah, especially for a Thursday." Neal said as he wrapped his arm around me as Olivia was running around the place looking at every game happily.
"You made her happy." I said smiling.
"And your not?" Neal asked.
"I am happy..." I said pushing a strand of hair behind my ear as we went up to the counter where Neal ordered our dinner, we went and sat down at a table waiting for Olivia to come find us.
"So, how'd the interview go yesterday?" Neal asked.
"I hope it went well...I will find out tomorrow if I got it or not..." I said.
"If you didn't, at least you tried your best...I printed out your resume and my co-workers are overlooking it right now..."
"I may not need it..." I said.
"I hope that you won't..." Neal said twirling his straw in his drink.
"Do you always have a date on Valentines?" I asked curiously.
"If you count Mozzie as a date, then yeah..." Neal said getting us both to chuckle.
"Why don't you?" I asked.
"Probably the same reason you don't..." Neal said.
"Never have the time to go out..." I said.
"Yep...work and my side work keeps me pretty busy..."
"How many girlfriends have you had?" I asked.
"One or two...there was only one that I was serious about but she died in an horrible accident." Neal said as I could tell that he was still heartbroken over it.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry...what happened?" I asked grabbing his hand in a sympathetic way.
"My side work got in the way...they were after something that I was hiding, at least they thought I was hiding and when I finally got her back, we were planning on leaving the country and I got stopped by my co-worker and when I went to turn back around the plane exploded with her on it...I was supposed to be on that plane too..."
"Wow, I'm so sorry...that is horrible...have you figured out who it was?" I asked.
"I have a few people in mind but it's hard to say...besides Olivia's father, anyone else?" Neal asked changing the subject which is understood.
"No one since then...a kid is a big baggage that most men don't accept..." I said.
"Well, most men are jerks..."
"Most men aren't openly a criminal..."
"Most men aren't like me..." Neal said as we were leaning closer and closer to each other as we spoke.
"Most men like you are jerks..."
"Why's that?" Neal asked.
"Criminals are jerks..."
"Does that make you a jerk?" Neal asked as we were mere inches apart, I could feel his breathing hitting my lips, the urge of going that little bit closer to press my lips against his lips that looked nearly perfect wanted me to do it but I jumped back when I heard Olivia.
"Mom! Mom! Mom! Did you see the ball pen and the jungle gym they had?" Olivia asked climbing into a chair.
"No..." I said.
"You HAVE to see it mommy!" Olivia said grabbing my hand dragging me with her as Neal came along as well to see it. "Look mommy! May I play in it?" Olivia asked as I could tell she was excited about it.
"Yep, go ahead and I'll watch." I said.
"What fun is that? Come on, lets have a little fun ourselves..." Neal said as I looked over to him trying to get my bearings back in check after a few minutes ago seeing him smile.
"I guess we could..." I said as we chased Olivia into the jungle gym, we all went different ways and I climbed up the very small and close stairs that I was doing some type of gymnastics to get through them. I finally got to a slide seeing Neal across from me crawling past one of those clear bubble things. "NEAL!" I exclaimed as he crawled back waving through the bubble thing.
"Mommy!" Olivia yelled as I looked down seeing my daughter already in the ball pen, "Come on mommy!" Olivia said as I slid down the slide and into the ball pen laughing the whole way down landing in the ball pen when my daughter jumped on me. "Wasn't it fun?"
"Yep...let's get Neal." I said as I grabbed a couple of balls getting to my feet moving to the side waiting for him to slide down the slide and when he did and sat up Olivia and I begun to throw the balls we had in our hands at him. Neal tried protecting himself until he grabbed a ball throwing it back and begun attacking us as well. "Run Olivia!" I said as I grabbed onto her hand running with her to an exit back into the jungle gym when Neal grabbed me by the waist pulling me back and doing a hip toss back into the ball pen, "Save yourself Olivia..." I said as Olivia was laughing all the way back into the jungle gym as Neal slowed his running so he won't catch her and Olivia climbed to the top.
"I'll get you next..." Neal said.
"Come get me!" Olivia exclaimed from laughter as she disappeared into a tunnel when I threw a ball at Neal hitting him in the head, I cupped my mouth in shock.
"Ow!" Neal said grabbing at his head turning around, I was trying not to laugh.
"I didn't mean to hit you in the head..." I said.
"Riiight..." Neal said as he came over tossing a ball at me hitting me before he begun tickling me.
"Help me Olivia!" I exclaimed out of giggles.
"Olivia can't help you..." Neal said smiling when I was able to push him off me, him being more shocked than me as I got up as quick as I could running towards the exit when Neal grabbed me right when I went to climb up onto the step.
"Let me go!" I exclaimed.
"Nope..." Neal said when I felt a ball hit me after it bounced off Neal accompanied with giggles, we both looked back seeing Olivia laughing and running to the other side of the jungle gym.
"I taught her well..."
"Your a bad influence..."
"Me?" I asked shocked.
"Yes you..." Neal said as he reached down grabbing a ball tapping me with it, I leant forward grabbing the ball she just threw tapping him with it.
"Am not..." I said which led to us going back into the ball pen throwing balls at each other until an employee came over clearing their throat.
"Excuse me, adults are not allowed in the ball pen nor jungle gym area...and your food is ready sir." The employee said.
"Oh...right..." I said embarrassed but laughing the whole way out of the ball pen and Neal exited the opposite end as I did. "Olivia, dinner is ready..." I exclaimed back into the jungle gym as I heard her scream then saw her land into the ball pen.
"Coming..." She said as I waited for her to walk over and helped her out of the jungle gym. "That was a lot of fun..." She said smiling and laughing.
"Yes it was..." I said smiling as we walked over to the table sitting down, I pulled a slice of pizza onto Olivia's plate before I did the same to mine.
"May we play games afterwards?" Olivia asked after she swallowed her food.
"Yeah, I have a few bills we can use on games..." Neal said.
"First you got to finish your pizza..." I said.
"I know...mom, does this make Neal our valentine?" Olivia asked as my eyes bugged out looking from my daughter to Neal.
"Yeah Leslie, does it?" Neal asked smirking.
"Um...only if Neal considers us his valentine." I said.
"Isn't it both people's decision?" Olivia asked as she took another tiny bite of her pizza.
"Yep, I would like both of you be my valentine...Would you be my valentine Olivia?" Neal asked.
"I will...will you be his valentine mommy?" Olivia asked looking to me.
"If Neal asked me..."
"Will you be my valentine Leslie?" Neal asked.
"Yes..." I said smiling pushing a strand of hair behind my ear.
"So, this year this day wasn't that bad then..." Neal said.
"Why is Valentines day bad?" Olivia asked.
"As you get older, people either like it or hate it...it's very more complex as you get older..." I tried to explain.
"Valentines day is about love, why do people not like it?" Olivia asked.
"Some people just can't find love within themselves and there is a lot of hate in the world." I said.
"More than there should be..." Neal said.
"For my birthday mom, I want no more hate in the world." Olivia said.
"I will try..." I said looking to Neal who was chuckling as we finished our pizza watching the little show that they have that goes on every half hour to an hour for the customers.
"May we play games now?" Olivia asked.
"Yep..." Neal said as we stood up going into the game section watching Neal get coins for his bills. "I'll carry these, you tell me what you want to play..." Neal said as he grabbed onto my hand interlacing our fingers following my daughter to the Skee Ball game.
"How do you play this?" Olivia asked.
"Simple...let me teach you..." Neal said dropping a coin into three of the machines, I stood aside watching him teach my daughter how to play. "You take one of these balls, you then roll them as hard as you can up this ramp and try to get them to land in one of those holes..." Neal explained.
"If it doesn't go into a hole, where does it go?" Olivia asked.
"It will go into the bottom giving you 10 points." Neal said as she nodded, he helped her with the first ball before he started his own game, I begun my game and kept an eye on Neal and Olivia's score. "Your good at this game." Neal said standing up after rolling his 9th ball.
"I once won 1000 tickets off one of these games." I said.
"I'm not that good at Skee Ball, you should see me at Whack A Mole though." Neal said.
"Whack A Mole?" Olivia asked.
"Yep, don't forget your tickets." Neal said as Olivia ripped off her tickets handing it to Neal and I handed Neal my tickets, he led us to Whack A Mole where he dropped a coin in playing the first round, Olivia was just laughing everytime he hit one and it made that funny noise.
"May I play?" Olivia asked.
"Yep, try your best." Neal said as he dropped another coin in letting her hit the moles by herself. After that game, we followed Olivia to different games playing almost every game in the place before the coins ran out and we had a lot of tickets. "Now, let's see how many tickets we have." Neal said as we went to the prize counter, Neal set the tickets down and the employee counted the tickets.
"278 sir." The employee said.
"What do you want?" Neal asked picking Olivia up so she can see over the counter.
"Hannah Montana!" She said pointing to this pillow that had Hannah Montana on it that was 100 tickets.
"We'll take an Hannah Montana pillow..." Neal said as the employee grabbed one handing it to Olivia.
"178 left." The employee said and Neal looked to me.
"I don't want anything." I said as Neal rolled his eyes looking forward.
"An orange plush flower." Neal said which was 160.
"18." The employee said.
"And three suckers." Neal said as we were pretty much out of tickets, and Olivia was now asleep on the pillow that she had propped against Neal's shoulder.
"Olivia just kind of fell asleep on your shoulder." I said chuckling.
"I've been told I have comfy shoulders, lets get you two home." Neal said as we went back to our table where I pulled my jacket on and draped Olivia's jacket over her as Neal and I walked the distance home.
"Sorry about Olivia." I said.
"It's fine...I am glad you let me take you both out."
"Did I really have a choice?" I asked.
"No, but I'm glad you came...no one should spend holidays like Valentines alone." Neal said.
"It's a lonely holiday when you don't have someone huh?"
"Yep..." Neal said.
"Did you ever celebrate Valentines day with your past girlfriends?" I asked.
"Only because they wanted to...you know us men aren't big Valentines day type people..."
"For someone that says they aren't a Valentines day type person sure did want to go out with myself and my daughter."
"I always think girls shouldn't be alone on Valentines day...especially ones that...nevermind..." Neal said.
"Ones that?" I asked curiously as I fumbled with my keys unlocking the front door.
"Ones as beautiful as you and I don't want this one lose the fact that Valentines is about love and not to hate it..."
"That is a long time coming, she hasn't had a boyfriend yet...boys are still icky..." I said chuckling.
"I remember those years..."
"I still think some are icky..." I said.
"What about me?" Neal asked as we started heading up the stairs.
"You can be icky sometimes..." I said.
"Like how and when?" Neal asked.
"Um..."
"You can't think of one..." Neal said.
"Not right now..." I said as we made it to the fourth floor going to my apartment, I opened it letting him carry Olivia in and I helped him set her down gently and down onto her Hannah Montana pillow still. I stepped out into the hallway with him leaving the door cracked so I won't have to open it again. "Thank you for tonight, I had so much fun."
"Me too...so, when can we do something like this again?"
"Well, I'm off every Tuesday and Thursday...we have to go to Elizabeth's in a few weeks..." I said smiling and crossing my arms.
"What about Tuesday?"
"Tuesday will work fine...that is if your okay with going out with me again." I said.
"Why wouldn't I be okay with it?" Neal asked.
"Because of..."
"Olivia? I love Olivia...I'm not like those jerk's we were talking about earlier..."
"I know...your different...but a good different..." I said looking down at my feet.
"Does that mean you will go out with me again on Tuesday?" Neal asked as he ducked down trying to make eye contact.
"Yeah..."
"Good, good night Leslie."
"Good night...happy Valentines day." I said as he smirked.
"Happy Valentines Day..." Neal said as he still stood there, I felt like a force was pulling me closer to Neal. He was leaning in as well, it was all in slow motion as I slowly wrapped my arms around his neck and our lips met in a soft kiss, he broke the kiss and I kissed him back. It wasn't until I finally opened my eyes to see his blue eyes and realized what I was doing, I jumped back hitting the wall.
"Night Neal." I said freaked out and went back into the apartment shutting the door and locked just the one lock looking into the peep hole seeing Neal shocked at what just happened.
"Leslie? Please open up...what did I do wrong?" Neal asked as he leant against the door frame, Neal then looked into the peep hole, I turned around and slid down resting my head back against the frame. "Night Leslie...I will come by and talk to you tomorrow..." Neal said. I brought my knees up to my chest leaning forward letting my forehead rest against my arms as they rested ontop of my knees. 'I can't believe I just kissed Neal, how could I be SO stupid? I haven't liked anyone since I had Olivia and now that I start to like someone I go out and ruin it by kissing them. I haven't had feelings like this for someone since Olivia's father, and I can't let Neal come in and mess around with mine and Olivia's heart, I just gone and kiss him leading him on more. Plus, I'm so embarrassed that I kissed him, he probably doesn't want to see me again after this, who wants to date someone that kisses you on your practically first date? Was this even a first date? Oh god! Was this even a date and if it wasn't did I ruin the chances of us dating because I kissed him?' I thought to myself as I spent all night sitting like that feeling bad about myself and hating myself for what I had done.
A/N: SORRY IF THIS PART DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, I WAS TRYING TO EXPRESS HER FEELINGS AND IN THE NEXT CHAPTER OR TWO IT WILL MAKE BETTER SENSE, I PROMISE.