Guys, fair warning: this chapter is short. They will probably all be short. I work full time, I'm 7 months pregnant, and any time I get to write is a luxury. Please don't complain about the chapter length...a short chapter is better than no chapter. Also please excuse any errors. My brain is like Swiss cheese these days.

Chapter 10

The soft sounds of Christmas music filled Olivia's apartment as she folded the last of her clothes and placed them into her luggage. Jill had already gone home for the holidays and Olivia had originally planned to just hang around the apartment until the new semester started. She didn't have much family to speak of, so she surprised when her aunt called and insisted that she spend Christmas with her family in Atlanta. Olivia hesitated, only because she wasn't that close with her aunt. But she finally accepted the offer when she realized that anything was better than sitting around her place, trying not to think about Fitz.

She had somehow managed to avoid Fitz since their run-in at the movies. Olivia had berated herself for days over her behavior in the theater, holding his hand while his wife sat on his other side. She knew that he wanted to talk, but between her final exams and papers, she always had the convenient excuse that she was too busy. She figured that if she kept putting their "talk" off, he would give up and they would move past it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at her front door. She checked her watch in surprise; she'd called for a cab but didn't expect them for nearly thirty more minutes. She hurried and zipped her bag, then swung the door open without looking through the peephole. She froze in place when she saw it wasn't the taxi driver...it was Fitz. And he looked annoyed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly.

"You've been avoiding me."

Olivia started to shake her head and deny it, but he didn't seem interested. He brushed past her into the apartment, and she checked the hallway a few times before closing the door. When she turned around, she saw Fitz looking at her packed bags. He then turned back to her and raised an eyebrow as if to ask her where she was going.

"I'm spending Christmas with my aunt," she said. "My flight's in two hours. I thought you were the cab driver. He should actually be here any minute, so..."

"You don't need a taxi. I'll drive you."

"That's not necessary."

"Actually, it is. Because if I don't drive you, you'll just continue to ignore me and the conversation that we need to have." He picked up two bags and nodded towards the door. "Is this everything?"

Olivia desperately wanted to kick him out, but she felt guilty about weaseling her way out of their talk. So she shook her head and Fitz placed the bags down. He sat on the couch and looked at her, wordlessly telling her that he would wait until she was ready. So she cancelled the cab and packed her carry-on bag. When she was finished, she tossed the bag over her shoulder and nodded at Fitz.

"That's everything."

They walked in silence to the parking lot, where Fitz loaded her bags and they got into their respective seats. As he pulled onto the street, Olivia shot him a few nervous glances, wondering when he would start the uncomfortable conversation that was to come.

But he never did. He just looked straight ahead, one hand on the wheel and the other on his thigh. His jaw was set in an irritated clench and she wondered if he was just going to make it so tense between them that she exploded. As they got onto the highway and he still hadn't said anything, she finally spoke.

"So are you going to say anything or are you just going to drive and be angry?"

"I'm not angry," he said dryly.

"It certainly seems like you are."

"I'm not angry," he said again. "I'm confused. I'm confused as to how a grown woman can act so childish."

His words caused a spike of anger in her veins.

"Excuse me?"

"I've tried at least three times to talk to you and you always had some excuse to get out of it. Now I see that you were planning to skip town and then come back next semester and do what, exactly? Act like it never happened? That's behavior I'd expect from a teenager, not an adult."

Olivia scoffed and folded her arms as she stared daggers at him.

"I'm acting like a teenager? You don't think this forlorn little boy routine of yours is a bit ridiculous? You should be thrilled that I'm not one of those women that follows you around, clinging to you and expecting you to leave your wife just because we messed around. I'm not some naive little girl, Fitz. I don't expect to ride off into the sunset with you. I see this situation for what it is: we're attracted to each other, we got our rocks off and now it's over. There's nothing to talk about."

She watched as his jaw eased slightly and he glanced at her before returning his eyes to the road.

"Is that really what you think?" he asked after a long minute.

"Of course that's what I think," she said in a frustrated exhale.

She turned her body away from him and looked out the window as they drove.

"Olivia," Fitz said. At first, she didn't turn around. But when she felt his gaze on her neck, she glanced back at him. "Before I met you, I had never cheated on my wife. I'd never cheated on any woman I'd ever been with. But I knew the first time I saw you in my class, and you were wearing that yellow sundress and I couldn't take my eyes off you...I knew I was in trouble."

Olivia's body language softened and she slowly turned so that she was facing him.

"Yes, I'm attracted to you," he continued. "You're incredibly sexy and physically appealing. But you're also smart and interesting and kind of mysterious. And as much as I shouldn't, I want to get to know you. I want to explore whatever this is between us because to be perfectly honest, I've never felt so drawn to someone before. Not even my wife. If it turns out that all we feel for each other is some kind of crazy lust, then okay. I'll beg my wife for forgiveness and you and I will go our separate ways. But I feel like it's more than that. And I want to give it a chance because I think you might be the person I've been waiting for."

He momentarily took his eyes off the road and they stared at each other. The sincerity that showed on his face nearly overwhelmed her, so she looked away from him. She could tell that he was waiting for her to respond, but the truth was, she had no idea what to say. No man had ever been so honest about his feelings for her and the idea that she wasn't just some side girl was frightening.

Silence fell over them as Olivia replayed everything Fitz had said to her. They didn't speak at all until he was pulling into the airport and she told him which terminal to go to. He parked his car in front of her drop-off spot and they both got out to retrieve her bags. Once he placed the luggage on the curb, Fitz shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

"Have a good Christmas," he said. "I hope I'll see you when you get back, but if not, I guess I'll understand."

He turned to get back into the car but Olivia spoke up before he got inside.

"What if I wanted to talk to you over the break?" she asked softly. "Could I call you?"

Fitz's eyes widened a bit in surprise, then he nodded slowly. "Yes."

"I mean, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with your wife."

"I have a separate line in my study. You could call me on that." He walked back to where she stood on the curb. "I'd love to know that you made to your destination safely."

"It'll be pretty late when I get there."

"I'll wait up, if you promise to call."

Olivia felt a flutter in her chest, just like she had the first time she'd given her number to a boy. She pulled a pen out of her purse and tore off a small piece of a napkin and handed them to Fitz. He wrote down his number and she stuffed the napkin into her pocket.

"Thanks for the ride," she said. "I'll call when I get to my aunt's house."

"Be safe."

She nodded and knew that she should go, but something about leaving him without more just didn't feel right. Not after everything he'd said to her. So despite not having worked it all out in her mind, she threw caution into the wind and went with her instinct. She stepped closer to Fitz, hooked her fingers into his belt loops and stood on her tiptoes. She got close enough to rub her lips against his and after a few seconds of that, she kissed him softly. She then sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and released it with a plop. When she pulled away from him, his eyelids hung heavy over his eyes and he looked like he wanted a lot more of that.

"Don't tease me," he begged quietly.

"I'm not."

And with that, she put her bag on her shoulder and grabbed the handles of her wheeled luggage. She walked into the terminal and glanced over her shoulder once, where Fitz still stood, looking dazed. It was at that moment that she decided that she was going to call Fitz over the break and when she returned for the new semester, she was going to give them a chance.