Friends and Family

Fitz's POV
I woke up the next morning still feeling like shit. I laid in my bed looking up at the ceiling and wondered how Olivia's date with Stephen had gone last night? I wondered where they went to eat, if she had enjoyed herself, and most importantly, if he had kissed her? I knew I didn't have a right to ask her any of those things, but I could still think about them.

I replayed yesterday's phone conversation with Olivia in my mind once again. It didn't help that it had run on a constant loop in my brain ever since it happened. The phone call stayed at the forefront of my mind while the guys tried to cheer me up by plying me with drinks at a local bar last night. They started out by trying to help me figure out a way to break the ice with Olivia, so we could start a conversation.

"You gotta tell her how you feel, man. There's no reason to hide it. Not from her anyways." Paul had suggested.

"Tell me, Paul." I had asked, turning towards him and taking a sip of my beer. "How do I go about starting that conversation?"

"How the hell should I know? I'm single. This is more up Matt's lane since he's married. Matty! How did you tell your old lady that you loved her?"

"No one said anything about love." I said defensively.

"Shut up. It's obvious." Paul replied. "Matt? A little help here?"

"First of all, I never called Lindsey 'my old lady'. She would have ripped off my balls and fed them to the dog." We all crossed our legs and gave pained expressions at his words. "Second of all, it's really not that difficult. Just tell her how you feel."

"I don't know how I feel. That's the problem!" I supplied.

"Bullshit! When you ended that call, you looked like a lost little puppy whose owner had just left you on a dead end street and drove off." Matt said.

"Enough with the dog references, already." Aaron suggested with a dramatic eye roll.

"How does it make you feel when you think about never seeing her again?" Matt asked.

I paled and felt nauseous. I couldn't imagine what life would be like not being able to see Olivia ever again. It wasn't a thought I even wanted to entertain for this conversation.

He pointed a finger at me. "Exactly! Now whatever just ran through your mind, that's what you tell her."

"But I don't know how to even begin to tell her that?"

"Look, if you have feelings for this girl, you've gotta tell her soon. Or some other dude will, man."

"Yea," chuckled Mark. "Like your boss."

"Shut up, Mark!" The other three shouted.

"Show us a picture of her. So, we can get a better sense of what kind of girl we are talking about." Matt encouraged.

I pulled out my phone and showed them the lock screen. And that's when the ribbing started.

"This chick is into YOU?"

"Holy shit! She's hot!"

"How'd a girl like that even look twice at you?"

"Tell her soon, man. A girl like that is not gonna stay single for long."

As the night wore on though, and my sad self wasn't getting any happier, they tried unsuccessfully pushing me onto other women. I couldn't stop thinking about the things I had said to Olivia no matter how hard I tried. At that point it was like a broken record and I cringed every time I got to the part where I shouted at her. They brought me home and dumped me into my bed alone, leaving me in my misery.

I rubbed my hands over my stubbled face and yawned, but still didn't get up. I wished I could just go back to sleep. I attempted it. I rolled over, slid my hands under my pillow, and closed my eyes. Three minutes later, my eyes popped open and I groaned in frustration. My internal early morning alarm clock wasn't going to let me sleep any later. It didn't help that I kept hearing Olivia's voice saying, 'Let me explain'.

I sighed loudly and sat up on the edge of the bed. Roscoe looked up at me quietly from his doggie bed on the floor. "I am a fucking idiot, Roscoe." He wasn't used to being in bed this late either and wagged his tail at me.

"I know you'll be disappointed, but we are not going to run this morning. I don't feel like it today." He barked at me once and the tail wagging became more intense. I stood up and made my way to the bathroom. "You could have put up a little bit of a fight." I said to him before closing the door.

The shower made me feel a little more human but did little to improve my overall mood. I got dressed and ate breakfast in the kitchen with Roscoe in silence. I checked my phone as I ate and wasn't surprised that I had no missed calls or texts from her. That told me that Olivia had no interest in discussing any of yesterday's ugliness.

I scrolled through my call history, hoping to not find any excessive and surely pathetic calls I didn't remember making from the previous night. I only saw the two calls I did remember making to her. There was one missed call from a number I didn't recognize, but I quickly passed over it. I looked through my text messages for the same thing. No drunk texts. That was some comfort. I saw a read text from the same unknown number as the missed phone call. I opened it and saw that it only said, 'Fitz?' Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I vaguely remembered reading it last night, but since I didn't know who it was from and wasn't in the mood to care, it had gone unanswered. I shrugged and deleted it.

I called a taxi after mom came to pick up Roscoe and washed my dishes while I waited for it to arrive. When I heard a horn, I double checked the back door to make sure it was locked and then grabbed my bag, went out the front door, and got inside the yellow car. Two minutes into the ride it began to rain. Great.

I was supposed to be sharing this ride to the airport with Olivia. But, from the lack of communication from her I decided she was no longer interested in sharing a space with me and I left without her. The small confines of a cab, shared for forty-five minutes was nothing in comparison to sitting side by side in an airplane on a flight that lasted over two hours. It would be interesting to say the least.

As I sat in the back seat looking out the rain streaked window, pondering that damned phone call again, several things came to mind. I had been wrong for yelling at Olivia. There was no way around that one. I owed her an apology for it, simple as that. But she had been wrong too. Whatever her reasons were for accepting Stephen's offer, she should have said no. She knew he was interested in her. As inappropriate as it was for him to act out on those feelings, she was also wrong for accepting.

Of course, the guilt for me on that one was two fold. I had encouraged Stephen to ask Olivia out in the first place – joyously thinking she was going to say no. The other part was the fact that I had already slept with her. That was highly inappropriate. And while I felt no guilt over the latter, I felt like an ass for the former. Stephen was my boss, and I shouldn't have encouraged him to pursue Olivia.

It would take a lot longer than the twenty minutes I had left of this ride to dissect the fact that Olivia and I weren't in a committed relationship. Those words had stung a lot when I heard them said over the phone. But as my mind was cleared from a lot of the guilt by reasoning some of it away, I realized that it was true. Olivia and I weren't exclusive. We weren't even a couple. We were just two adults who were having consensual sex. Really great consensual sex. That was about it. I had feelings for Olivia but didn't feel confident enough to share those feelings with her for fear of rejection.

By the time I arrived at the airport, I was feeling a lot lighter from the unnecessary baggage of guilt I had been carrying for the past, I glanced at my watch, nineteen hours. I had over reacted when she told me she was accepting Stephen's offer and I had imagined that things between us were more than they actually were. I was man enough to admit my mistakes and planned to ask Olivia to forgive me for both of those things. The rest of it was on her and I refused to carry it any longer. I paid the cab driver, slipping him an extra ten for not being chatty with me and unknowingly allowing me a quiet self therapy session in the back seat. With both of my bags in hand, I strode toward my gate.

I didn't spot Olivia in the wide open waiting area at the airport. That seemed strange at first because Olivia was nothing but punctual. Maybe she had overslept from an exhausting night? I quietly shook my head, not wanting to even entertain intimate thoughts of her with another man. I glanced up at the digital board behind the small counter and saw that our flight was right on schedule to leave. According to the clock next to it, that meant we would be departing in thirty minutes. I wondered where Olivia was?

My eyes went from the clock, to scanning the waiting area, and back to the clock again. The tall smiling blonde behind the counter announced that first class could now board the plane. That was us. I watched several people stand up and make their way toward the open door that led to the airplane. They had laptop bags and small carryon straps hanging from their shoulders and walked with purpose. I knew I needed to get up and head that way too, but again my thoughts went to Olivia's whereabouts.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and was about to reluctantly call her when it started chiming and Abby's name filled my screen. I answered immediately. "Hello?"

"Hey. I'm guessing you're at the airport and have already been told the news?"

I immediately felt a sense of dread but didn't know why. I stood up and dropped my bag onto the chair I had just been sitting in. "What news?"

"Have you heard from Olivia today?" There was something in her voice that made the sense of dread inside of me grow by leaps and bounds.

"No. Why? What's the matter?" I was racing toward panic at this point.

"She got a call late yesterday afternoon from back home. One of her brothers was in a car accident. She caught a red eye back to New York to be with him."

I stood there dumbstruck for a moment before pulling myself together and letting a small amount of anger fill me. I opened my mouth, but then remembered how well that had turned out for me the day before and instead took a deep breath and released it before speaking. "That's terrible. Is he okay?"

"Cyrus called Stephen and updated him a few minutes ago. He's going to be fine, but he's pretty badly banged up. I think it really shook her up since her parents died in a car accident years ago. You know?"

"I'm sure she was a mess until she got there. I wonder why she didn't call me and let me know herself? That's so strange." The anger was still simmering under the surface. Olivia could very well have even sent a simple text message if she didn't want to talk to me, to let me know what had happened. I didn't understand why she hadn't?

"Apparently, in her mad rush to get inside the taxi from her hotel, she left her phone on the trunk while putting her bag inside. By the time she had realized it was missing, and made the driver go back, it had been run over several times. Poor girl. News that a family member has been hurt is terrible, but seeing your phone destroyed is another level of fucked up altogether. Anyways," She chirped. "That means that you are going to be doing the road trip solo for a while."

I rolled my eyes at Abby's conclusion that a ruined phone was much worse than bad news about a family member. Poor Olivia. She had experienced an even worse night than I did. A question ran through my mind and before I could think about it, I asked. "How do you know all of this happened if Olivia's phone was destroyed? I know you said that Cyrus told Stephen, but how did Cyrus get the message in the first place?"

"The taxi driver was nice enough to let Olivia use his phone. That's rare, huh?"

"Yea. Rare." I mumbled, as my mind raced in a different direction. "I'd like to request to put the next stop on hold and fly to New York. Just for a day. I think Olivia could use a friend?"

"Request denied. Fitz, you've got to keep going with your trip. This is going to sound shitty of me and low, but Olivia is out of the picture right now. It's your time to shine without the hindrance of her light blaring in your face. Take advantage of that! Besides, Olivia has two other brothers, as I'm sure you are aware from your background search of her. She won't be all alone. She'll be fine."

"Abby." I began. I hated that my voice sounded pathetic, but I couldn't control it.

"No, Fitz. Get your ass on the plane and do your job. There is nothing you could do for Olivia even if you were there, besides hold her hand and listen to beeping machines in the hospital. You are of much more use staying here and doing your job. Besides, I think a little space between the two of you right now might be a good thing?"

"What the hell does that mean?" I demanded. Heads turned in my direction, but I didn't care. If Abby had a concern, she should address it.

"Stop playing dumb. You know exactly what the hell I mean. I saw the looks between both of you at the toy testing. I'm not stupid. Get on the plane, Fitz, and get some space and perspective. Bye."

She ended the call and I shook my head in frustration. I slid my phone back into my pocket, picked up by bags, and headed for the door to board the plane. Once I was in my seat, I replayed the conversation with Abby in my mind. At this point, I wished someone would run over my phone for all of the damned trouble it was causing me mentally.

Several things that Abby had said stuck out in my mind. She said that Cyrus had gotten a call from Olivia late yesterday afternoon. I wondered about the timing of the phone call, her date with Stephen, and her departure. I didn't want to think about it too much or make assumptions based on an Abby-like giddiness, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. But it was very interesting to me.

Abby had mentioned that she had seen the looks between Olivia and I at the toy testing. I thought back to the event just two days ago but couldn't remember seeing her there at all. I knew she had been present because Harrison had gotten directions to my office from her. I wondered what exactly she had seen. Of course, I was never going to ask her that, but I wondered. I wasn't controlling myself around Olivia as well as I thought I had been. That was a revelation.

She also said that Olivia had called Cyrus from the cab driver's cell phone. Maybe it was coincidence, or a misdial, but I had a missed call as well as a text message from the same unknown number last night. What were the chances it was Olivia trying to get in touch with me from the same borrowed phone? Maybe she had tried to reach out to me and I missed it because I was drowning in my own despair?

There was only one way to know. I pulled out my cell phone and went to my missed calls. There in red was the unknown number. Just as I was about to touch it and make the call, hoping to hear that I had reached a cab driver who wanted to know who the hell I was, the flight attendant touched my shoulder and said, "We are preparing for takeoff. You'll need to put your phone away until we land, Sir."

Well damn! I begrudgingly smiled at her and put my phone away. It would be the first call I made as soon as we were wheels down.

Olivia's POV
I woke up early the next morning feeling like shit. I lifted my head from the from the barely padded arm rest on the visitor chair I had fallen asleep in. I quickly realized I had a kink in my neck from sleeping so awkwardly in the uncomfortable chair. My hand flew up to the back of it as pain speared from the side of my neck. The thin blanket I had received from one of the nurses did little to keep me warm in the chilly room.

My eyes went to my younger brother, sleeping peacefully in the narrow hospital bed in spite of the constant beeping from random wires that he was hooked up to. He looked helpless and so much younger than his thirty-one years. His face had multiple bruises from the airbag that had deployed from the steering wheel. He had a rough looking burn from the seatbelt that ran diagonally from his collar bone down his chest. Some of the bruises were already turning ugly shades of purple and yellow. I was thankful he had been wearing his seatbelt. He obviously had learned something from their parent's fatal accident years ago.

Upon arrival, I had asked the doctor what had happened. She explained to me that the sun had temporarily blinded the other driver, and while he groped for his sunglasses, his car crossed the yellow line and hit her brother. The doctor said he was lucky to have just gotten banged up, but that he was going to be fine. He just needed a lot of rest, so his body could heal. I folded the thin blanket with my eyes on my brother. Marcus always was the luckiest of the four of them.

It had started when she and her brothers were younger. All three of the boys were daredevils, challenging each other constantly with some wild new dare. None of them ever backed down from a dare. I rolled my eyes now as I recalled some of the stupid things my brothers had done in the name of a Pope dare.

There was the time that Harrison and Eric had dared Marcus into riding down the street with them in a "borrowed" shopping cart. And while our family lived on a street that didn't get a lot of traffic, it still got some. The three brave brothers climbed into the metal shopping cart somehow, with Marcus gleefully in the middle of them. Harrison, being the ring leader, instructed Eric to hang his leg over the side of the metal on wheels and push them off while he did the same on the other side. They looked like idiots, and I wondered to this day how Harrison had been able to father Sophia after that.

Before long, the three of them were flying down the street, wheels wobbling in all directions, boys safely squatting inside and laughing like lunatics. And then the buggy hit a good sized rock and the three of them went flying in the air. Harrison had broken his arm, Eric had broken his collar bone, and Marcus escaped without so much as a single scratch.

Rowan and Maya had quietly taken them to the emergency room to get checked out, and casts put on the broken parts. But when they got home, the three of them were sat down and given every threat under the sun over their idiotic behavior. The boys were sent to bed without dinner and strictly warned not to do anything as ridiculous ever again. Once the three of them were in their beds, however, the snickering and plans to do it better and faster began.

"Hey, Sis. How are you doin'?"

Startled, I turned to the door and was greeted by Harrison's smiling face. He had a cup of Starbucks in his hand and held it out in my direction. I smiled back and gratefully took the paper cup from his hand. "Oh my god, the good stuff! Thank you so much." I looked over at Marcus and pulled his blanket up over his chest. "I'm doing fine. He slept good last night."

Harrison's eyebrows went to the ceiling. "If you know how well he slept, that means you didn't sleep much at all. "

"Harrison, I said I'm fine. Besides, it's hard to sleep in this meat locker in that poor excuse for a chair." I took a sip of the coffee while my brother watched me. "What?" I demanded.

He gestured to the wall behind me. "You know you can turn the heat up on the thermostat over there, right?"

I sighed. "Of course, I know that." I hadn't even seen the thermostat when I arrived, and the temperature of the room had been the last thing on my mind last night.

"Has the doctor been by yet?" He asked.

"Not yet. It's still early. The nurse said they usually make their rounds in the morning though. I'm going to wait for them to see if there's any change."

"You need to go home and go to sleep for a while." He advised.

"You need to stop telling me what to do. The last time I checked, I'm a grown ass woman." I was bitchy from not having more than two hours of sleep the night before. And the phone call with Fitz yesterday afternoon was still in my mind, but I had pushed it deep down to deal with Marcus for the time being. "I'm sorry, Harrison."

He shrugged. Harrison was used to his sister's mood swings since she had become a teenager. "Don't worry about it. Why aren't you answering your phone, by the way?"

I chuckled and retrieved the smashed device from my purse. I sadly held it up between my thumb and index fingers. "This is why I've been calling you from the phone in here."

"Well, damn. What happened to it?" Harrison asked, making a face.

"In my mad rush to get to the airport, I left it on the trunk of the cab. When I discovered it was missing and asked him go back, I found it lying on the street. It was crushed beyond recognition. I've got to get a new one today." Another thing to add to my list.

"The two of you are loud as hell! Can't a guy get some sleep around here?" A grumpy voice asked. "I practically died."

Harrison and I snapped our heads to the bed. Marcus had his eyes opened to slits and he looked genuinely pissed off. "You are the luckiest bastard I have ever known." Harrison said with a chuckle.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as I sat on the edge of his bed.

"Like shit. Everything hurts. And I'm starving. Did you bring me any food, big brother?" Marcus asked in a pitiful voice.

"I didn't know if you would be awake or had been put on a special diet or something."

"What?" Marcus asked incredulously.

"Man, I don't know!" Harrison spewed. "No, I didn't. Get off my ass."

"As soon as the doctor clears you for food, I'll go get you whatever you want." I offered with a smile.

Marcus smiled up at me. His pitiful voice was sugary sweet. "Really? I've missed you, Liv. You know you're my favorite."

Marcus calling me Liv reminded me of Fitz. I needed to talk to him, but it would have to wait until the doctor had visited, and my phone had been replaced. I shook off thoughts of him and took another sip of coffee.

"How's the patient doing this morning?" A voice from the door said.

"Speak of the devil" Marcus said with a smile. "We're waiting for you to say the word, so I can eat something. Please say the right words, Doc."

The doctor stood in place and looked concerned as he looked through Marcus' chart. "It could be a serious brain injury?"

"What?" Marcus demanded.

"Nah, he's always been a dumbass, Doc." Harrison supplied.

"A little doctor humor." He said looking at Marcus, who did not find it humorous. "Tough crowd. Okay, let me look him over and see how he's doing."

Ten minutes later, the doctor with the funny bone explained to us that Marcus had some bruises, but nothing was broken, and that he would be fine. He'd need to take it easy for a few days, and to go directly to the ER if he experienced any headaches lasting more than a few hours. He could go home as soon as his papers were signed. The three of us breathed a sigh of relief, thanked him, and waited for them.

Of course, he put up an argument when the nurse instructed him that he would be riding downstairs and out the front door of the hospital in a wheelchair. She wasn't caving though and stood there with her hands on her hips until his growling stomach got the better of him and he angrily plopped down in the chair.

I got Marcus to his house and helped him inside. When he was settled on the couch, I asked, "Will you be okay for an hour or so? I've got to replace my phone and make some calls."

Marcus smiled at me. "You fed me and got my meds filled at the pharmacy. I'm going to take a little nap right here. I'll be fine." He yawned loudly and turned on his side.

"Do you need me to pick anything up for you on my way back? I won't be gone long. I promise."

"I'm fine, Liv." He looked at me from over his shoulder. "I didn't say thank you for everything. Leaving your job in California to come babysit me and everything else you've done for me. I appreciate it and I love you. Don't tell the guys though because they will give me a hard time about it, okay?"

"It'll be our secret. Your pills are on the kitchen counter. I'll be back as soon as I can. Get some rest, Marcus." I pulled the throw over him and left his apartment.

Finally! I had my new phone and was on my way back to Marcus' apartment to crash for a little while. The phone calls I had to make were important. I needed to call Cyrus to update him on Marcus's condition and let him know when I would be coming back to work, and I had to call Fitz to try to straighten things out with him. But I didn't have it in me to make either call right now. I needed sleep first or nothing I said would make any sense to either one of them. I let myself in with the spare key I've had for years and tiptoed to his bedroom, where I fell face down on his bed and was out like a light.

I was woken up by my little brother's whining voice. "Liiiiiiv? Where are my pills? My head is killing me." I jumped up off his bed and squinted in the dark room. "Oh! You're up."

"I am now" I grumbled. "I told you before I left that your pills are on the kitchen counter."

"Shit. I'm sorry. I was well on my way to sleep when you left." He said.

"It's ok. What time is it?" Where was my phone so I could check the time?

"It's a little after five." He said.

"Five o'clock? Wow. I was really out!" I made my way to the door and he followed me with the blanket still draped over his shoulders. "Let's get you some medicine and then I'll make dinner."

In the kitchen I held out two Ibuprofen, but he just stood there looking at me. "You trying to kill me or something? You know you can't cook for shit."

"Fine! I'll have something delivered." He took the pills. "What do you want to eat?"

A knock on his front door sounded before the door opened and in walked Eric, Harrison, Leesa, and Sophia. Eric was holding two very large white take out bags. Marcus left me for the food immediately. "Heyyyy! What's in the bag?" He didn't even bother acting like he cared about the people standing near the doorway.

Eric gave him a look and held firmly onto the bags. "Man, your family is here. Act right! Give hugs and then we'll eat. Who raised you?" He carried the bags into the kitchen where he and I shared a chuckle and a high five for putting Marcus in his place.

"Sophie! You get cuter every time I see you. Good thing You look like your momma and not your ugly daddy." He chuckled, and Harrison reached up to pop him in the head before Marcus quickly ducked and pointed at it. "Man, NO! I have a headache from..." He cut his eyes to Sophie, who was watching him intently. "The bad place. I just took some Ibuprofen, but it hasn't kicked in yet."

Leesa looked at Harrison with an annoyed expression. "Your brother was just in an accident. Leave him alone."

"Yea! Leave me alone! Thank you, Leesa. You're my favorite sister in law." Marcus held out his arms and she hugged him warmly.

Leesa cooed, "Of course I am." Marcus flipped his brother the bird with a teeth baring smile from behind his sister in laws back before pulling away from the hug. "Let's go get you something to eat."

Everyone sat at the tiny table and made plates of the Chinese food Eric had brought. The conversation was lively, and the laughs were plentiful. It felt like old times having all six of us together. It had been a while since that had happened and the guilt of it weighed on my mind.

I sat quietly at the table and watched Eric holding Sophia while the two of them had a very serious conversation about her recent trip to Disney Land as she picked unwanted items out of her Chinese food. Harrison and Leesa were holding hands on top of the table while Leesa laughed at Marcus' basketball team picks. I hated that it had taken an accident to bring us all together, but I was thankful that it had. I didn't realize how much I had missed my family until this moment.

"Liv? You okay?" Eric asked me.

I smiled brightly and brushed away the lone tear that had escaped from my eye. "I'm fine. Let's don't wait until one of us gets hurt to get together again. Please."

Everyone stopped eating and stared at me. "We just got together..."

"At Christmas time." I finished. "That was too long ago. We're family and I'd like for us to get together at least once a month. Something simple like dinner. We can take turns hosting. It's important."

"Liv's right." Leesa said. "And if you two don't start dating and bring some more women into this family the two of us are going to play match maker soon."

"Uh uh!" Eric said firmly. "See, that right there is not gonna happen. You two can't even hook up a DVD player. You're not about to try to hook us up with females."

"Right! " Marcus joined in. "We don't need your help in that department."

"Great. We expect to meet at least one date – male or female by the time summer ends." Leesa threatened sweetly. "Come on, Liv. I'll give you a hand with these dishes."

The three men stared at us in total silence for a good sixty seconds. "Did your wife just put a timeline on our dating life?"

"Yea. And if I were the two of you, I'd be producing some warm bodies soon. Or the two of them are going to start coming up with their own theories as to why you're still single. The Pope name doesn't need that kind of black mark next to it." Harrison informed them.

"Welcome to two thousand eighteen, Harrison. Being gay isn't a black mark." Eric threw into the conversation. "But for the record, I'm not gay.

"I wasn't referring to that, you dumbass."

"What are you talking about then?" Marcus gestured with his hands.

"Erectile dysfunction." Harrison said with a grimace.

All three male heads snapped to where the two women stood washing dishes. "They are ugly enough to spread such a thing too. I'll hire a woman by the end of the summer if I have to." Marcus whispered.

"Make sure she's got a friend." Eric suggested. "Just in case."

The kitchen was cleaned up and everything was put back into its place. In fact, the place looked cleaner than before I had arrived somehow. The six of us shared hugs and promised to get together soon. Sophie was asleep on her dad's shoulder, but aunt Wib had to have kisses from her pudgy cheek, in spite of Harrison's threats to leave her there if I woke his daughter up.

It was quiet in the apartment again. Marcus looked as tired as I felt. I helped him get settled into his bed, after promising that I would be fine on the sofa. I told him I was going to take a bath and make some calls, but that I would see him in the morning. I put a glass of water and two of his pills on the bedside table in case he woke up in pain.

I soaked in the tub for a while and let the stress of the past twenty four hours roll off my body. I noticed the fading marks on my hips that Fitz had left during our enthusiastic hotel time together. I missed him and wanted to talk to him. To set things right and explain a few things I knew he didn't understand; mostly because he completely shut down after he heard that I had accepted Stephen's date. I wondered if he would let me explain this time?

I was exhausted by the time I got out of the bath, but as soon as I got my pajamas on I called Cyrus to let him know that I would be back to work later in the week. He was oddly understanding and actually sweet about it. I instantly became suspicious about it, but let it go for now.

I went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of hot tea and carried the steaming mug into the living room. I got myself situated on the sofa, under the blankets, before I called Fitz. The time zone difference was mentally calculated as I took my first sip. I touched his name in my contacts before I could chicken out. My heart started hammering the moment I heard it ringing. Maybe I shouldn't have called him? What the hell was I going to say to him?

Second ring

Maybe this was a bad idea?

Third ring.

And then he answered. He sounded a little winded. "Liv?"

I smiled big at that one word. He didn't call me Olivia or Miss Pope. He had called me Liv and it gave me hope. His rich baritone voice warmed me instantly, and I set the mug down - no longer needing it's warmth. All of my fears and worries melted away in an instant and I knew I had made the right decision to call Fitz. We had some big things to talk about, but I felt more at ease about all of that now too. I missed him like crazy in that moment, but before all of that quickly flew from my mouth, I simply said, "Hi."