So Many Questions
Since everyone had been drinking, the four of them also got an uber to take them home. "Leo can come back for his car tomorrow." Harrison decided.
Once they had arrived at the guy's house, Harrison ran upstairs to his bedroom to get changed. Quinn followed him, but veered off into Leo's room to look for a dry shirt and a pair of sweats. She didn't care who the clothes belonged to she wasn't a fan of being soaked to the bone.
Olivia stood shivering just inside the doorway of the living room and watched with jealousy as the two of them got closer to being a little drier. She didn't know these people. She liked them, but she didn't really know them. Suddenly, it felt a bit awkward standing in their house expecting someone to fix the predicament she was in.
"Hey." Fitz said, breaking through her random thoughts. He extended a hand to her, which she took. "Let's go get you out of those wet clothes."
His eyes went huge and his mouth hung open as he dropped her hand as if it were on fire. "Shit! I...You must think...I swear, Liv! I didn't...I mean...I'm not being an asshole. I'm sorry! I just meant..."
Olivia laughed at him, and in that moment, her nervous doubts evaporated somehow. He was cute when he stammered. She would be keeping that in mind to provoke him later just so she could see it again. Taking his hand once again and giving him a reassuring smile, she said, "it's okay. I know exactly what you meant."
He sighed, releasing the embarrassment he had been carrying and chuckled lightly. If she could let go of it as easily as that, then he would too. "Okay. Come on."
They walked up the stairs and heard Quinn and Harrison, in separate rooms, challenging each other to see who could get changed faster. "You have on more clothes than an Amish grandmother, Harrison. I'm definitely beating you!" Quinn said behind Leo's closed bedroom door.
"Those jeans are so tight you'll probably have to cut them off." Harrison teased. "And that is gonna take some time."
"Are they always like this?" Olivia asked with a grin.
"Unfortunately, yes." He led her into his bedroom and opened the top dresser drawer. Grabbing the first thing he touched, he tossed her a small white bundle. "Here are some dry socks."
She slid off her soaked flats and let her toes pinch the carpet on his bedroom floor. It felt like heaven. Glancing up she saw Fitz pulling his sweater and t-shirt over his head and drop it into a laundry basket on the floor. It was hard not to stare. The man had an amazing upper body. His back was rippled with muscles from regular work outs. At least that's the sweaty sexy image she immediately conjured up.
When he turned around to go back to his dresser, she saw that his chest was damn near perfect too. Not too much hair, but not completely bare either. His arms were muscular and still held a tan from whatever it was that he did outside. She averted her gaze to her toenail polish.
Squatting down to open a lower drawer, he rifled through a few neatly folded items and grunted. He pulled out a gray pair of sweats and held them up. "You can try these or borrow a pair from Harrison. He's the shortest of the three of us, but still a lot taller than you are, I'm afraid."
"I'll take my chances with yours. If that's okay?" She asked.
"They are going to hang off you. Maybe you can pull the draw string tight enough that they won't be too bad though?"
"What about a shirt or a hoodie?" Giving a shy smile, she added, "I meant to say please."
Fitz grinned at her and went to his closet. After opening the door, he reached for a thick hoodie on the top shelf and turned around to hand it to her. "This is gonna be too big too. Sorry about that."
She returned the grin. "It's fine. It's dry, and that's all that matters right now."
He stood there staring at her with a smile on his face in silence as she dripped water onto his floor with his dry clothes in her hands. Wet or dry, she was beautiful.
After a long silent moment, Olivia quietly asked, "Umm, can you point me to the bathroom so I can change?"
That snapped his out of his fog. "Yea! Of course!"
He took two steps towards his door, but then turned on his heel. "Hey, why don't..."
His words were cut off as her face collided with his bare chest. Her hands automatically went to his ridiculously chiseled chest to push her face from it. For a moment, before she got her bearings back, Olivia let her fingers slowly travel down his chest.
The second she realized what she was doing a horrified expression covered her face & she tried to take a huge step backwards. Fitz's hands were holding her in place. She looked at his hands on her shoulders and then looked up at him. He was studying her intently. It appeared as if he wanted to say something, and right about now, she wanted to know what it was. Anything to break the heavy silence.
When it seemed like he wasn't going to ever say anything, she whispered, "I'm...sorry. I don't know why I did that."
Fitz didn't care why she did it. He liked it. Hell, he wanted her to do it again. But more than put her on the spot with even more weirdness between them, he wanted to lighten the mood. To bring her back to carefree herself. "I'm guessing I'm not allowed to do the same thing to you?"
She couldn't help herself. Olivia was once again laughing at him, and all the embarrassment was gone. "I don't know you well enough yet."
Yet was promising, Fitz thought to himself as his grin grew even bigger.
Her question about his occupation came back into her mind, so she asked him about it. "Can I ask you something?"
"How do I get the pectoral muscles so tight?" He flexed, knowing it was the furthest thing on her mind. "You'd be surprised at how often I get asked that question. It's a combination of..."
With her hand on her mouth, Olivia laughed even harder. "No! That is not what I was going to ask!"
"I was sure that was the direction this conversation was leaning in." He teased. "You can ask me anything."
"What do you do for work?"
"Oh. You caught me off guard with that one." He admitted. "I'm a lawyer for a rather large firm about forty minutes away. Why?"
"Because earlier, when we were at the carnival, I thought you were a stand up comedian."
"What?!" He exclaimed with a chuckle. "Why would you ever think that?"
"You're very funny."
"I am?" He thought of himself not as humorous, but as sarcastic.
"You always have a quick funny reply for anyone, no matter what is being discussed."
He flashed her a lopsided grin. "Huh. Good to know I have a job to fall back on in case the lawyer gig doesn't work out."
"How long have you been a lawyer?"
"Four years now."
She crinkled her nose at him. "Yea, I don't think you'll be changing jobs anytime soon. Now, I really am desperate to change into these ginormous clothes previously worn by Bigfoot."
He chuckled at her. "Oh! That's why I turned around. You can change in here and I'll go change in the bathroom."
"That's fine, but you have to get out of here first."
"Meet me downstairs?"
"You have alcohol, right?"
"Does this look like Cheers?"
She snorted at him. "See? That's funny. Now, get out."
Quinn dashed out of Leo's room, dressed in a pair of oversized sweats and a t-shirt that said, 'if you don't want a sarcastic answer, don't ask a stupid question.' She saw that Harrison's door was still closed and cheerfully exclaimed, "I told you I'd beat you!"
Just then Harrison jerked the door open and his head darted around to find Quinn. She squealed loudly and ran downstairs, laughing her way to the living room.
Olivia jerked her thumb towards the stairs and asked, "was that your t-shirt or Leo's?"
"I don't buy t-shirts with crap written on them. If I have something to say, I'll say it." he replied as he slid past her. "Excuse me."
She glanced at his wet jean clad ass before he disappeared behind the bathroom door. Very nice.
When the four of them were finally downstairs together with a drink in their hand, they each picked their spot to get comfy. Harrison sat on one end of a sofa, while Quinn opted for one of the recliners. Fitz waited to see where Olivia would sit. When she plopped down on one end of the sofa, he sat down on the other end. Quinn took a long pull from her beer and asked, "what are we watching?"
The four of them looked at each other for the answer. No one spoke up.
"Okay. Let's narrow it down a bit. Since chick flicks are out, do we want comedy or drama?"
"Comedy." Olivia said.
"Now, horror or comedy?" she asked.
"Comedy." The other three said in unison.
"Perfect. Now which comedy do we want to watch?"
"Go to Netflix and let it pick something for us."
"What if it doesn't pick a comedy?" Quinn asked with a smug look.
"Unless it's a horror film, we'll just go with it." Fitz said. "Right?"
"Works for me." Liv replied.
"Me too." Harrison added.
After the familiar tudum sound, the colorful boxes with nicknames for Who's watching were displayed on the large wall mounted screen. "Who is Pita?" Olivia asked curiously.
The guys laughed.
Quinn rolled her eyes. "That's me. Pain in the ass. Fitz has the Netflix, I have the Hulu, Harrison has Prime Video, and Leo has HBO. We all share our log in information and make up creative nicknames for the other three."
"Now I need to know what Fitz's nickname is on your Hulu account." Olivia said grinning.
"Absolutely not" Fitz stated.
"GI Joe Momma."
Olivia chuckled and shot Quinn a confused look.
"Because he was going to enlist in the military."
Olivia turned to Fitz. "You were? Which branch?"
He shrugged. "The Army."
"Wow."
"I keep changing my nickname to my first name, since I didn't actually go into the military," he grumbled, shooting Quinn a glare. "But she keeps changing it back."
"Can we watch something now please?"
Quinn asked Netflix to play something. Ten minutes later, the four of them were chuckling along with a show called Lucifer. After two episodes, a yawn escaped from Olivia's mouth. "Sorry, guys. I think I'm ready to go lay down."
"Do you want to keep watching a while longer?" Harrison asked Quinn.
"Yea, it's getting really good." She answered him. To Olivia she asked, "are you cool with sleeping in Leo's bed?"
Olivia was about to answer in the affirmative when Fitz simply said, "she's not sleeping on that bed."
"Why not?" Quinn asked.
"Because he's been acting like a little bitch ever since he and Abby split. There's no telling what has happened while he lays in that bed alone every night."
"Gross!" Olivia said, scrunching her face.
"Where is she gonna sleep then?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but she can sleep in my bed..."
"Is that really a good idea?" Harrison asked, as that protective feeling popped up inside him.
"I'll just bet she can." Quinn interrupted.
"While I sleep on the sofa." Fitz said firmly, shutting down his sister's perverted mind.
"I called dibs on the sofa when we got here, so there's that." Quinn told him.
Fitz sighed heavily. "Fine! I'll sleep on the floor."
"You're not sleeping on the..." Olivia protested. She had taken his clothes, but she wouldn't take his bed. Not when hers had been taken from her without asking.
"Come on, Liv. I'll show you where everything is upstairs."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Quinn sang.
"Shut up!" Fitz called out from the stairs.
"Be respectful, man." Harrison said to his friend.
Olivia led the way into Fitz's room and stopped in the middle of it. Turning to him she said, "I'm not tired."
"Then why did we stop watching the show?"
"Because I wanted to lay down and because I wanted to get to know you without other people around. I thought we could talk for a while."
He smiled down at her. She was full of surprises. "Yea? That would be nice."
Olivia crawled onto Fitz's king sized bed and made herself comfortable. She pat the pillow beside hers and watched him hesitantly lay down beside her. Feeling very comfortable where she was, Olivia stretched her body. She curled herself onto her side, facing him, and smiled.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Why is your bed so much cleaner than Leo's?"
"Is there a pass button in this conversation?"
Chuckling, Olivia said, "nope."
"For one, I'm not an animal, and two, I have been single longer than he has."
"Interesting. How long has it been exactly?"
"Ten months."
"Wow. That is interesting. For the record, I am also single."
"How long have you been single?"
"Five months."
"Was it a bad break up?" he asked.
"It was on his part. I caught him cheating with a friend of a friend, so I confronted him about it."
Fitz propped his arm up and rested his cheek into his palm and quietly continued to listen.
"He tried to say it wasn't him. That I was wrong. But I knew he was lying to me. I wanted out, so I packed up my stuff and left."
"Where'd you go?"
"I lived with friends for a while, but he started showing up at places he knew I'd be. He came to my job, the laundry mat, and the grocery store. To name a few."
"What would he do?"
"He'd beg me to take him back. To give him another chance. It was super annoying. When I'd finally had all I could stand, I knew I needed to really get away from him. So, I called Abby and asked if she could use a roommate. She jumped on the chance to pay half the rent on her apartment instead of the whole thing, so I packed up my stuff and here I am."
"I'm really sorry that you were driven from your home because of an asshole." Fitz said. "How do you like it here?"
She looked into his bottomless blue eyes. He was definitely attractive, but more than that, he genuinely cared about what she was saying. He was listening without interrupting. That was refreshingly different for her. She didn't want to seem too eager, and she didn't want to come across as crazy, but she reached across with her index finger and hooked it around his.
He smiled at her and gently rubbed her finger with his thumb.
"So far it's been great." Liv answered with a smile.
