Chapter 11
Leaving the funeral home Olivia told Natalia she needed to run some errands and took off for the jail. Natalia decided to run over to Company and see if the Cooper family needed any help. Walking upstairs she found Frank Cleaning out Coop's room at the boarding house. "Frank. I saw you headed this way."
"Hey."
"So what's going on? I saw all these boxes in the window."
"It's done. My dad turned over the entire restaurant to Alan. Every last stick."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes." ,
"Are you alright? Just…tell me what I can do to help."
Olivia walked up to Phillips cell and he looked up at her from his place on the bench. "Olivia."
"Alright."
"Alright what?"
"I can't wait. I need you to be straight with me about your intentions. Why are you here? And no speeches, no nothing, just tell me the truth."
Natalia went into Company to grab some more boxes to help Frank and saw a picture of Nicky and Rafe. Picking it up she began to speak aloud. "I can't believe it's been a year since I lost you. Life goes on. So many things have changed. Some are good, some are just confusing, some are just so sad. Coop was so young. Your family's in a lot of pain and I'm gonna do everything I can to help them Nicky. They've been so good to me. And I have caused one of them so much pain Nicky. I hurt Frank and I didn't mean to, I just, I couldn't not love Olivia, I just couldn't. And I know you would have wanted that. You would have wanted me to find love again, and I have Nicky. I have found an amazing love, and I'm so happy Nicky. Thank you for that. Thank you for saving her." Placing the picture back in the box she grabbed the empty boxes and headed back up to help Frank. "How can I help?"
"You know what I'm almost done. These boxes just need to be taped up so…"
"Frank, Frank, I'm not just talking about packing."
"I'm sorry."
"Hey, you know you've been there for me and Rafe more times then I can count and I want to return the favor so just tell me. Is there anything that I can do? Anything…"
"You know what Natalia, I really appreciate the offer, it's just that it's been a really brutal week. Coop's gone and now dad giving up Company."
"I don't understand, why, why would he do that?"
"My take is that he just doesn't wanna walk into Company and not see Coop at his laptop like he always was, you know? Look I'm sorry um, how are you doing? You know I saw you and Olivia fighting outside the funeral home. Is everything alright?"
"Oh just, what else is new? Olivia and I we don't really just you know agree on much anyway it's just how we are I guess."
"Hmm, I guess that can make for a long day sometimes. Listen you mind helping me out with that bookcase there?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks."
Olivia stared at Phillip though the bars, worry etched into her features. "I need to know why you're here."
"Are you armed."
"No, but that's really your thing these days isn't it? It's very Alan of you."
"Mmm, sorry about that. Sorry about many things. What I did to Emma."
"You made my life a living hell."
"I'd say we both caused each other a lot of pain."
"So what now? Everything's good?"
"You were at Coop's memorial, You heard what I said. I have no interest in picking up where I left off. I wanna make amends and move on."
"Just like that?"
"No, I mean, I know it'll take time, but thankfully, I have time. I got that second chance that everybody hopes for. So that's me. What about you?" Olivia just stared at him. "You may as well spit it out, I know why you're here. You wanna know what I'm gonna do about Emma, and you wanna know what I think about this living arrangement with our daughter and another woman."
"Emma writes an innocent essay for her fourth grade class and the next thing I know I've got politicians, and parents, and half the town making innuendos about my alternative lifestyle and then you show up afterwards. It's not a coincidence. You wanna know if I'm corrupting our daughter."
"No, no, I…Emma is one of the reasons I came back that's true, but I didn't know any thing about your alternative lifestyle. Is it true?"
"No, it's a bunch of ridiculous gossip being spread around by a bunch of narrow minded idiots. It's nothing."
"Olivia. You don't care about gossip, so what's got you so worked up?"
Frank and Natalia were almost done packing up Coop's room. Natalia was trying to make friendly small talk. "Living with Olivia is challenging but…"
"Well if you ah, if you ever wanna talk about it, I'm here for ya. I know Olivia can be Olivia sometimes and life isn't always easy with her."
"No, she's not that bad. She makes life interesting, keeps me on my toes. We keep each other on our toes. We make it work." Deciding she did not want to discuss Olivia with Frank she quickly changed course. "You're doing it again."
"What's that?"
"Trying to help me when I'm supposed to be helping you."
"Oh no, I'm prying."
"That's what you do all the time. No, you do that with me and Rafe, you do it with your dad, your entire family."
"Couldn't help my brother."
"I don't think there's any thing you could have done. Love makes people crazy."
"I know I'm too late for Coop but I wish there was something I could do for my father."
"Being there for Buzz is enough. And I wanna, I wanna, I really wanna help, just something any thing."
"I honestly can't think of any thing that you can do."
Natalia turned to give Frank a comforting hug.
Olivia looked at Phillip with complete distrust. "What are you saying?"
"I'm say I don't live in the stone age. So if there's any truth about this with you and Natalia, then you know, I make no judgements."
"It's….okay, so you think that we're together?"
"I think you're a passionate person who marches to her own beat. You always have. So, no, it wouldn't surprise me. And you can trust me when I tell you, it wouldn't bother me."
"I wanna trust you, but that's like saying I could trust your father, and that'll happen when pigs fly. "
"Right, which is why I'm here. A whole lot of people in this town that don't trust me anymore. You're among those with good reason."
"Yeah well I'm the only one in a lesbian love affair."
"And I'm saying, it's okay."
"I don't need your okay."
"Olivia, when all of this surfaced you girlfriend stuck by you right? Might tell you something."
Pulling back from the hug Frank leant in and kissed Natalia. She pushed him back. "Hey Frank. What are you doing?"
"I thought, I just thought that…."
"Thought what Frank? I was just giving you a hug. Just a hug."
"You said you wanted to help. When you hugged me I assumed you wanted to move forward with us."
"Frank, it was just a hug. I told you I am seeing someone and you and I, we are just friends, that's all. Friends."
"Natalia come on. I haven't seen you with anyone and I can tell you want this too. You're just scared. We're good together Natalia."
"No Frank. I don't want more then friendship from you. I'm sorry if my coming to help you gave you the wrong idea but I really am with someone. Someone that I love very much."
"I don't believe that. If you love this person so much then why hasn't anyone seen you with him, and why can't you even tell me who he is? Come on Natalia, what are you so afraid of? Just tell me and we can work it out together."
Raising her voice in an attempt to make him actually hear her she screamed. "I'm not afraid of anything Frank! I. Am. In. Love. With. Someone. Else. You and I are not going to be anything more then friends and you are pushing that right about now!"
Franks temper rose along with his voice. "WHO GOD DAMN IT! If you're so in love with this guy then just tell me who the hell he is!"
Walking towards the door she grabbed her coat and tried to walk away. "Don't Frank. Today is not the day for this."
"Why wont you just tell me Natalia! Tell me and I promise I will leave you alone, but right now I think you're just scared because of what happened to Gus and you're pushing me away."
"Now is not the time Frank. I'm gonna go." She started to walk out the door but Frank put up his arm to block her.
"I think now is as good a time as any Natalia." He spat, anger dripping from every word.
"Get out of the way Frank."
"NO!"
"Fine you wanna do this today Frank, then we will. Olivia."
"Olivia? What about her?"
"It's Olivia Frank, Olivia is who I'm seeing."
"No. No, you can't be. You're, you're….."
"Yes Frank. Olivia. Now please just let me leave."
"What has she done to you? What does she have on you? That bitch screws up everyone and everything she touches. Tell me what she has on you and I can fix this."
"HEY! DON'T! Do not speak about her like that! Not to me! She doesn't have any thing on me, she didn't do any thing to me, she just loves me Frank, and I love her. Now, Get. Out. Of. My. Way. Now!"
"I don't believe you love her Natalia. She got into your head, she can convince anyone of anything, it's what she does."
Deciding she'd had enough she forcibly pushed Frank out of the way and ran down the stairs. Going straight to her car and driving off. She wanted to cool down before heading home so she decided it best to take a drive.
Olivia walked into Company still feeling off after her conversation with Phillip. Seeing Jeffery behind the bar she walked over. He grabbed a beer and offered her one. Seeing her shake her head he just started to talk about Reva. "You know people get cancer right? People get cancer sometimes they live, sometimes they die. I'm doing my best to stay positive, I'm doing my best to keep her positive, you know, this kid could be stuck with me and no mother. You know I wish I could go back and make things different."
"Come on, Would you have made a different choice?"
"I don't know. What about you? What's going on?"
"Life. I finally felt like I found a family and a home of my own, feeling better, and we love living at the farmhouse, and I feel like I finally have a life and Phillip's come back to screw it all up because I know he's going after Emma."
"He is in jail."
"Look he'll, he wont say any thing but he'll do it, that's why he's here. And I can't do this again. I finally feel like I can start to let my guard down and I'm tired of looking over my shoulder. I just want some piece of mind and some happiness."
"Who is it?"
"Phillip. Aren't you listening?"
"No, no, no. Who's the guy?"
"There is no guy."
"There's always a guy."
"There is no guy. Trust me."
"I just told you something that I've never told anyone before, out loud, come on, talk to me. Here have…"
"I have enough people talking about me."
"I'll listen, I'm a very good listener, come on, give it a shot, I'll listen."
"Okay, okay. So what if Natalia and I are together and she makes Emma happy and she makes me happy. She makes me happy. I shouldn't of said anything to you."
"Natalia, mm kay"
"My little girl, she's been through enough, having me as a mother and Phillip as her father, she deserves a happy stable life."
"Like the one she has with you and Natalia."
"Yes. Like the one she has. So why, why does it matter? And why am I so worried?"
"Because she makes you happy. You don't know what to do with happy, you're waiting for it to fall apart."
At that Olivia grabbed her purse and walked out without another word.
Walking into the farmhouse and shutting the door behind her Olivia called up the stairs for the one person she needed right now. "Hey Natalia." After receiving no answer she moved through the house and into the kitchen. "Natal….." The kitchen is also empty. "Where is she?" Olivia headed back out with no particular destination in mind.
Natalia returned home to an empty house. At that moment she was some what relieved that Olivia wasn't home. Taking off her coat and walking to the kitchen she picked up her statue of the virgin Mary off the buffet and sat at the table. "I'm praying to you today because I need your help. I, I wanted to help a friend, a really good friend whose been so wonderful to me, and he kissed me. I wanted to make everything okay and instead it's all so much worse."
Olivia walked in to find Natalia sitting at the table with tears in her eyes. Pulling out a chair Olivia took a seat next to her. "Hi."
"Hi."
"Listen um, I just wanted to say I'm sorry again for the memorial. I mean you were right and maybe I should be afraid of Phillip, Maybe I shouldn't but I shouldn't act like a crazy person."
"I'm glad to hear it."
"You busy? I thought maybe we could get dinner and we could talk. I mean I certainly owe you dinner after all the crazy."
"Um, I don't wanna go out. But we do need to talk."
"Utt oh. Nothing good ever comes from we need to talk." Olivia said with a smile trying to lighten the mood.
"No, it's not good, but it's not about us. Not really. So quit worrying."
"Okay. So what's up?"
"Um, well, you know I went over to Company to see if they needed any help."
"Yes. Did something happen? Natalia you're scaring me."
"Yes, something happened, but you have to remember your promise okay? No crazy."
"Um."
"Promise. Promise you aren't gonna go all crazy Olivia, shoot first ask questions later, Spencer on me."
"Natalia, you need to tell me. You're making me worry."
"Promise."
"Fine. I promise, now tell me."
"Well Frank was there alone packing up Coop's room and I offered to help him."
"Okay."
"So we were almost done and he was so upset so I offered him a hug."
"Okay, that's fine. I don't care if hug Frank."
"That's not the bad part."
"Natalia, get to the point please."
"When he pulled back from the hug he kissed me."
Standing up, face turning red, nostrils flaring, Olivia shouted. "WHAT! YOU KISSED FRANK COOPER!"
"No! Olivia. Were you not listening? He kissed me."
"And what did you do!?"
Standing and walking to within inches of Olivia, Natalia all but spat her words. "What do you think I did. God Olivia. I pushed him back, I told him that he and I would only ever be friends." Her voice rose to emphasize her words, "I told him I was in love with you!"
"You, you what?" All of Olivia's anger left her at those words.
"I told him I was in love with you." Natalia stated much calmer then the first time.
"I thought you didn't want to tell him yet. And today of all days. I mean I don't care but really?"
"Well I didn't plan to. He was insisting that I was just scared, he didn't believe I was seeing someone. He, once again, was demanding I tell him who. I tried to just leave and he blocked the door screaming at me. I was just so tired of having him tell me what I'm thinking and feeling. Of having him think he could pressure me into dating him that I just told him. I tried not to. I tried so hard not to. It was not what he needed today on top of Coop and Buzz giving Alan Company, but I couldn't do it anymore. I just couldn't Olivia." She started to cry.
Olivia took her in her arms and stroked her hair whispering soothing words. "Shh, It's okay honey, it's all gonna be okay. It's over now. Shh. Calm down baby. Shh."
Sniffling Natalia leaned back to see Olivia's eyes. "I just made it all worse. He was already so upset and I tried to be there to help him and I just made it so much worse. He was spitting venom about you and he was so angry and so hurt. God…what am I going to do?"
"Nothing. You don't need to do anything. Sweetheart, you tried. You tried to leave, you tried not to tell him, he's the one that forced you baby. He did this to himself."
"I should have never gone over there."
"No baby, you were being a good friend. Frank's the one in the wrong. He shouldn't be trying to force something you don't want. And he damn sure shouldn't have trapped you in a room! Don't worry honey, I'm gonna take care of this."
"No. Olivia. You promised."
"Hey, I didn't say I was gonna shoot him, just have a little chat." She said smiling.
"Olivia…no. Lets just let it go. Let's give it some time. Okay?"
"Fine. But one more thing and I get to have my way with him, deal?"
"If I agree do you promise to leave it be for now?"
"Yes."
"Then I agree. If anything else happens you can go all, Olivia Freakin' Spencer, on him."
"Here's hoping."
"Olivia." Natalia said, playfully swatting her stomach.
"What? I'm just sayin'."
"Oh you. Just kiss me."
"Now that I can do." With those words she bent down and placed her lips to Natalia's in a heated kiss. A kiss meant to reassure their love. A kiss promising of more as they made their way upstairs and into Natalia's room.