CHAPTER THREE
Olivia held Noah's hand; the frigid autumn air hit their faces as they exited the subway. They were heading to preschool early Monday morning, and the little boy by her side was beyond excited. They stopped for coffee on the way, and Noah could barely contain himself. Olivia feared that he was going to hit the people in front of him with all his nervous jumping. This was the first time that she shared her morning commute with her son and she was starting to see that there was going to be a little bit of a learning curve. For example, it was going to take approximately ten extra minutes to get through the subway system due to Noah's smaller legs and subsequent shorter strides - and on top of that Noah now hated being picked up. With the time crunch, Olivia was walking slightly too fast for her toddler that was still pulling on her arm slightly, and when she took the last turn before they reached the school, Noah faltered and bumped into Olivia's legs causing her to spill her coffee all over her new white blouse.
"Damnit!" Olivia cursed.
"Bad word!" Noah yelled back. Olivia sighed back sympathetically wiping at the spill, trying to salvage her shirt and also, selfishly, checking the styrofoam cup in hopes that there was
still some coffee left; with the extra stressful commute, she sure needed it. She checked; nothing.
"I'm sorry buddy" with one last hopeful look at her coffee cup she threw it in the trash. Grabbing her son's hand again, and heading back towards the school.
Rafael watched Luciana sit on the stoop outside her new school quietly, her fingers fidgeting slightly - showing her nerves. They were 20 minutes early for her first day of Kindergarten, both coping with their anxiety about the day by being over prepared. That morning he stirred himself into quite the panic at the local bakery, Rafael bought one of each donut for her to choose from and the fact that she only barely picked at the one that she chose didn't get past him. He knew that she didn't want to go to school but seeing her so wound up, made him wound up. And when he was wound up he tended to get snappy - the anxiety just spilling out of him and making him say things that were so mean he doubted that he would say them even when he was drunk, and he tended to be an abrasive drunk.
Rafael checked his watch, only five minutes until they could walk in, meaning they'd be only ten minutes early instead of twenty. He sighed, taking one of the donuts from the two large boxes he bought this morning, remembering how silly he looked carrying huge pink boxes through the subway at six o'clock in the morning. Taking care of his niece was relatively easy for Rafael, but there were still those small disturbances - the pink, sparkly and frequently strawberry scented disturbances - that he still had a slight problem with.
"Let's go!" Luciana pulled on Rafael's sleeve, her nerves apparently making her a little snippy as well.
"Alright, alright." He checked his watch, "I guess you can be 13 minutes early."
Olivia pulled Noah ungracefully behind her trying her best to get the little boy to his first day of kindergarten on time. They rounded the corner of the long tiled hallway right when the teacher was starting her beginning of the year introductions. Olivia sighed in relief, pushing Noah up to the front, gaining some sideways glares from the other parents. While the teacher droned on Olivia took the time to scope out the other parents. Even though she was confident with how she was raising Noah, Olivia still had some built up insecurity's about being a single mother. Especially now that Noah was starting school, he would start to see the stereotypical "normal" family dynamic, and she honestly wasn't ready for the questions.
The teacher wrapped up her spiel, focusing intently on the importance of 'timeliness' which felt directed towards her. The sideways judgmental glance that the teacher pointed at Olivia was a little much - they weren't even technically late, they may have shown up after the teacher said her name but she knew all the tedious rules that the parents had to follow, who knew private school required so much mandatory volunteering.
The children started filling into the classrooms, and Noah looked up at his mom, a lost expression on his face. "Go have fun sweet boy; I'll be back to pick you up in a couple of hours."
"Okay! Bye Momma!" Noah gave his mother a weak side hug and then ran into the classroom. 'Damn' Olivia thought, 'I feel like that should have been harder for him.'
Rafael and Luciana walked into the school, finding her classroom with relative ease. Luciana peeked in timidly, taking in the scenery. The teacher, after spotting them, came out quickly to introduce herself. She was sweet, beautiful, young and under different circumstances, he probably would have made a move. But this early in the morning, standing next to his five-year old niece, with the faintest trace of donut glaze left on his chin, he felt that now was probably not the best time.
He was glad that they showed up so early, he could see Luciana warm up, and that put him at ease. As the other children started filling in Luciana didn't look near as startled as he thought she would and he was so incredibly proud of her. The teacher was just starting to give her opening remarks when hurried heeled footsteps were heard hitting the tiled floor - taking up a manic pace. The disruption irritated him - well lateness of any sort irritated him. He started to imagine the villain that would dare show up late to the first day of Kindergarten, but when the attractive brunette from the park rounded the corner, the irritation faded and was replaced by an odd sense of familiarity. When he saw her aggressively push her son up to the front of the group it took all his willpower not to laugh audibly.
With the kids dispersing into their assigned classrooms the parents were left with the decision to either awkwardly small talk in the middle of the hallway or make a bolt for it and came across as oddly pushy. Olivia went for the latter, being perceived as aggressive was never a problem for her. She took the phone out of her suit jacket pocket and headed purposefully towards the door. Walking past a man who was leaning against the wall and also checking his phone, Olivia got distracted watching his thumbs flitter across the screen of his phone. Rafael, noticing her distraction, came off the wall and walked towards her. Olivia was so captivated by his hands that she was oblivious to his new proximity causing her to trip rather ungracefully over his foot and Rafael quickly grabbed her arm to stop her from hitting the floor.
"Shit" Olivia cursed as she was jerked upwards. Once she was standing, eye level with the man who yanked her upright, his eyes fixed on her own, Olivia retracted, feeling a sense of vulnerability that she wasn't comfortable with. She stiffened, pulling her arm out of his hand forcefully, becoming combative, "Watch where you're going!" She spat at him.
"I should watch where I'm going? I'm not the one so busy trying to read a strangers text messages that I fall over." Rafael spat back, mirroring her combative stance.
It hadn't even occurred to Olivia that he was texting someone, she was just entranced by the movement of his thumbs gliding across the screen. A blush started to creep across her neck at the thought. "Oh come on, I wasn't trying to read your text messages." Olivia countered defensively, getting more aggressive the more embarrassed she felt. "Are you always this paranoid that someones watching you? You obviously love the attention based off the three piece suit you're wearing. You know this is Kindergarten drop off right? Not the met ball." with a satisfied twitch of her eyebrow, Olivia turned to walk away being stopped once again by Rafael's hand on her arm. She turned back around to see him leer at her, dragging his eyes up and down her form.
"That's big talk for someones who's bra is completely visible under their shirt," Rafael said with a self-important smile. Olivia looked down and saw that the coffee had seeped through her white blouse revealing her black trimmed bra. Unconsciously she tightened her blazer around herself and looked back up at him, staring daggers.
"You know this is a kindergarten drop off right?" throwing her words back at her, his smirk grew as he saw her reaction - the blush on her neck was deepening.
He looked familiar she thought. There was something about him that made her stomach tighten unwittingly. Brushing it off she continued to glare at him: "Your mother never taught you not to stare?" Olivia asked, trying to combat her rising blush, resuming her combative stance.
"Says the women who practically undressed me with her eyes in a public park yesterday afternoon."
'Fuck,' Olivia thought, that's where she knew him. The blush that she had been trying to pin down had grown relentlessly, spread all across her face in embarrassing red blotches. She put her hands on her face, rubbing her brow and temples, trying to hide how his stare was affecting her. She finally looked him; the police captain's mask set firmly in place. Fidgeting with the case of her phone slightly - the only remnants of her anxiety - she tried helplessly to meet his stare and gain the upper hand. Rafael, relishing in her discomfort, looked her up and down once more, quickly winking, turning on his heels and heading down the hallway.
Thank you all for reading. The next chapter will probably be M but I will put a disclaimer beforehand. Please feel free to give me any ideas about what you guys would like to see. I appreciate all of you that review - they make writing this so much more fun!
