Two-bit

I walked into my restaurant first thing on Monday morning with a big grin on my face,

Damn, I thought, If every Monday morning started with sex then there'd be no such thing as the Monday blues.

My wife had woken up frisky this morning, and hell I felt like a lucky man because I had gotten action last night as well. Okay well maybe she wasn't frisky, but with everyone coming home for the "Family Reunion" she was definitely feeling the baby blues and wanted a baby desperately. We'd been married for almost eight years, with Olivia being the only girl to (not only) put up with my antics, but also stick around and help me learn the proper way to treat a girl (to be honest this ended in a lot of arguments on my part and a lot of awkward conversations on her part).

The two of us had been trying for almost five years for a baby with no luck, and it was starting to take it's toll on us. When we first started trying, we'd try whenever we felt like it-there had been no need to rush. Then two years went by and we didn't see any results so we went to the doctor and he assured us that everything was normal and that things may just take a little longer. After another year of trying we went to see a specialist who told us that I had slow swimmers, and to increase our chances of having a baby we should keep close watch to see when Ollie would be ovulating and well… go to town.

The weeks that Ollie ovulated we pretty much didn't leave the house or my office. Seeing how happy Soda, Darry, and Steve were with their wives and kids made me jealous. I wanted that. I wanted to wake up and see my wife holding our baby, I wanted to watch her teach our little guy how to read or how to walk and it seemed the more time went on, the further we got away from that dream.

I started cleaning the dining area, mopping the floor before taking the chairs off the table and setting them on the ground. All of these preparations had to be done before my staff showed up so that they could focus on the food and customers. Usually during the day I stayed in my office (if I bothered to stick around the whole day). The way I had it, I had two shift managers that could run things, and staff for each shift. Usually I'd try and go in once a day, say hi in the morning, then once a week I'd have a meeting with both shifts to let them know what was going on, and then I'd do my own thing.

Since Ollie worked for Darry's residential construction business she tended to have some off time, and during those times is when we spent the most amount of time together. It was hard when there were busy weeks and I'd hardly ever see her, I don't know how some couples go for days without seeing their significant other.

Once the daily morning duties were complete I went to my office, next door to the break room. I'd tried to create a family environment here, not only for the customers but also for the staff. We were a fairly big restaurant and I couldn't have my staff upset with something and then not putting their full effort into the business. Everyone can tell when someone is half-assing their job and it doesn't look good on them or the business.

The biggest controversy I have with my business is my morning manager- Sylvia Johnson (Dally's ex-girlfriend). I knew that most of the towns people (that were my age obviously) had mixed feelings about me hiring her and having her around the kids.

However it was Olivia that insisted I give her a chance. Olivia knew all about Sylvia, her past and her antics. When I gave Sylvia a chance at managing the shift she was a natural. She dealt with cranky employee's and cranky customers with ease (if you ask me it's a result of dealing with Dally's shit for too long).

Sylvia knocked on my office door and I looked up from my computer screen to wave her in,

"Morning Sylvia," I said, closing my browser.

She eyed the screen that I just closed and opened her mouth to say something and I shook my head, "No, not porn… It's… It's an article on artificial insemination. It's been eight years… And I can't keep disappointing Olivia with false positives and my stupid slow swimmers."

She sighed and sat in the chair on the other side of my desk, "Two-bit you should sit down and have an honest talk with her. See if this is something she truly wants, or if she wants to maybe look at a cheaper alternative like adoption." I nodded and leaned back in my chair,

"What can I do for you?"

"Well… I've been working here for almost five years now… And… I mean I believe I'm a great asset to the team..."

"Yes, you can have a raise Sylvia."

"Oh thank god, otherwise I was about to do a whole lotta ass kissing," She said with a huge grin. I knew why Sylvia wanted a raise, she was a single mom to a kid that was almost nine. No one knew who's kid it was, not even Sylvia.

I laughed, pulling up the file on my laptop, looking through to give her the exact amount her raise would be and have her sign a new contract.

"So I heard Dallas is coming back…" She said quietly. I looked at her and I couldn't exactly tell if the look on her face was because she missed him or jealous because he'd found someone else.

"Yeah, he's bringing his fiancée with him… She's about five months pregnant." Again with the look, so I sighed,

"Sylvia you may miss him but he's moved on. I hate saying it like this but he was never into you for more than a romp."

"I know Keith." She said sharply.

"You ain't helping your case by calling me by my first name and giving me attitude."

She sighed and I gave her the new contract with her earnings on it. She thanked me and went downstairs to start working. A couple hours later I decided to get some lunch and when I went downstairs I was happy to see Steve and his wife Tessa eating lunch. I smiled at Sylvia,

"Remember that family doesn't pay." She nodded and I ordered my food before sauntering over,

"Mind if I join?" Tessa grinned and shook her head, and I sat with them. Olivia was Tessa's older sister, which made Steve and I brothers (in-law). We knew of the girls back in the day, they were from our side of town and had an older brother but we were never in the same circles they were. Tessa was just about nine months pregnant with their second child. They decided not to know the gender for this one, they already had a son that was three years old- Julian.

"How's it going?" Steve asked, eating his fries. I shrugged and leaned back in my chair,

"Fine I guess… Still no luck in the baby department."

Tessa put one of her hands on top of mine, "These things take time honey. Steve and I tried for almost two and a half years before we got this little one," She said, rubbing her bump softly. God that looked uncomfortable, kudos to girls for being able to put themselves through that.

"So Johnny should be landing in a couple of hours and Dallas should be here later tonight." Steve said, and I raised my eyebrow,

"I thought Dallas was flying too?"

"Nah, the chicken shit is scared of flying remember?" I couldn't help but laugh at that, it was the truth.

"Yeah fair enough. Where are they staying?"

"I think in hotels. Pony and Audrey are driving up tomorrow and they're going to be staying with Darry, I think Soda offered to take one of them in but Johnny's got two little ones and Dallas and Beth… Well I can imagine they'd want their space, god only knows how loud they are." Steve finished with a grin. I shook my head laughing,

"Well there's nothing worse than having a neighbour go out of their way to tell you to shut up, believe me it happens about once a week with us,"

"What happens once a week with us?" I heard someone ask and I grinned, turning around to see Olivia walk in, wearing her work boots, jeans, and the company shirt. God she just looks so hot (I mean beautiful) all the time.

"The neighbour calling or texting us to be quiet." I said with a grin and she blushed accordingly. Steve grinned and Tessa reached over to swat his hand,

"Leave them alone Steve. Maybe if you learned how to be quiet you'd get more sex."

"Ooh," I said, I knew that Steve hardly got laid, "Shots fired."

However this didn't even phase Steve, "Maybe if you learned how to be louder we'd have a third baby by now."

She glared at him and I watched in amazement as her glare changed his facial expression from one that was ready to fight, to one that immediately knew that he did something wrong,

"Babe-" He said but she cut him off,

"Don't worry about it Steve. We'll talk about it later."

One thing that Steve always had a hard time with was remembering that Tessa wasn't Evie. Steve and Evie pretty much got married after high school and stayed married for almost ten years, until they started "growing apart" (we're all pretty sure that they were cheating on each other, and Tessa was the other woman). Evie let Steve do whatever he wanted, pretty much let him treat her however he wanted and didn't tend to stick up for herself or even argue with Steve. Tessa was the opposite of all of those things. They dated officially for a year and a half, got married just after their two year anniversary and had Julian not long after.

"So we put the finishing touches on another house today!" Olivia said excitedly. I knew that it must have been hard for her, working around luxurious dream homes every day but she never once mentioned anything about moving or buying one. Currently we lived in the heart of downtown Tulsa, in a loft style apartment. It was nice and open but it offered no privacy when people came over (which meant no action in the kitchen while everyone was in the dining room).

"Babe that's amazing," I said, leaning up to kiss her. She happily kissed me back, her blond hair falling like a curtain around us. When I opened my eyes I saw her looking at me intensely with her beautiful chocolate brown eyes,

"I love you. Could we talk?" She asked and I nodded,

"Of course. Did you want to go home or up to my office babe?"

"I think we should go home."

"Alright, well I just ordered some food, did you want anything?" She looked thoughtful for a moment or two before nodding, telling Sylvia her order. Sylvia nodded and put a rush on the order, and we sat at the counter quietly. I held her hand in mine tightly, I was worried about her news. Once we got our food we went out to her car, I usually walked or took public transit to work, we only lived about a twenty minute walk away from the restaurant.

Instead of driving home she drove towards the outskirts of town, where Darry's company had just finished a new housing development. Immediately I knew what she was going to ask,

"Ollie… I don't know that we can afford to live here." I said softly, trying not to break her heart. She ignored me and kept driving to the other side of the development, pulling up in front of a house, smaller than the rest, but still big enough by my standards (a three bedroom, three bath).

"This one… We can afford this one Two-bit. I know we can, we've had our eye on it since it was designed… Charolette said there's been no offers and I can guarantee that Darry is willing to take a little less for this one since all of the others are going way above asking… Please. We need a home like this to raise a family."

I sighed, I couldn't break her heart twice. First with no kids and now without the home of her dreams.

"Okay babe… Call Charolette and have her put an offer in for us."

She grinned widely and called, and I couldn't help but feel a tad sick. I'd heard Ollie and Darry talking about how much these homes went for, but we were rushing into this. We'd have to buy a car for me, this was too far to walk to work and transit didn't come out this way just yet. God forbid if we ever did have a baby we'd surely be tight for money.

"He accepted!" She announced happily, opening her glove box and pulling out the key, handing it to me,

"Welcome home.." I said softly, leaning over to kiss her. We went into the house to look around and I was amazed that it was already furnished.

"How..?"

"This was the model home for the other smaller homes in the neighbourhood… Darry said we're welcome to keep what we need."

I grinned and kissed her softly, carrying her to the master bedroom.

I just wanted to give a big thanks to Lsquared2 and GreaserGirlie for all of their help with ideas and editing! You girls are the absolute best! Please read and review!