Olivia's furious.

Her nostrils are flared and her eyes are hard. "Mellie can I talk to you outside?" She says as she walks towards the conference room's door.

Mellie doesn't answer. She just silently follows like a child whose about to be scalded by their mother.

Olivia closes the door behind Mellie and takes a few steps away from her. "Please tell me you did not sleep with that woman." She says in a hushed voice.

Mellie doesn't answer. She just stands there looking anywhere besides Olivia.

Olivia rolls her eyes. "Seriously, Mellie? Amanda Tanner? She's going to give this video to Sally Langston and that'll cost you the election. When did this even happen?"

Mellie finally made eye contact with Olivia as she thought back to that night. She had been drunk. It was a couple of days after Olivia had left her and she needed to feel something. Anything. She was numb.

Amanda Tanner had been trying to get in her pants since they first met their freshman year. She barely even remembered that night but she did remember the next morning. She had rushed out of Amanda's dorm rooming feeling like shit. She felt guilty. Like she had just betrayed Liv even though they were no longer together.

"It was the summer of '01. It was just a cheap fuck. I was completely out of it. I barely remember the night."

"So you decided to make a video of it?"

Mellie scoffs. Like she's genuinely offended. "Give me some credit, Liv. I might be a lot of things but I am not trashy. I would never make a sex tape. Especially not with Amanda Tanner."

"Well just because you didn't condone to being filmed doesn't mean there wasn't a camera somewhere in that room." Olivia looks Mellie over in disbelief. "I can't believe you had sex with that woman of all people. You knew she was screwing Fitz too and probably half of the university."

"Well she was there Liv and you weren't." She says in a voice that isn't angry at all. It sounds sad actually. Like it was only yesterday that she had woken up to Olivia gone and a note on her nightstand.

"Mellie, I…"

"Don't." She says while taking a few steps back from Olivia. Somehow they had ended up just inches apart during their conversation. "Just do your job ok. Fix this. I haven't spent the past twenty plus years of my life hiding who I really am so that I could be knocked out of the running for president by some blonde whore with a huge sex drive. So handle this. That's what I'm paying you for, right?"

Olivia's hurt by this. Mellie can tell because Liv let's her walls down for about a half of a second. She's surprised that Mellie could actually be so cold towards her, but she knows she deserves it. So she sucks it. "Right."

As soon as Olivia responds she turns around and heads back into the conference room. She knows that if she looks at Liv for another second she'll take back every word she just said.

Olivia follows Mellie back into the conference room and walks directly over to the sassy redhead. "Abby, I need you to play good cop for me."

Harrison actually snorts at Olivia's request. "Good luck with that."

"Harrison, go with her. Find out if there's actually a video with Mellie in it and if there is offer her so much money that her head spins. Huck, get them an address."

"On it." He says as he starts to type away on his laptop. "119 Darhill Dr."

"Keys?" Abby asks before Liv tosses the keys in her direction.

Harrison intercepts them and puts them in his pocket. "You're not driving." He says as he runs out the door.

"Harrison!" yells Abby as she chases after him.

Olivia turns to Mellie and Fitz who are both sitting at a table discussing potential topics for the next debate. If you didn't know the truth about them you'd think they were a completely normal and happy couple. They may not be a normal couple but they were happy with their arrangement that they had made so long ago.

"So why is Fitz dating you again? I mean, what's in it for him?" Olivia asks as she hurriedly cleans her bedroom.

"He thinks that his worthless father will finally be proud of him if he's anywhere near the white house. If he really had the balls he'd tell his dad to fuck off." Mellie responds while sitting on top of Olivia's bed.

"Everyone doesn't have the courage to stand up to their parents Mellie."

"I can see that. You're running around here like crazy because your mom's coming."

"You don't clean when your mom comes to visit you?"

"She insists that I don't. She likes to do it. Makes her feel like I'm still her little girl."

"Really?"

"Yeah and she says I can't clean worth shit."

Olivia laughs at that. "Well my mom will notice if anything is out of place and you can help by getting off my bed that I just made."

Mellie hops up from the bed quickly and walks over to Olivia. "Maybe you should calm down Liv." She says as she puts her hands on Olivia's shoulders. "Take a deep breath."

Olivia does what she's told and takes a deep breath before exhaling slowly.

"Better?"

"No." And just like that she's back to cleaning.

"Maybe you should take a break."

"Mellie, I…" She stops in midsentence when she sees that Mellie has taken off her Harvard University t-shirt.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to help you relax. It'll be good for you." She responds as she makes her way over to Olivia and kisses her.

This isn't the first time they've kissed. They've been doing this ever since Mellie had walked Olivia home that night and that was weeks ago.

Olivia falls back onto the bed with Mellie on top of her.

The kiss is desperate and Olivia moans as Mellie tongue enters her mouth and grinds her thigh into Olivia's core.

Mellie breaks the kiss and starts to kiss Liv's neck before she makes her way down to the buttons of Liv's jeans and starts to undo them.

Olivia sits up and stops Mellie just like she does every night. "We should stop, Mellie."

Mellie sighs as she moves from on top of Olivia to sitting right next to her. "You know I don't care that you've never been with a woman before, right?"

" It's not that."

"Is it me?"

"No. It's just that…" Olivia sighs and then continues. "I've never been with anyone before.

"Oh." Mellie says before she gets up from the bed to grab her t-shirt to put back on. And for a second Liv thinks that Mellie is about to leave her but she then makes her way back over to Olivia and kneels down in front of her. "You could have told me that you know?"

"Telling someone that you're a twenty-one year old virgin is not your ideal conversation."

"Well, we don't have to go any further than kissing if you don't want to. I'm completely content with just making out with you, Olivia Pope."

"Why? You could be doing a lot more with anyone else."

"I don't trust anyone else with my secret besides you and Fitz. And if I just wanted to hook up with someone I'd call Amanda Tanner. She's been trying to ride my dick since I got to this school."

"You have a horrible mouth."

"I don't know about that. The few women I've been with say it's pretty good."

It had taken Harrison and Abby about six hours to get a copy of the video and bring it back to the hotel. It took a while to convince Amanda to had over a copy of the video for free.

Abby had refused to hand over a dime before they got a chance to look at it.

Mellie was now in her hotel room examining the video while Olivia waited on the other side of the closed door. If it were any other client, Olivia would be in the room watching the video too but she couldn't stomach it. What if Mellie is the other woman in that video? She'd have to deal with Amanda Tanner then. Huck had offered to "take care of her". That was always an option.

"You can come in." She's standing in the doorway of her suite when Olivia looks up at her. Mellie's changed clothes since this evening. She's wearing sweatpants and an oversized Harvard basketball t-shirt. Undoubtedly Fitz's. Her face is clear of makeup and her hair is up in a messy bun. Olivia thinks she hasn't aged a day.

"It's not me in the video." She says as she turns around to re-enter the room.

"Are you sure?" She says while following her into the room.

"Mhmm. You can't see the other woman's face but you see that right there on her lower back?" She asks has she points to the paused video on the TV.

"Is that a…"

"Tramp stamp."

It was. And like Mellie had said earlier, she was a lot of things but she was not trashy.

"What a relief. I thought I was going to have to get Huck to handle her."

"What does that mean?"

"It's better if you don't know."

There's a moment of silence before Mellie offers to fix Liv a drink.

"I shouldn't. I still have work to do when I get back to my room. I still have to call your parents and Harmony of course."

"Ugh, why? I swear every time I'm around them I turn back into a fourteen year old girl."

"You need them here Mellie. Family is very important in elections. You know that. Sally has kids. The people are going to eat that up."

"Fine, but put mama and daddy on opposite floors of each other please."

"Ok."

"And put Harmony in another hotel. A motel might actually be more suitable for her."

"Mellie..."

"I'm kidding." She says before sitting down on her bed. "I can't wait for them all to get here." Her voice is sarcastic with a hint of sadness.

"Everything's going to be fine Mellie. I can handle your family."

"I'm sure you can. My daddy loves you and he's only met you twice."

Olivia knew what Mellie was thinking. She knew all about Mellie's relationship with her father. How he had left her and her mom when she was young and how she was always trying to make him proud. Her and Fitz were alike in that way. "Everything's going to be ok. I promise. Get some sleep."

"Goodnight, Liv."

"Goodnight, Mellie."