A/N: Hi! So the response to this story is incredible and I'm so glad so many people want to read about this Olitz because I've fallen in love with them. This chapter picks up the morning after the end of chapter 1.
Olivia smiled at Fitz's bare back as he stood at his kitchen counter. She couldn't see what he was doing until he sighed and turned to scrape something out of a skillet. He looked up and smiled at the sight of her, standing in his doorway, dwarfed by his t-shirt.
"I tried to make you breakfast but I'm not very good at it," he said. "I went to the corner store and got some croissants though."
"Croissants sound good. Is there coffee?" She walked over to inspect his handiwork in the skillet. The eggs were half-runny and half stuck to the skillet. She watched as he scraped his disastrous breakfast into the garbage can then went to the microwave to remove a plate laden with croissants.
He carried the plate and the coffee pot to the table then turned to look at her again. "I've only got one chair."
Olivia smirked. "I take it you don't have many guests."
"None that stay for breakfast." Olivia walked over. She sat on the table, placing her bare feet on the edge of the chair's seat and balancing the plate of croissants on her lap. "What do you want in your coffee?"
"A little milk and a lot of sugar." Fitz nodded and retrieved the milk from the refrigerator and the sugar from the cabinet. He sat in the chair and watched Olivia fix her coffee with a smile. She looked up at him. "Do you want some?"
"No. I take my coffee black." He took a croissant from the plate and nodded at her. "You look cute in my shirt."
Olivia blushed. "It's really comfortable."
They ate breakfast and Fitz insisted Olivia go back to bed while he got ready for work. When he emerged from the shower, clad in only a towel, Olivia blushed as she looked away from his bare, glistening chest. She rolled onto her back, watching him pull a white t-shirt and jeans from his dresser. "I should call a cab."
Fitz looked up at her as he put on light blue boxers. "Where you going?"
"Home," she replied unsurely.
Fitz shook his head. "You don't have to go. I'll be back in a few hours."
He pulled on his t-shirt then walked over. Olivia breathed in his soapy scent. He smiled as he sat on the bed. "I want to see you when I get off work."
Olivia knew she was breaking every dating rule, that this was the time when she was supposed to be aloof and mysterious, to say no just because she could, but she couldn't do anything when he smiled like that. She gave him a shy smile. "Okay. I'll stay."
He broke into a real grin then, flashing his perfect white teeth. "Want me to stay until you fall back asleep?"
Olivia nodded sheepishly, smiling as he lay back on the bed next to her. Olivia moved closer and lay her head on his chest. She wondered how a man who wore no cologne could smell so heavenly. It didn't take long for his scent and warmth to lull her to sleep though Fitz stayed much longer than he'd intended, watching her eyes flutter as she dreamed. He was an hour late for work but didn't notice.
XXXXX
Fitz opened the door and walked into his quiet apartment. "Livvie? Where are you?"
He frowned when he didn't get an answer, hoping she hadn't changed her mind and left after he went to work. A moment later he heard footsteps behind him. He turned and smiled at Olivia as she stood in the doorway, holding a basket full of white clothes. "What have you been up to, little woman?"
"Well I took a shower and I realized I needed clean underwear or the shower didn't have a point. So I went to wash them and decided to just do a little load of laundry since I didn't have anything else to do. I hope you don't mind." She walked into his bedroom and he followed, watching as she dumped the clothes on his bed. Fitz walked over to inspect her handiwork, picking up one of his t-shirts.
"It's so clean. And so soft. How'd you do this?" he asked, rubbing the shirt against his face.
"Bleach and fabric softener, two things you need to add to your grocery list." She gave a teasing grin.
"I don't have a grocery list."
Olivia blinked at him as she sat on the bed and began folding his laundry. "What do you get at the grocery store?"
"Stuff I don't have to cook. I'm not very good at that, remember?" He picked up another t-shirt to fold and her panties fell out of it. He smiled at he picked them up. "You probably need these."
"Yeah I do," she replied with a smile as she took them. "I borrowed a pair of yours—and a clean shirt—I hope you don't mind."
Looking at her, swaddled in his blue and green plaid shirt with his boxers underneath, he wondered what stroke of luck had blown her hat into his hands and her into his life. "Yeah. You can keep them if you want."
"I think I'll just keep the shirt. I don't have much use for men's underwear," she replied with a little laugh.
They finished folding his laundry then Olivia had Fitz take her home, scurrying out to his car in a hilarious hurry so that no one saw her clad in his shirt over her party dress. When they reached her apartment, Olivia found herself having a terribly difficult time telling Fitz goodbye. Each "see you later" kiss turned into "just one more." They wasted twenty minutes in her doorway before Olivia finally suggested Fitz come with her to move her books into her classroom. She changed into red Levi's jeans, tucking Fitz's shirt into them, and white Keds tennis shoes before giving her face a good scrub and pulling her hair back into a French twist that would never be as neatly done as her mother's. She put on sunglasses and red lipstick, deciding she needed to look put together but not too groomed in case she ran into her boss. The only lesson she'd learned from her mother that was actually useful was to always appear unassuming and unstudied so as to make any subsequent cunning and ingenuity seem almost serendipitous. People were much more accepting of unexpected genius in women and Olivia assumed her boss—whomever he might be—would be no different.
They held hands as they drove to DuBois High School, a few streets over from Olivia's apartment and not too far from Fitz's garage. He grinned at her as he pulled into a parking space. "It'll be nice having you so close. I can come take you to lunch."
"Standing lunch dates? That must mean we're going steady." She gave a teasing grin. "I guess I'd better tell all my other boyfriends to get lost."
Fitz smirked as he pinched her cheek. "You sure better. Some say I'm the jealous type."
Olivia laughed as she got out of the car. Fitz grabbed her box of books from the backseat then followed her into the building. Olivia led him down at long wide hallway lined with lockers before coming to a stop in front of a classroom door perpendicular to the south wall of the building with glass double doors that led to a walkway to the school's adjacent gymnasium. She opened the door and walked into the room, stopping to turn on the light.
The room was yellow with posters of Shakespeare between the four windows lining the room's south wall. Olivia smirked at them. "Those have to go. So cheesy."
"Well who else would you put on the wall?" Fitz asked as he set the books on a desk. The desks were all pushed back against the room's walls.
"T.S. Elliot, Hemmingway, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Kate Chopin… Bozo the Clown. Anyone but Shakespeare. Kids hear that name and immediately lock up. He's one writer whose reputation of genius hurts rather than helps." She walked over to the posters and began removing them.
"Well it's not English for one thing," Fitz replied.
"The language is the biggest hurdle. You spend so much time helping the kids translate that by the end they're too bored and exhausted to understand the themes. I try to teach as little Shakespeare as possible." She got to the last of the posters and lay them on a nearby desk. "I generally gloss over anything from antiquity. It's been my experience—meager as it is—that the kids don't care. They want sex and romance and drama and the generally taboo. Sure Shakespeare has all that, but it's an uphill battle getting to it. I always like to start with Poe. He really piques their interest."
Fitz sat on a desk. "He wrote the poem about the bird, right?"
"Yes." Olivia smiled. "The Raven is one of my favorites. The Fall of the House of Usher is just creepy enough to make the boys actually participate in discussions and I haven't met a girl who hasn't swooned over Annabel Lee…heaven knows why they would though."
"What's wrong with it?"
"She dies of tuberculosis and her lover crawls into her grave to be with her. It's not clear if he stays until he dies too or if he just visits but the idea is enough to make my flesh crawl. Still, the man has a way with words."
Fitz grinned at her. "I could listen to you talk forever."
"Well it's not too late to enroll," she teased.
"Once in high school was enough for me." He laughed. "Plus, I'm sure you get in loads of trouble for stealing kisses from the teacher between classes."
Olivia smiled at him over her shoulder as she began unfurling her own posters. "I won't tell if you won't."
Fitz laughed as he got up to help her hang the posters. He smirked at the top of her head. "You're so short, Livvie."
Olivia looked up at him then turned around to smile. "Well maybe you're too tall."
Fitz smiled as he leaned down to kiss her then pulled her up onto her toes. Olivia twined her fingers in the curls on the back of his neck. There was a knock on the open door and they sheepishly stopped kissing. Olivia peered around Fitz's body at the white-haired woman who stood before them, an amused smirk on her thin lips.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Ms. Pope," the woman said, stepping further into the room.
Olivia smiled shyly, wondering who the woman was. "No. Just a little redecorating."
The woman continued smiling. "Forgive me. I've forgotten my manners. I'm Principal Thornton."
Olivia's smile twitched. "You're… It's very nice to meet you ma'am."
"You were expecting a man, probably a colored one." She seemed pleased at surprising Olivia.
"Well…" Olivia blushed.
Fitz's hand found her lower back. He leaned close to her ear. "I'm gonna get the other box of books out of the car."
He brushed a kiss on the curve of her jaw then left the room, giving Principal Thornton a polite smile as he side-stepped her. The older woman smirked as she looked at him over her shoulder then turned back to Olivia. "I see you brought a little surprise of your own."
Olivia blushed. "He's a…friend of mine."
"I've never had occasion to kiss a friend that way. Perhaps I need new friends," she replied with a humorous grin. She walked over to inspect the books Olivia was removing the box to line the shelf behind her desk. "You've got a lot of colored authors here."
"Yes ma'am. I think it's important for the kids to read books by people who look like them. The white authors are fine, but the connection is missing. The kids don't feel the need to understand the stories because these aren't their experiences. So I try to give them stories that have pieces of their lives."
"I hope your plan works. I've always thought there should be a bigger emphasis on colored literature. Children need heroes that look like them." She glanced at Olivia. "I suppose that's an odd stance for me to have, being who I am where I am."
"I'll admit I'm very curious as to how you ended up here," Olivia replied.
"Well I'm no idiot. I know I could be making more money somewhere I'd be much more welcome. And I'm aware that my presence creates an odd conundrum with all the Civil Rights issues going on. This position absolutely should be held by a colored person, but here I am. I thought of not taking it to be perfectly honest with you. But then I thought about what might happen if I didn't. I thought about all the funding that would be ungiven. I thought about all the field trips that wouldn't happen." She met Olivia's unsure gaze with a determined one. "I don't mean to say I'm a blessing. I mean to say that white people give me things they would never give a colored man. I mean to say that we're going to bleed this system dry for these children, Ms. Pope. I'm going to grin and be as white as I please to make sure these children have everything the kids across town have."
Olivia was impressed by the cunning look on her face. She wasn't sure if her plan would work, if the woman had set up the proper circumstances to accomplish what she wanted, but she had to admire the woman's determination. Principal Thornton had guts if nothing else. "I look forward to working with you, ma'am."
Fitz appeared in the doorway toting the box. He walked in and set it down on her desk then moved around behind it to pick up lining the shelves where Olivia had left off. Principal Thornton grinned at his back then at Olivia. "Well I'll leave you both to your redecoration."
"It was nice meeting you, Principal Thornton," Olivia replied.
"Please call me Verna." With a smile, she was gone.
"She seems nice," Fitz said as Olivia took a seat on the desk and began passing him books.
"She does. She's got some good plans."
XXXXX
"So tell me about your family." Fitz hefted desks around the room while Olivia dragged them, unable to lift one.
"Well my father is—was—a Frenchman named Dominic Moreaux. He and my mother had a brief affair while my father was… I'm not really sure where my father was at that point. My father—the man who raised me, I mean, Eli Pope—died not knowing the truth. My mother, Maya, managed to get them both trapped in her web. She's quite seductive. She'll get you mixed up in the craziest things."
Fitz nodded. "Do you think your father would have cared if he'd known?"
Olivia shrugged. "He forgave my mother for Dominic so I suppose not."
"How'd you find out?"
"I found out about my mother and Dominic when I was 12. He showed up at my birthday party with this little girl and she hit the roof. The girl—my older sister, Angelica—told me who she was and who he was. I didn't believe her until she took me to the bathroom and made me look at us in the mirror. It was the craziest thing. She had my face, but with white skin. Same hair, same eyes, same nose. She's like my twin."
"Did you know him? Is he still alive?"
Olivia shook her head. "My mother forbade it so long as I lived in her house. And by the time I moved out, he was dead. I suppose it's not so bad. Can't miss what you didn't have. And it's not as though I didn't have it. I had a father, just not my biological one."
She dragged the last desk into place then sat on it. "What about you? What's your family like?"
He smiled. It was a different smile than the one he usually fixed her with. It was sweetly boyish, like he was in another place and time. "Well my parents were a lot like you and me. My mother was a doctor's daughter, debutante and all that. And my father was their groundskeeper in the summer. They lived in this big old plantation house that belonged to my great-great grandfather. My grandfather had a fit about them, riding around the backyard on Dad's old green tractor, but they were in love. He had an even bigger fit when they got married, but there was nothing he could do.
Dad brought home $67 a week and bought them a little house on Magnolia Street in Shreveport where Mama gave him 6 mouths to feed. God knows how he did it. Mama's the classiest woman I know. She would throw these grand parties on our shoestring budget that everyone talked about for weeks. And Dad was just there, grinning like a goon while she lit up the room. You know they've been together 45 years."
"Which one of 6 are you?" Olivia certainly hoped their relationship turned out more like his parents' than hers.
"Unlucky number 6. The baby who got away with murder so my sister Liz tells it. Everyone else went to college and ate their vegetables and built these picture-perfect little lives. Picket fences and family dogs, Christmas cards and dinner parties, and all that. And then there's me. Cracker box apartment, no furniture, no dog, no wife. Just me and a radio."
Olivia smiled at him. "I like the radio."
He smiled back. "Me too."
XXXXX
*two weeks later*
"This is a much more appropriate time for a date," Olivia said as she opened her door to let Fitz in. It was nearly 9 and they were going back to the club. Olivia was even dressed and ready to go. She wore a light pink sleeveless dress with a full skirt and pink pumps.
Fitz grinned at her. He wore a white button down shirt and black dress pants. "You look like a princess."
Olivia grinned. "Don't I always?"
"Not when you wake up," he teased. It was a lie. Fitz found her most beautiful when she first woke up. She detested it, and had threatened him on several occasions, but he loved snapping her picture as she got ready in the morning.
Olivia smirked. "Perhaps I shouldn't wake up to you anymore."
"Perhaps you should get your purse so we can get on with this 'proper date' Your Highness."
Olivia laughed as she picked up her pink purse off the coffee table. "You're joking but that title certainly does have a nice ring to it."
XXXXX
"I thought the club didn't open until 11," Olivia said as Fitz pulled to a stop in front of it.
"I'm a man of surprisingly many resources." Fitz cut the ignition then got out of the car. He walked around to Olivia's door and opened it for her. He helped her out of the car then reached into the back seat to retrieve a brown bag. "I even bought wine."
He handed Olivia the bag and she pulled the cold bottle of German Reisling out. "Very nice, Mr. Grant. You're more refined that you let on."
"That's actually the work of my mother. I was gonna get gin to make you a Tom Collins but she said wine is more date-appropriate." He grinned. "What do you think of that? I'll be a gentleman yet."
Olivia laughed, slipping her hand inside his as they walked into the club.
The jazz quartet played soft music on the stage and nodded at Olivia as she and Fitz walked in. The place looked much more different without the crowds of people and clouds of smoke. The lanterns gave the main room a cozy glow. One table, covered with a white table cloth and set for two, sat in the middle of the dance floor. Olivia looked at Fitz with a surprised smile. "You did all this for me?"
"Well I wanted to give you a proper first date. I don't really have the money for one of those fancy places downtown so I recreated the scene with what I've got. Huck's making us a three course meal. Only God knows what it'll be but he promised something nice."
Fitz pulled out her chair and Olivia sat down, setting the bottle on the table. Fitz sat opposite her and smiled at the way the lanterns made her skin glow against the pink chiffon of her dress. He took the bottle of wine and opened it then poured some in their glasses. "I'm not a really big wine person so I apologize if it's bad. I'm more of a straight whiskey kind of guy."
"I don't like whiskey. It burns like hellfire. Plus it gets me drunker than any woman should ever be." She laughed. "I like wine because you can drink quite a bit before you're indecently tipsy."
Fitz laughed. "Well if you like it, it must be good."
He took a sip. "Nice. Sweet. Kind of tastes like green apples."
Olivia sipped it and smiled. "This is very good. It tastes very expensive."
"It came from my mother so it probably is. She says it's love in a bottle."
"What makes it love in a bottle?" Olivia smiled, resting her chin on her hand as she leaned closer.
"Well apparently, this is what my father bought the first time he took her for a tractor ride. They shared the bottle as they drove around and by the time it was gone, she was supposedly head over heels in love with him. I'd like to argue that she was just falling down drunk but she insists it was love. Must've been cause they kept going for rides on that tractor."
"I've never been on a tractor. It doesn't seem like it would be much fun," Olivia replied.
Fitz smiled. "Well we've got one at the house in Shreveport. Maybe I'll take you for a ride one of these days."
"That sounds nice." Anything with Fitz sounded nice to Olivia.
A moment later, a stocky Hispanic man appeared beside the table holding a tray with two plates topped with silver covers. Fitz smiled at him. "Huck, this is Liv. Liv, this is the best chef in Louisiana, Huck."
"Nice to meet you ma'am," he replied in a soft, husky voice. He made eye contact briefly but looked away just as quickly as he set the plates down.
"Huck's shy," Fitz explained. Olivia nodded as she looked at him. There was something endearing about his quiet nature.
He lifted the covers off the plates. "For starters, you're having a Cajun shrimp salad with a white wine and vinegar dressing. The main course is petite portions of Lobster Thermidor and Lobster a L'Americaine. For dessert, crème brulee with fresh cherries and whipped cream dusted with cinnamon."
Olivia looked up at him with wide eyes. "You cooked all that by yourself?"
He gave a little nod, stuffing his hands in the pocket of his apron. "I've always loved cooking classic food, but it's a little highbrow for this crowd. I figured someone like you could really appreciate that."
"Well thank you." He nodded and left. Olivia took a bite of the salad. "Oh, this is incredible. Huck is really talented."
Fitz smiled as he watched her eat.
XXXXX
"Well I'm stuffed," Olivia announced as she set down her spoon after finishing her crème brulee. Huck appeared to clear away their dishes. Olivia smiled at him. "You are the best chef in Louisiana."
He blushed. "I just love food."
"And it loves you back."
He left and Fitz smiled at her. "So what do we do now that we've eaten?"
"I know what we did last time." She smiled shyly at him.
Fitz grinned. "Well we could do that here, but I think we'd embarrass the band."
Olivia laughed. Fitz turned back to the band. "Can you guys play something slow and classy for the lady? She wants to dance."
The drummer nodded and muttered something to the band in his gravelly voice. They all murmured amongst themselves for a few minutes before they turned back to Olivia and Fitz. Olivia smiled as the saxophonist played the opening strains of Frank Sinatra's "Funny Valentine." "I love this song."
Fitz stood and offered his hand. Olivia took it and stood. They moved away from the table and Fitz pulled her body close, resting his right hand in the small of her back. "I'm not a very good dancer. My mother taught me about 20 years ago and I haven't done it much since."
"Don't think about it. Just feel it." She placed her right hand in his left one and he began swaying their bodies. Olivia smiled. "It's a simple box step. You step and I'll follow."
Fitz did as he was told and soon got the hang of it. He looked back at the band and mouthed, "One more time."
"My funny valentine/ Sweet comic valentine/ You make me smile/ With my heart," Olivia sang.
Fitz smiled. "Your looks are laughable/ Unphotographable/ Yet you're my favorite work of art."
"Is your figure less than Greek?/ Is your mouth a little weak?"
"When you open it to speak?/ Are you smart?"
"But don't change your hair for me/ Not if you care for me." Fitz smiled as Olivia joined him. "Stay little valentine/ Stay/ Each day is Valentine's Day."
XXXXX
Later that night, Olivia and Fitz walked up the steps to her apartment. He held her hand almost shyly as they reached her front door. He hadn't expected to have real first date feelings as it was technically their second, and especially not since they'd already slept together—twice—but there he was, suddenly sixteen again. "So how'd I do?"
"Tonight was magical. Absolutely incredible. I've never had a man do something so romantic for me." She smiled at him as she leaned against the door. "Aren't you going to kiss me goodnight?"
"I'd rather kiss you good morning over coffee," he replied with a smile.
"I suppose that wouldn't be terrible." Olivia turned to unlock the door and step inside with Fitz following closely. She went to the corner and turned on the radio. Maurice Clayton and the Zodiacs' "Stay" filled the quiet room. Olivia looked up at him with a smile. "Seem like this is our song."
"Come here and dance to it with me then." He held out his hand and Olivia walked over, allowing Fitz to slip her out of her dress then took off his shirt before taking her in his arms and swaying her around the living room.
A/N: Next chapter will be a little time jump and Olivia will meet the Grants. And Olivia will start her new job. Don't forget to review! XOXO