Disclaimer: I own nothing
I am sorry if I caused confusion in my last chapter. Even though I proofread Judy suddenly became Trudy (Thankyou Laurel Hardy and Reggieme for pointing that out) and there was a part where I wrote opposite sex instead of same sex (Once again thankyou Laurel Hardy). Hopefully this one is better, though I won't guarantee it. Shows I'm not perfect after all ha ha ha. Enjoy.
Olivia had been shown to a lovely room, done in tasteful light neutral tones, dominated by a queen bed with bedside tables and a dresser with mirror. 15 minutes ago Tyler had shown her to the room and told her she would come back in half an hour. She had been instructed to wear jeans, long sleeve shirt, boots if she had them and to bring a jacket. When she asked why Tyler had given her a grin and told her that some hospitality didn't come for free and she was going to be put to work. She had to admit she was a little worried about that. Although fit she looked nowhere near in shape as the Gate's family.
She spent the first few minutes exploring her room and found that a side door led into an en suite bathroom she shared with the bedroom on the other side. The bathroom was a deep rich blue and featured a double sink, large shower and an old style claw foot bath. She whistled, the family seemed to have serious money. She wondered if Alex knew them. She would send an email to her later letting her know of this little side adventure.
Going through her duffel bag she had decided to hang a few things up in the wardrobe as she may be here a few days and spent the next few minutes unpacking. She decided to keep her current jeans on, plus her polo shirt as she didn't have a long sleeve shirt with her. She exchanged her leather jacket for one of her older thinning jumpers which she had packed for lounging in her hotel rooms with.
She kicked off her sneakers and located her hiking boots at the bottom of the duffel. Quickly pulling them on and lacing them she found she still had a few minutes until Tyler would be returning. She strolled over to the bed and sat down before picking up her cell phone which she had on charge and turning it on.
She wasn't surprised when, once powered, it beeped to tell her she had a missed call. She checked the call log and saw it was from Abbie from a half hour ago. Abbie had promised not to stress about her if she called every other day and told her where she was and where she was thinking of heading. After the first week or so they had found Olivia didn't always go where she planned.
Sighing she dialled in the well known number and waited for the phone to ring. She hoped to catch Abbie before her friend had to return to work from her lunch hour, which she always took later to avoid the lunch hour rush.
"You're late" Abbie growled
"Hello to you too" Olivia chuckled and heard her friend mutter not very nice things on the other end of the line "I heard that"
"You were meant to, you're God knows where and I wouldn't know where to start looking for you if something had gone wrong"
"Oh My God would you chill, your turning into me, all stressed out" Olivia rolled her eyes "I'm fine, my cell went flat"
That was met with silence and Olivia honestly didn't like it, God only knew what her friend would say
"Excuse me, did I hear right? Always prepared Benson let her cell go flat?"
"So what?" Olivia was suddenly a bit defensive but should have known better, Abbie could read her like a book. Only Alex could read her better. Of course it only took seconds for Abbie to understand her phone had only been the half of it.
"That's not all is it?" Abbie asked seriously "What else Liv?"
"I uh, may or may not have broken down" Olivia finally admitted in a small voice which again was met with silence. "But I am OK"
"Where are you?" Abbie burst out "Please tell me you're not still by the side of the road in backwoods USA"
"This coming from a Texan?" Olivia teased trying to lighten the mood. Nothing against Texans, really, she just loved to tease her friend.
"Shut up and answer the question" came the little less serious reply.
"A small town called Calling, in Montana. Sherriff Gates picked me up and I'm staying on the Gates family Ranch while the town mechanic looks at the car"
"Is he cute?" Abbie breathed and Olivia could hear the schoolgirl excitement in her voice
"He is a she, and before you ask she's OK, very much a cowgirl and a flirt"
"Grrr, go get her tiger" Abbie laughed and Olivia once again rolled her eyes
"Abbie you know I am not gay, two I am only here for the weekend a few days at most and three I am not into those type of relationships, I'm getting too old" she growled and Abbie sighed
"Olivia, Olivia, Olivia. You're on holidays, live a little, do things you wouldn't do normally" Abbie encouraged.
"Abbie Carmichael get it through your head I am not having a fling with Tyler" she all but shouted.
Tyler, who was outside Olivia's door with a fist raised to knock, froze on the spot. What? Maybe she wouldn't knock just yet, this conversation sounded rather intriguing and moved closer to the door to listen.
Back in the room Olivia had her head in her hands as Carmichael called her a chicken and tried to goad her into admitting she was interested. Olivia didn't dare tell Abbie anything. Her mind was racing back to that startling shock of electricity she got from Tyler, how they had held hands without realising it, at the look Tyler gave her when their bodies had brushed earlier. She would admit to herself and only to herself that the memory brought that tightening to her gut and heat to her body she experienced when she met someone who could hold her interest.
The one biggest issue? Every other time she had reacted this way had been with men, so feeling it now with Tyler was slightly...off putting. Not that she hadn't really thought about it, she had never been against it, ever and since Babs Duffy it had been on her mind a lot more but she had never reacted before, never. Maybe Abbie was right, maybe she needed to just go with the flow, Tyler seemed interested. Oh God what was she thinking?
"Abbie, ABBIE" she shouted to break her out of her rant
"What?" Abbie asked wincing and rubbing her abused ear
"I gotta go, Tyler will be here any moment. I gotta go earn my keep apparently" she chuckled, intrigued at the idea. She'd barely been out of the city so just hoped she didn't embarrass herself.
"Olivia the farm girl huh" Abbie chuckled "Ranch life aint bad Liv, just enjoy each moment, with or without the OK Sherriff Gates"
"Goodbye Tex" Olivia groaned
"Bye Yankee" Abbie chuckled and hung up. She immediately brought up her email, she just had to tell Serena about this. Thinking of the blue eyed blonde made her think of another and she wondered how Alex was doing with her wild adventures in Africa. She sighed, she just hoped she came to her sense and got her ass home soon.