Six reviews and just two chapters! So happy I made the happy dance all morning (except during tutoring class of course)! Here's another chapter to thank everyone for reading and reviewing the story. This one's in Olivia's point of view. Remember to leave your suggestions in the review section and I'll try make everyone happy.
This chapter is dedicated to guest reviewer Anya P. Hope you like this, girl!
Chapter Three
Little by little, the cubicles of tech support became quieter and quieter, with people leaving. Before he left, Ian stopped by her office. "We're rehearsing tomorrow and every night the next week before the big night. Are you ready for that?"
Olivia looked up from her laptop and nodded, fixing her glasses. "I'm about to go through every computer to update a stupid program tech doesn't even use. You think I'd rather do this for one night than practise for a whole week after work? Come on, Ian, you know me better than that."
"Sarcasm won't finish the work, sweetie. Mel sends kisses. See you tomorrow!" And with that, he was gone. Olivia shook her head. So far she'd only been through the computers in the mail room and HR floor. She has three floors more to go and... his office. She decided to leave that for last, maybe do a little snooping around to see whether there's more reason to hate the guy.
Sam knocked on the side of the door. "What time tomorrow?" he asked her with a smile. He was the last person to leave his cubicle, as usual.
"Be at my place before lunch. We'll eat, then practise and then game night." she replied, typing away. "Let Ian and Mel know. And practise without me so I can practise by myself tomorrow morning."
Sam nodded. "Will do, Muhl. See you tomorrow!"
"See you!" she yelled back, not looking up from the screen. She rubbed her temple as she switched off her laptop, but then smiled with relief when she remembered that she didn't have to update the program for tech support computers since they didn't use the program—the program had to do with statistics, pie charts, graphs, stocks... the whole lot—but she did leave several instruction sheets of them to use if anyone called them about the program. She picked up her laptop and USB wire and made her way over to the reception desk one floor down.
The night guard, Victor, grinned when he saw her. "Working nights again, Ms Muhl?" he asked her. She sighed in defeat and nodded. "You're so young! Go out! Live a little!"
"Vic, sweetie, you think I'd rather be here?" He reached over behind the reception desk and gave her the set of keys she needed for the offices. He knew some of the workers would still lock their offices even though they knew Olivia needed to go in. "I need to update StatPro in every computer in the building. I've about three floors to go. That's about seventy computers."
"If I can be of any help, honey, just give me a holler. I'm on 5437."
"Actually, I could use some company." she smiled. "Tell me about your visit to Santa Fe. How was it?"
Having Victor by her side made updating the programs so much more bearable. He told her about Santa Fe, the time in the 80s he almost got a job at Warner Brothers Studios but didn't because of his minor criminal past—shoplifting at fifteen—and when he attended a Springsteen concert.
"You two are the only ones who stay after work to work more." Victor told her out of the blue as he locked one of the offices.
"Who else are you referring to?"
"That nice kid who just got promoted to director of sales and marketing... I forgot his—Den." He snapped his fingers, suddenly remembering. "Dean Smith."
"Dean's here? In the building?" Victor nodded. "Hey, why don't you go on ahead while I update the program on his computer?"
"Sure thing, 'Livia. Remember..." He lifted up his vest and tapped the cordless phone attached to his belt. "5437."
Olivia smiled and went downstairs. She had no idea Dean was the type to stay after work hours to work more. Then she rolled her eyes. He must be having some secret sex sessions with Kay. She heard rumours going round about him and Kay, mostly started by Kay herself.
"Yeah, mom. I'm nearly finished up here." She heard him say. She paused, stopping just one door down from him. "Remember I'm not working at all tomorrow. I can Skype with Jo then... Mmmm, sure. Yes I'll be picking up the gifts tomorrow morning from the mall. Yes, love you to, mom. Bye."
As soon as Olivia heard the clicking of the keyboard, she slowly marched up to his door, which was open, and knocked softly. He looked up and seemed really surprise to see her. "I'm here to update your StatPro."
"Right, yeah! Can you give me five minutes while I wrap up here?" he asked her, but she ignored him, placing her laptop and USB wire next to his computer.
"Sorry, no can do. It's almost midnight and I need to have dinner and sleep." she sighed. Her eyes were beginning to hurt a lot at this point. Dean Smith wasn't making it any easier for her. "Can I just update the damn program and then you continue?"
"Well, you're not the only one who wants to go home you know..." he mumbled, but still scooted aside so she could have access to his computer. She opened her laptop, logged in and connected the USB wire with his computer. "Hey hey hey, I'm still working here!"
"Tough. This is the last computer before I head home. I need my Domino's pizza pronto!" Olivia protested, then winced. "This may take a while."
"Why? What's wrong?" Dean asked, craning his head to the side to look at his computer screen.
"You have a virus. A big one." She gave him an exasperated look. "It's three weeks old."
"It keeps telling me to restart when I'm halfway through my work." he explained.
"Save your work then restart." she replied back.
"I don't stop halfway through my work! It blocks my work ethic."
Olivia scoffed and took out a USB card from the pocket of her leather jacket. "You know what blocking work ethic is like? It's when you're trying to sign important papers and some dumb bitch from the top floor calls and asks me to switch on her computer because her skirt is so short she can't bend down without revealing her thong."
Dean raised an eyebrow. "Iris Andersson?" he asked out of pity. She nodded and shuddered.
"Iris 'I wear thongs and mini skirts for work to bang my supervisor' Andersson." After clicking a few buttons, she glanced over at Dean and grinned fakely. "Thanks to your weeks-old virus, I have an extra hour to heal the virus and update the program." She sighed and murmured to herself, "At this rate I'd be done by breakfast time."
"I'll order takeout for you if you're hungry." he offered.
Not looking up from the screen, she asked, "What about you?"
"Nah, I don't eat takeout anymore." He stood up from his chair, giving it to Olivia, and sat down on the love seat pressed against the side and laid down. "I'm on a cleanse. No takeout, no meat, no grease, no alcohol except for a glass of wine on Sunday—"
"So basically, you've suppressed yourself from everything that's good about eating, and instead relying on grass and chicken." she dead-panned with a slight chuckle at the end. "Good on you, Smith. Good on you! You know, you can always have a cheat day."
"Dean." Her head snapped up from her screen, and for the first time noticed how green his eyes were. She was a sucker for men with green eyes. "My name's Dean.
"I know that. I just don't... interact with the elite enough to get to first-name basis... except for Mr Alder, of course." She added, remembering he was there during the morning. "Force of habit."
"So are you gonna start calling me Dean from now on?"
"Nope."
"Anytime you wanna call me by my actual name... go right ahead."
After a few seconds of silence, Olivia looked up from her screen. "Weren't you gonna buy me dinner or somethin'?"
"What would you like?" he asked her, taking out his phone.
"One medium veg feast. We'll share. I know you don't eat the good stuff, so I'll just have to eat the vegetarian pizza."
"Um, okay then..." He stood up and turned his head. "One veg fest from domino's?" Olivia nodded, typing away. "I'll be right back, okay?"
"Sure, sure... take your time. Just not with the pizza. Be quick with that." she joked, smiling goofily. Dean chuckled and walked out of the room. Once he did, Olivia took out her phone and texted Sam.
You guys doing OK? I'm soon finished... and Smithy's here.
She got a reply almost immediately.
? Elaborate plz?
Olivia rolled her eyes and typed in her reply.
He was working after hours and now he's ordering us Domino's. Will explain tmrw. Bye.
"They'll be here in about half an hour." Dean told her as he entered the room, sitting back on the couch. Olivia noticed he was still wearing his tie and giggled. "What?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"You sleep in ties, bro?" When she saw the puzzled look on his face, she burst out laughing. 'Messing with the elite rocks!' "You're still wearing your tie. You're not working so you can take it off. Are you trying to impress me or something?" she winked. Then realised what she just said. "Forget I even said that. I'm hungry. I talk too much when I'm hungry."
"I've got some mints of you want."
"Mints would make my breath smell nice, not satisfy my appetite." Taking one last look at Dean's computer screen, she took off her glasses. "Virus is gone. The update is processing, just fifteen minutes more."
"Is the update going to change the system?" Dean asked, taking off his tie. Olivia turned red as he unbuttoned the first two buttons of his shirt. She could see more of his chest and it turned her on.
She shook her head, removing all dirty thoughts before replying.
"Yes, but it will make your work a thousand times easier and more organised. I'll give you a quick tutorial while we eat. The thing about the update is that all statistics, stocks, graphs and pie charts will be organised according to client, date and time. It's like a cyber PA basically. That means you can throw Kay away." Olivia smirked.
"What is it that you don't like about her? She's... okay. You know, for a bitch." Dean added.
"See? She's a bitch. And she bullies us techs and mail people. Others just give us dirty looks." she retorted. "You're, you know... nice to us and all. You're talking to me, that's nice."
"I'm nice to you because I l—" he stopped mid-sentence. "You're not so nice to me though."
"I know. It's a force of habit, not being nice to people from higher ranks than me." Then frowned. "What were you about to say before you changed your sentence?"
"Nothing, nothing." She wasn't convinced at all, but decided to let it go.
Dean hummed with pleasure. "This pizza's great! Not too greasy. How many calories does this slice have?" he asked Olivia, who was munching happily her slice of pizza. She looked up, surprised at the question he'd just asked her.
"You're joking right? You think the pizza's good and yet still worrying about the calories? What are you?"
"I was kidding..." Dean said, and then mumbled, "...kinda."
"So... what do you do outside of work?" she asked him, licking the tips of her fingers then wiping them with a napkin. "That is if you do anything but work every once in a while."
"I work out, skype my parents... and work. Work never leaves me, I guess. I'm always trying to up my game." he replied.
"Work out? Boring!"
"What about you?" he asked her, starting his last slice of pizza.
"I take my dog out for walks, band practise, eat junk food, sleep, watch movies..." she paused and shrugged. "Pretty boring stuff, really."
"You have a dog?"
Olivia smiled weakly, sighing. "Yeah. Family dog. His name's Stevie. For my dad's idol, Stevie Wonder."
"Music fan?" Dean smirked.
"I play in a band, do the math." she smiled proudly. "Drums."
"I know. Heard tech support talking about it today during lunch. You have a gig next week don't you? At the diner round the corner?"
"How'd you hear about it?"
"Mr Adler wouldn't stop going on about it. He's a big Police fan you know." Dean explained. "I hope you don't mind but, uh, I'm gonna attend."
"You know what music is?!" Olivia exclaimed in mock-shock, making Dean laugh. "Well, pin me surprised, Dean Smith, but I always thought you lived under a rock."
"Led Zeppelin, Blue Oyster Cult, CCR, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, old Metallica... uh, Motorhead... who else do I have on my car, phone and iPod playlists?" he asked in wonder, tapping his chin as if to think, giving Olivia a sideway glance and crooked smile.
"Fine, Mr Smarty Pants, you listen to good music. No need to rub it in." she chuckled, and looked at the computer screen. "Oh look at that. Update's finished. I can finally go home." She started unplugging and switching off both her laptop and his computer.
Dean cleared the pizza box and drinks. "I'll drive you home."
"Thanks but no thanks. I've my bike." Olivia insisted.
"It's past midnight, Olivia. I won't let you go home by yourself, not even close to that. I'm driving you home and that's final. You can always get your bike back on Monday."
She looked outside. It was a calm yet chilly night outside. She could feel it through the air vents and slightly open window in the corridor. "Uh, okay then. I'll catch a train to work on Monday."
"Why do that when I can drive you to and from work?" Dean smiled. "Come on. Let's get you home."
The drive home was rather comfortable, much to Olivia's surprise. They talked some more about music and talking in food puns. Deep down, she was sad that the drive didn't take long. She was actually having a great time talking to Dean, and she realised he's actually a nice guy. Once Dean pulled up in front of her house, he looked out her window.
"Nice neighbourhood." he commented.
"Thanks." she smiled, unfastening her seatbelt and opening the passenger door. Dean quickly unfastened his seatbelt and got out of his car, closing the door shut behind him. "What the—?" she started saying, but Dean interrupted her by holding the door open for her. "Um, thank you...?" Confused, she stepped out of the car. Dean closed the door behind her and walked up to the front door by her side.
'What the heck is going on?!' she thought, mentally thanking all saints she could think of that it was too dark for him to see her blush.
"So, uh..." They stopped at the front door facing each other. Dean looked down while Olivia unlocked the door. "I'll see you on Monday."
"Yeah." She looked back at him, a small smile plastered on her face. "Be here at half seven sharp. I hate waiting."
"Then I'll be at your door at quarter past seven." Dean joked, making her chuckle.
The chuckling died down slowly. "I owe you an apology. I misjudged you. You're actually not... awful. At all."
"Glad you finally see that." he replied.
"You're actually okay for a rich person."
"Thanks... I guess?" he replied, looking confused, making her chuckle. "I should get going now. I live on the other side of the city and I'm really tired."
"I'll see you on Monday then."
"Yeah, Monday..." he murmured, leaning closer to her face. She froze on the spot, thinking he was about to kiss her. Heck she wanted to kiss him too, but to her surprise (and slight disappointment), he simply planted a soft kiss on her cheek. After he pulled away he looked her in the eye, smiled broadly and walked away, leaving Olivia standing there, stunned. She waited until the car was but a spot before she got inside, closing the door behind her. Once she was inside, she let out girly squeals and did a happy dance all the way upstairs to her bedroom.
She found out three things that day:
One: Kay Garner, no matter what day or case scenario, was and will always be an A-class bitch with disfigured personality to match.
Two: Dean Smith was awesome (yet still rich) and she'd realised she liked him a lot (despite being rich. For some reason she didn't like rich people).
And three: She won't be sleeping that night.
You know the drill! Tell me what you think, like, hate, want to see... Talk to me!
Next chapter will be up (hopefully) by the end of week. If it isn't it' because of my studying schedule, which is very hectic since the exam is next week (ie. 2Nd May).
I love your faces, and til next time!