Chapter 28
Turkey Plans
Almost another month had passed before it was time for the next holiday. Everyone had Wednesday through Friday off of classes for the Thanksgiving holiday break. Alex and Casey were due to go back home to celebrate Cabot and Novak style, and everyone else was also heading home to celebrate with their families. Well – except for Olivia. She decided not to spend Thanksgiving with her mom, to spare herself the arguments that would undoubtedly ensue.
Alex sighed as she wrapped her arms tighter around Olivia's torso, cuddling on the couch as they watched whatever was mindlessly playing on TV. "I'm going to miss you, Liv."
Olivia nuzzled her head against Alex's before turning to plant a soft kiss on her temple. "I'll miss you too. Have fun with your family though. Just promise me you won't eat so much turkey you get sick like you did with the chicken wings." She chuckled after the statement.
"Ugh." Alex closed her eyes and shook her head in disgust. "Please, don't remind me of that. No more chicken wings. And I won't, I promise. What're your plans?"
"Uhhh…" Olivia started, letting out a huff of air as her thoughts trailed off. "Honestly? I'm staying here. In the townhouse."
Alex lifted herself from Olivia's embrace and looked at her with a worried expression. "Alone? I know you and your mom don't really get along but… you're not spending it with anyone?"
Olivia shook her head. "It's easier if I just… don't see her."
"What about your grandparents?"
Olivia gave a weak laugh as one corner of her mouth turned up. She was looking at her hands in her lap, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "They're both gone. It's just my mom."
Alex's chest hurt. Olivia never talked about her family, and it made Alex so sad, since her family was everything to her. She couldn't help but feel her chest tighten and her throat sting thinking about her girlfriend being alone during the holidays.
Alone? With… no one? No turkey? No pies? No laughter? No way. Not this year, Olivia.
"Then come with me to my family's house."
Olivia quickly shot her head over to Alex before smiling weakly. "Al, that's okay. I already turned down Elliot and Kathy. I can just stay here."
Alex folded her arms. "And what will you eat?"
Olivia shrugged. "I was thinking about making tacos."
Alex gave Olivia a look that she couldn't decipher. Olivia almost sunk back into the couch, afraid of what Alex would say next.
"Tacos? On Thanksgiving? Really, Olivia?"
Olivia raised her eyebrows and shrugged, shaking her head. "Well I'm not gonna make an entire turkey for myself, Alex."
"Nope. I don't accept this." Alex picked up her phone from the coffee table and quickly began calling someone, bringing the phone to her ear as Olivia watched her.
"Hi my sweet girl!" Rosemary Cabot answered on the other end of the phone.
"Hi, Mom! I have a question for you."
"Alex…" Olivia whispered, trying to grab Alex's phone away. Alex smacked her hand away and stood up from the couch, pacing back and forth in front of the TV.
"Sure baby, what's up?"
"Do we have an extra seat available at Thanksgiving?"
"Alex!" Olivia sternly whispered, Alex waving her off.
There was a slight pause.
"Yes, why?"
"My friend Olivia doesn't have anywhere to go, and I don't think it's right that she won't have any turkey. Is it okay if she comes home with us?"
Olivia threw her head back against the back of the couch and put her hands over her face, grumbling. "Alex… no." Alex just flipped her off.
"Well, of course honey. But you're sure she doesn't have someone to see? Her parents or family?"
"No. That's… a complicated situation, Mom."
Olivia groaned, hands still covering her face.
"Oh. Well, you know your father and I don't mind dear. Everyone deserves a good Thanksgiving."
"Great! Thanks, Mom! We'll see you on Tuesday, right?"
"Yes! Your father and I will pick you up around noon. Casey's parents will be in their car too. Speaking of, Casey is friends with Olivia too, right?"
"Of course! We're like peas in a pod."
"That's good, dear. I love you, we'll see you then."
"'Kay mom. Love you too! Tell Daddy I said hi."
Alex hung up the phone as she sat next to Olivia and wrapped her arms around her. Olivia moved her hands from her face to across her chest, refusing to look at Alex. As soon as she opened her mouth to speak, Alex cut her off.
"Don't start. You're not fighting me on this, Olivia Margaret. You're going to come with me to Thanksgiving, and have a nice damn holiday. I'm not going to listen to your so-called reasons of why you're not going. You're not intruding, you're not imposing, my family will be happy to meet you and they'll love you just as much as I do." Alex paused her scolding, catching what just came out of her mouth.
Olivia, catching it too, turned her head to finally look at Alex.
"Uhh… you – you know what I mean, Liv…" Alex nervously stated after the brief silence.
A smile slowly formed on Olivia's mouth as she leaned forward to kiss Alex softly before quietly saying, "I love you too, Alex. I really do."
Alex smiled back as her face immediately turned red, causing Olivia to chuckle at her. Her heart was thumping loudly against her chest. "I mean it, you know. I… I love you, Olivia."
Olivia kissed her again. "I love you too, Alex. I was going to argue with you, but you put up a good case, future lawyer." Alex snorted with laughter, causing Olivia to continue. "The defense rests. I change my plea to guilty, and fully confess to my crimes. What's my sentence?"
Alex was now laughing hard at Olivia's choice of words, intertwining their fingers together. "Your sentence? Spending the holiday with me and my family."
Olivia sighed. "Fine. I accept my sentence as such." She quickly threw her arms around Alex's waist and tackled her on the couch, kissing her mercilessly as Alex squealed.
The Cabot House
"Honey?" Rosemary said.
"Yes, my love?" William answered, reading through the newspaper at the table.
"Alex is bringing a friend home for Thanksgiving."
William sat the newspaper on the table, looking at his wife intently. In the most concerned voice, he asked "What's his name?"
Rosemary gave a weak chuckle as she shook her head, bringing her and her husband some tea before sitting down across from him at the table. "No, dear. Her friend Olivia."
William's expression immediately softened, letting out a breath of relief. "Oh! Well that will be nice. She was the other prisoner in the picture from Halloween?"
Rosemary nodded, sipping her tea.
"Well, we'll be happy to have her! Any friend of our Lexie's is a friend of mine." William smiled at his wife before sipping his tea and returning his attention back to the paper.
Rosemary tapped the side of her cup before grabbing her phone from the table, bringing up Facebook as she peered over her glasses. Carefully, she clicked Alex's profile and scrolled down to her friends list. She quickly clicked on the "O's" and searched for Olivia's. Alex was friends with 3, but 2 of the girls Rosemary recognized from her daughter's high school. The last one, Olivia Benson, was the name she didn't recognize. She clicked on her profile and began looking through.
She first clicked on her profile picture. It was a picture of Olivia, cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she leaned against the balcony of the townhouse. She was looking off in the distance – someone had taken the photo from down on the ground.
A smoker? Interesting.
Scrolling right, she was met with her previous profile picture. It was a picture of Olivia with Kathy in the townhouse, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, laughing.
An old girlfriend?
Scrolling, she surveyed another picture. Olivia was sitting in the grass, propped up on her elbows, eyes closed as she smiled, the sun radiating against her tanned skin.
Rosemary surveyed a few more photos before going back to her profile. She clicked on the "about me" section and read through the information.
"Olivia. Liv. Whatever you call me. 21, Columbia Lion, Aquarius, gamer, music lover.
Age: 21
Hometown: New York City
Current City: New York City
Studied: Columbia University
Relationship status: Single
Interested in: Women"
Bingo.
Rosemary nodded her head to herself as she continued scrolling through Olivia's information and posts. Mostly, Olivia only shared pictures of friends or funny posts. When she got to September, she found some photos from the night of the party. Olivia had been careful not to tag Alex in anything, and made sure the photos wouldn't be blatantly obvious. Well… to people that weren't Alex's mother.
She clicked on the first photo and quickly began scrolling through them, noting the alcohol bottles and red solo cups everywhere. Olivia had also made sure not to post anything about the marijuana – it could've hurt her future career, so she was careful. Rosemary scrolled past one picture, but then scrolled back. It was a picture of Alex and Casey, arms around each other and smiling as they leaned against a wall in the townhouse. Alex was holding a bottle of the Smirnoff Ice and Casey was holding a can of Bud Light.
Alexandra! Casey!
Rosemary felt her stomach tighten. What were her two daughters, (yes, she very much considered Casey her daughter too), doing drinking underage at a party? She had to take a few breaths to calm down, telling herself she did the same exact thing in college, and the girls were smart. Once she calmed down after a few minutes, she continued scrolling until she saw another picture with Alex. This time, she was with Olivia. Alex was standing with her eyes closed, arms stretched above her head as she smiled. Olivia was on her side, arms wrapped around Alex's torso, smiling with her eyes closed as she leaned against the crook of her arm. It had been a post beer pong victory shot.
Rosemary chewed on her lip, trying to find anything suggestive about the photo.
"You okay?" William asked, intently watching his wife.
"Yes, of course dear." Rosemary closed out of Facebook and put her phone down, giving a smile to her husband.
"Are you Facebook stalking again?"
Rosemary chuckled. "Guilty."
"Honey," William started, reaching across the table to grab his wife's hands. "Have faith in our Alexandra. I'm sure her friend is a good person. She has great judgement, just like her father." He gave a playful wink to his wife.
Rosemary nodded. She knew it was true. But she just wanted to know – was Olivia more than just a friend to her daughter?
"They should be here any minute!" Alex said, nervous and excited all at the same time.
Olivia was tapping her foot nervously, her hands in her brown leather jacket with her bag next to her on the ground.
"I can't believe you're bringing your girlfriend home with you, Alex!" Casey said, a twinge of jealousy running through her. "I should've brought Trevor."
"Casey! Don't be insensitive. Olivia had nowhere else to go. I wasn't about to leave her home to eat tacos on Thanksgiving," Alex shot back.
Casey sighed. "Shit, you're right." She turned to Olivia and wrapped her arms around her, giving her a hug. "Sorry, Liv. I didn't mean to be a dick."
Olivia chuckled nervously. "You're not a dick, Casey."
"Here they come!" Alex said, waving to the large and expensive SUVs pulling up to the dorm. Olivia felt her stomach churn as her foot tapping became more frequent. Alex shot a quick, reassuring glance at Olivia. "Don't be nervous. Our parents are like flowers. Tender and sweet."
Olivia only nodded as both Mrs. Novak and Mrs. Cabot got out to hug their daughters.
Good Lord, they're both spitting images of their mothers. Literally carbon copies.
"And you must be Olivia!" William boomed, extending his hand.
Olivia took it and gave a firm shake as she smiled. "Yes sir."
He then grabbed her into a strong hug, patting her back, catching her off guard. "It's nice to meet you, Olivia. Any friend of Alexandra's is a friend of mine."
"Thank you, sir."
He then broke away so he could hug Alex, with her practically jumping in his arms. "Hey Daddy!"
Rosemary made her way to Olivia now, extending her hand. "Hello, Miss Benson."
Benson? Did Alex tell her my last name? I guess that makes sense.
Olivia took her hand and shook it, giving her a smile. "Hi, Mrs. Cabot. Thank you for allowing me to intrude on your holidays. You didn't have to, at all."
Rosemary put her other hand over Olivia's and gave her a smile. "Yes I did, dear. Everyone deserves a nice holiday meal."
Olivia smiled as Rosemary went to hug Casey.
"Alex! How's my third favorite gal doing?" Ronald Novak asked, arms extended for a hug.
"Great, how are you Mr. Novak?" Alex asked, returning the hug.
"Alex. I've told you. Call me Ronnie. And who might this be?" Ronald extended his hand to Olivia.
"Hi, my name is Olivia. I'm friends with Alex and Casey." Olivia took his hand and was met with a firm handshake.
Man they are just like the billboards and commercials.
"Well, it's great to meet you Miss Olivia! Are you joining us for a Cabot and Novak Thanksgiving?"
"Yes sir," Olivia nodded with a smile.
"Please, call me Ronnie! Well, we're excited to have you. I hope you like pie. My wife makes a mean peanut butter pie!" Mrs. Novak smiled and waved off Mr. Novak.
"That sounds wonderful, I can't wait to try it," Olivia said, grinning. It really did sound delicious.
William had loaded Alex and Olivia's bags in the car while they were talking. "Alright, are we ready to head back?"
Everyone agreed as Alex and Olivia climbed into the backseat of the SUV, making the journey back to the Cabot house.
