Author's Note: It's been a very long time and I hope this chapter is worth the long wait. Enjoy!

SN: When reading this story, remember present day is set in 2008 and the flashbacks are set in 1998, so technology isn't current. HA!

London, 1998

The place was cold, too cold and the sky wasn't bright as Florida's blue one. She hated it. She hated haven't to uproot her life to live in a place she didn't want to move to, but she had no choice. Truthfully, she had no money, because if she did it would've afforded her a choice. Money bought her choices, one of it being an apartment to live in while she finished high school in America. But as it was, that wasn't going to happen.

Her throat was raw from all of the crying she did over the past five days. Everything seemed bleak to her and it hurt that her mother didn't understand her broken heart. She kept preaching the same message over and over that she would get over it but Olivia doubt she would. The pain slicing through her beating organ pierced her very core and she didn't see it getting any better. She didn't want to be here, she wanted to be with Fitz in Florida, going to high school, graduating, going to college, moving in together, getting married, working on their individual careers before making their two babies. They had a plan and that plan was good as dead. The realization hit her for the thousandth time since her mother announced over three months ago that they were moving. And the pain only intensified, it grew worst since they boarded that plane to England five days earlier. Everyone looked at her and Fitz as they clung to each other in the terminal of Orlando International Airport. Her mother had to physically pry her out of his arms and dragged her wailing form through security. It was the single most painful thing that she had experienced. Her entire world felt dark, cold and despondent. Her worst nightmare lived out and her poor heart felt like it was going to give out from it all.

Five days in London didn't make anything better. She hated her life, she hated her mother and she hated that life made a decision for her without her input. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, her in a fetal position halfway around the world as her body racked with tears against the pillow securely clutched between her arms and legs. It was the only physical thing she could do because eating and sleeping was out of the question. She only ate when her mother forced her to and slept when her body had finally reached its limits.

The hostile rap on her "new" bedroom door in the two-bedroom apartment startled her, but she didn't have any energy to try to camouflage her despondent appearance before her mother entered.

Through her tears she could see Maya none too happy and she wished she cared but she didn't.

"I've had enough of your crying! What the hell is wrong with you, little girl? You're behaving as though I died with the type of emotion you're evoking. I told you there would be other friends, other boyfriends, so stop it! I've allowed you to stew for five whole days so you better stop!"

Olivia ignored her and pushed her face into her pillow as her body continued to rack with tears. The insensitive manner in which her mother was behaving in only added wounds to her already broken heart.

Maya sat on the bed and roughly forced Olivia up by an arm, so that she could look her in the eyes. Through clenched teeth, Maya said, "stop crying. We're going out tonight for dinner with my associates, and you're going to behave like you're happy to be here instead of acting like an ingrate."

Olivia stared at her unmoving, tears slowly flowing out of her eyes as she thought about how cruel her mother was behaving. She realized then that her mother didn't care if she was brokenhearted. To Maya, Olivia's feelings for Fitz will magically disappear and Olivia wished it did. Because if it did, she wouldn't feel like she was constantly suffocating.

London 2008 – Present Day

Olivia pushed away the ugly reminder as she watched from her perched seat as her mother made them supper. It'd been a day since she returned to London and they were having their customary Sunday night dinner together at her mom's place.

Olivia tugged on the sleeve of her burgundy sweater dress as her mother droned on about work. Unsurprisingly, Maya had done well running the London marketing office. She was as in love with her job today as she was several years ago.

"John asked for you." Maya stopped her prodding of the small stuffed chicken to gauge her reaction while Olivia fought the urge to roll her eyes. John Blanc worked as an Advertising Account Manager at Morgan and Pope's Marketing Inc. (M&P). Olivia was very proud her mother finally got her name on the wall even though it wielded her more power. She was more 'badassery' if that was a word and she thought she could use said power in her daughter's love life or lack thereof. John was a nice guy but not the type of guy she was interested in. For ten years all of the guys she encountered weren't the guys she was interested in. Well, there were a few that held her interest for a little while.

"Mom," Olivia's tone was pleading for her to stop before they ended where neither of them wanted to be, which was in an argument.

"I'm just saying. You're always gone, here, there and everywhere for work. It's time you start thinking about your future. Marriage and kids, you're not getting younger, sweetheart." Maya continued her meticulous movements in the open plan stainless steel kitchen.

Olivia sighed and took a sip of her red wine. "I'm not interested in marriage or kids, you already know that."

Maya's eyes shot up to hers. "Olivia, don't be ridiculous. Of course you are. Once you meet the right guy it will happen. You just need to open up yourself a little. Maybe John will be that guy," she added with a stiff smile.

Olivia only shook her head in simmering ire. She'd already met the right guy but that didn't matter, right?

Changing the topic in its entirety, Olivia decided to bring up something that would no doubt shock her mother. "Guess who I ran into at the airport yesterday?" She took a generous sip of the liquid red to give herself courage. She still was reeling from her encounter with Fitz and wondered what it all meant. Was that a sign from the universe or mere coincidence? She was leaning more to the latter because he had yet to call her and he promised he would. But even if he did, what would they talk about?

"Who?" Maya asked, now plating their food.

Olivia ran a hand through her straight hair before answering, "Fitz."

"Fitz? As in that boy you used to date?" Olivia wasn't surprised that her mother spoke his name in a condescending tone.

Another sip of wine was swallowed before Olivia responded, "yep, that Fitz."

"Mmm. So how is he? Probably married with kids by now."

The casual implication sliced right through Olivia, her mother just knew how to hurt her swiftly. "I don't know, maybe," was Olivia's shaky response as she tried to nonchalantly shrug her shoulder as though the thought didn't pain her.

Maya's movements stopped altogether as she regarded her daughter intently, hands akimbo on her slim hips. "See, he has moved on and you need to."

"Mom, please stop."

"No, you need to hear this. You have to move on, Olivia. You're almost 28 and this is no way for you to live. Working tirelessly in third world countries for a subpar salary while your love life is pretty nonexistent. It's time you start thinking about your future using your head and not that heart of yours. Time to grow up, sweetheart."

Olivia looked down in her glass of wine, staring pensively into the dark liquid. The reflection of her tear-filled eyes mocked her. Maybe her mother was right; maybe it was time she did more with her life because as it was, she was merely existing. It was no use trying to pretend that her broken heart had healed because it hadn't. Ten years later, she was able to live with the dull ache but truthfully it wasn't repaired, it wasn't whole and she didn't know what to do about that. She did good work with women and young girls in the developing world and it honestly fulfilled and satisfied her in a way that nothing else would. She was content but not happy.

Olivia returned to her flat around 8. As soon as dinner was over she fed her mother the 'I'm still jetlagged' line and flee from her persistent badgering. There was only so much of Maya Pope Olivia could tolerate. She did her nightly routine – brushed her teeth, washed her face and moisturized it, wrapped her hair and secured it with her trusty silk scarf and finally donned one of her comfy cotton nighties. By the time she was nestled into the fluffy bed with The Great Gatsby paperback, it was 8:30. Just as she was settled into the classic twentieth-century literature the buzzing sound of her blackberry on her nightstand interrupted. Her heart began racing as she surveyed the unknown number on the phone. It could be Fitz, she thought. And the realization terrified her. What were they going to talk about? Suddenly her throat became dry as she stared at the ringing phone, making no move to click on the green button to accept the call. But, by the time she reached for the device it had stopped ringing altogether. "Shit!" she muttered under her breath at her indecisiveness. But before she could further chastise herself her phone began ringing again. This time she wasted no time clicking on the green button.

"Hello," her voice answered soft and eager.

"Hi. Olivia?" The deep voice queried on the other end. She closed her eyes tightly as the once familiar voice washed over her, only thing it was much deeper than before.

"Hi, it's me," she squeaked.

"Hi," he said again; it once was their thing. "I hope I'm not calling too late."

She smiled, cradling the phone against her ear while tightly pulling the warm quilt around her shoulder – The Great Gatsby now discarded somewhere on the empty spot beside her. "No, it's ok. How are you?"

She waited a second for him to answer. "I'm better now. And you?" She didn't miss the smile in his voice.

"I'm good." She clutched the phone tighter while looking up at the ceiling. The soft light from her night lamp cast a shadow on the white ceiling and she made shadow puppets with her free hand.

"Wow, can't believe I'm talking to you." He spoke genuinely; she heard the disbelief ringing in his voice. She couldn't believe it either but life had a funny way of happening.

"Me neither. Hope it's not too much of a trouble that you called." She wondered what his wife had to say about him calling his ex. Ugh… She regretted looking up his Facebook profile now because that was all she could think of.

"Why would it be trouble?" He fell for her bait – hook, line and sinker.

She shrugged her shoulders as if he could see her. "So what's new with you?" she asked instead of answering his question.

"A lot of things. Anything in particular you want to know?"

YES! Her mind screamed. She wanted to know why he married someone else? Why didn't he wait for her? Her questions may sound outlandish even to her ears but she truly wanted to know. Except she was too coward to ask any of it, afraid of what his answers might be – so she racked her mind thinking up questions that were surface deep.

"Umm…" she licked her lips to add moisture, she didn't understand why she was so nervous talking to him but she tried to temper it. Inhaling deeply she finally said, "I noticed you were wearing a US Navy shirt at the airport, is that where you work?"

"Yea. I'm a Navy SEAL."

"Oh." That didn't make sense to her. "So, you never went to GWU to study law?" As long as she'd known Fitz he was planning to do law at George Washington University. Well, the Fitz she knew was. This grown version of him she didn't know.

She heard him sigh on the line before responding. "That was the plan but things changed. After…" he began but changed his mind. She wanted him to finish, needed him to finish. She wanted to know if he was just as affected as she was by her moving away.

"After what?" she asked, pushing herself to be bold, something she was not.

"After you left and after my father died things changed."

"What!" Olivia shrieked. "After your father died? When did that happen?" She was alarmed and her heart began beating against her chest. Even though she hadn't seen the man in quite sometime her heart still mourned for him.

Fitz chuckled, humorless, it wasn't the response she was expecting. Why was he even laughing? "What's so funny?"

"You," he laughed. "You're acting all surprise about his death now when I had written you about it."

Olivia was officially confused. "When did you write me? I never got a single letter from you."

Fitz continued to laugh in a dry sarcastic kind of way and it irked her. "Stop that!"

"Stop what? I'm laughing because I've waited nine years for you to explain to me why you didn't reach out to me when my father died. Nine whole years! And the best you could do is lie to me? I thought I meant more to you, Olivia."

She quickly sat up in bed with her back bracing against the wrought iron bedhead, racking her mind to figure out what he's talking about. "Fitz, help me understand what you're talking about. I never got a letter from you when I moved over here. As a matter-of-fact I sent you letters that you never replied to."

His revelation didn't make sense. At first they both tried to call each other every so often but that proved difficult with the high cost of long distance calls and neither had a job to afford it, so they had to resort to letter writing but the thing was neither received each other's letters. And the lack of communication stifled their budding love on the bed of misunderstandings.

He stopped his dry laughter then, the seriousness evident in his voice as he spoke. "Are you serious? I never got a letter from you. This doesn't make any sense." And it didn't.

"I don't know what to say," was the most she could come up with, given the circumstance. "Did you get the right address?" He did, because he immediately recited the old address from the top of his head. "That's correct," she whispered in disbelief. How didn't she get his letters? The entire thing made no sense and only caused befuddlement to fall on her. The realization she was robbed of his comforting words made her stomach roil. All this time she thought he was ignoring her.

Fitz exhaled a long breath, the slight static in the phone reminded her that he was miles upon miles away. "I don't know what happened to the letters either because they weren't returned to me. For so long I wondered how could you not reach out to me when I needed you." The pain was still strong in his voice and she closed her eyes from the sound of it.

"I'm sorry," was all she could utter and she was tremendously sorry. She would've been there for him had she known about his father's passing.

A thick silence fell on the line, both parties deep in thought, thinking about the missing letters. It was no use rehashing it but they couldn't help not to.

"So what do you do?" Fitz asked, pulling them out of their trance and moving on to lighter topics.

"I'm a representative for UN Women."

"Nice," he praised. "So, no political silence?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "no."

Silence fell again as both thought about how much off course they were than what their teenaged selves had planned. By now they would've settled into their careers, married and trying for baby# 1 if said plan was still alive.

"Mmm…"

The conversation between them was both awkward and pleasant. So much unspoken things – so many questions and not enough asking. Not that she could bear to go down memory lane; it was too painful, but she had one question she wanted to ask. No, needed to ask. Licking her lips to wet them, she build up the courage to inquire, "are you married?"

"No," his answer rushed through the phone like a cold drink of water on a summer day. It relieved her, it honestly did. And it shouldn't because why should she care? She no longer had claims on him.

"Never been married, you?" he returned her question.

She paused for a few seconds before saying, "No ring, no kids." She almost gave herself a pat on the back for smoothly bringing up kids, because that was something else she wanted to know.

Without hesitation she heard him state. "Well, I have a four-year-old son. His name is Gabriel Thomas Grant but we call him Gabe." She already knew this but she would never tell him that she'd looked him up on Facebook.

"Congrats," Olivia forced a chipper voice. Dammit! Why did things like this bother her? She really needed to move on like her mother said. This wasn't good for her emotional wellbeing. But she just didn't know how. How do you get over someone whom you still loved?

"Thank you."

Clearing her throat, she asked, "So how's fatherhood treating you?"

"It's good. Hard at times but very rewarding."

She gulped. "Sounds lovely." Except it would've been lovelier had it been their experience to share.

"You have no idea how good it was to see you again and be able to talk to you like this. Even though so much time has passed, you've never been far from my mind. I wasn't lying when I told you I still think about you. What we had was real to me," he confessed softly and tears sprang to her eyes.

"It was very real for me too, Fitz."

Silence covered them in a blanket of warmth as they thought of their earlier years. Olivia knew it was wishful thinking on her part to even remotely hope that they could reconnect in the way they once were. Too much time has passed and people changed.

"My phone minutes are running low. I'll call you back some other time." He didn't ask, he stated it.

A giant smile splayed across her lips, "I would love that."

"Good, now that I found you, I'm not letting you go."

She didn't know what that fully meant but his statement made a tingle run up her spine. Maybe after all there was hope…

Author's Note: I know this phone call wasn't sparks and fireworks and I promise someday we'll get there. I hope that I was able to portray the awkwardness, relief and anxiousness of Olivia as she spoke with Fitz after such a long time. From what we've learnt a lack of communication between the two was definitely detrimental to their relationship. What happened to the letters?

FYI: Olivia has dated over the years but she has never let anyone get too close. So we learnt that Fitz is also not married and never been, but he does have a son. Bless the baby!

Is Maya right to force Olivia to think of the future or she's being as insensitive as she was 10 years ago?

Can't wait to read your reviews.

Until next time,

XOXO