Whiskey 'n Lace

~ Chapter Twenty-Nine ~

The rest of the night was a blur, and Olivia didn’t really remember a lot of what happened when she woke up the next morning. She pushed herself up in bed and found that she was still wearing her outfit from the night before. Her face felt tight, and she realized that she had been crying when she saw the black streaks on her cheeks.

“Hey, baby.” Rafael spoke when he came into the bathroom and saw Olivia scrubbing the marks from her face.

“Hi.” Olivia breathed, as she avoided making eye contact with her husband.

“How are you doing?”

“Not great. It’s all flooding back again… did I fight you last night?” Olivia sighed, as she finally turned towards her husband.

“Oh, because of your clothes? I didn’t want to wake you once you passed out, so I just took your shoes off and let you sleep.” Rafael replied.

“Okay. I was just worried that I was forcing everyone away… especially since I’m certain that I lost my brother last night.” Olivia breathed.

“You didn’t lose Charlie. He loves you, and he will figure out a way to come back into your life.”

“I just can’t believe that he thought you were beating me. I hate that he didn’t think he did something wrong, but that you had to be the bad guy. That just pisses me off!” Olivia huffed, as her anger came flooding back just like the memories from last night.

She was so angry about everything. How she did things the right way, but hadn’t been blessed with a baby yet. She was pissed off that Charlie knocked up a stranger and didn’t even have to work as hard as she and Rafael were. 

“Liv, relax. What happened last night is in the past. We will have everything fixed before Christmas. Okay?”

“My brother isn’t going to forgive me or stop being a dick in three days. So I am going to shower and then go to the gym. I need to punch something.”

///

Once Olivia left the house, Rafael started a load of laundry and then wrapped his wife’s gifts. As he tucked away a few of the presents, his phone rang. Rafael was quick to find it, because he didn’t want to possibly miss a call from his wife.

“Hello?!” He exclaimed into the phone.

“Rafael, is something wrong? Why are you yelling?” Serena asked quickly.

“Serena? Uh, sorry. I thought Liv was calling me. What’s up?” Rafael sighed.

“Is she not at home?”

“No, she went to the gym. She needed to blow off some steam. So what’s up?” Rafael asked. He was certain that Serena was calling to talk about last night. Maybe to check in on Olivia, but maybe also to make Rafael and Olivia apologize to Charlie and Sasha.

“I wanted to call and make sure that you and Olivia were okay. We need to talk about last night, but I don’t want to start anything until you both are relaxed and clear-minded.” Serena spoke.

“Olivia is pissed off and hurt, Serena. Your daughter takes a while to cool off, so we might not be ready to talk for a while. But I don’t think you should even be addressing things with me. Charlie was the one that accused me of abusing Olivia.”

“Charlie and Sasha stayed here last night, and we talked. Charlie knows that he shouldn’t be throwing out accusations… but he’s angry at how Olivia responded to his news. He’s happy and falling in love with Sasha.”

“I really don’t care, Serena. What happened last night sucked.”

“Why didn’t you tell us that you two were having a hard time having a baby? We could have recommended clinics that we used to have our kids!”

“Because Olivia and I are too proud! We don’t want to tell people that we can’t conceive! That we are fucking like rabbits and Olivia can’t get pregnant! It hurts, and we don’t want to tell the story over and over again!” Rafael cried into the phone.

He had cried more recently about everything happening, but never did he break down on the phone because of it.

“Please come over, Rafa. So we can talk. So Deb and I can help you two out.”

“I’ll see. But I can’t promise anything.” Rafael sniffled before hanging up.

///

Olivia was leaving her gym when her name was called. She zipped her jacket up, before frowning when she saw Charlie walking towards her. She took a few slow breaths to prepare herself for the worse, before meeting her little brother half way.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“Mom said you were here.”

“How did she know I was here? Because… Rafael told her. Okay, so what do you want?” Olivia sighed. 

“Are you really having a hard time getting pregnant? Because if you only said that to make me feel bad-”

“I’m turning thirty-seven next year… I am well past the perfect time to get pregnant, and it sucks. Rafael and I have been trying to have a baby since we got married, and we had one false positive early this month that gave us hope, to only break our hearts in the end. I’m not feeling the way I am just to make you feel bad. I’m completely pissed off and just want to cry because you get to be a dad… but I don’t get to be a mom. So please, leave me alone. Go back to Sasha.” Olivia frowned.

“Liv!” Charles huffed, as Olivia turned and headed towards her car.

Olivia was tossing her bag into the backseat of her car when Charlie grabbed her arm and turned her towards him. He was rough and squeezed her arm tightly.

“You can’t hate me or my child. Get over it.” He warned.

“You aren’t the same Charlie that took care of me and called me every night while I was recovering. You are a complete asshole now, so I honestly think I won’t be talking to you for a while. Leave me be, and fuck off.”

Olivia shoved her brother back before climbing into her car. She was a little shaken up, but she wouldn’t let her brother know. All she knew was that she wanted space. And a baby.