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| 13 | What Do I Have To Lose? |

 I left a drunk Nikki upstairs with an almost equally drunk Amy when I did post game interviews and my typical post game stuff in my office. They both drove me crazy when they were drunk and I was sober, there was no way I was going to get any work done if I told them to come into my office and distract me and mess shit up.

"Hey, Liv," Liam said as he walked to my doorway.

"What," I said.

"I, uh, I know you have a boyfriend," he said, "He, uh, he was talking a lot about you before practice this morning. But, uh, I was, uh, I was wondering if you'd maybe show me around Estero? I mean, you obviously know it better than I do, I've only been here a day."

"Yeah I would love to," I replied, "Sebastian and I normally go out to the street fair every Friday, you're more than welcome to tag along."

"I'd like that," he said, "Just let me know when."

"I will," I smiled.

"I'll let you finish working," he said, "See you later?"

"See you later," I smiled before he left.

After finishing up my work, I got a text from Nikki, what I assume said where are you but she was texting while drunk and there were a whole bunch of typos.

"Hey," I said as I ran into Sebastian while walking from my office up to the bar, "So, Nikki's totally blasted and I'm just going to take her back to my place."

"I understand," he laughed, "I need sleep, I'll be at my place."

"I'm sorry," I said, "If I would've known she was coming I would've planned it better."

"No biggie," he said, kissing my cheek, "I'll see you at noon tomorrow?"
"See you then," I smiled, "Good game."

"Thanks," he smiled before we went our separate ways.

"Nikki! I'm here!" I called out as I walked into the bar that was pretty full.

"Hey," she said, attempting to walk toward me, only to stumble quite a few times along the way.

"Let's go home," I laughed, grabbing her arm.

"But Liv," she whined.

"Olivia, I corrected.

"When were you going to tell me Liam Simpson is playing here?" she slurred as we got in my car.

"Shut up, you're drunk," I snapped.

"Liam fucking Simpson is in fucking Estero playing on the team you work for," she said.

"He got traded here last night," I replied, keeping my eyes on the road, trying to get her to drop it.

"No shit," she said, "You talk to him?" 

"Nikki, can we please have this conversation when you're sober, I don't feel like telling the story more than once," I sighed.

"Sure," she groaned.

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"Rise and shine, sunshine," I said the next morning, spraying Nikki with a spray bottle full of water the next morning.

Nikki and I both drank in college, me a little more than her after freshman year, so this was payback for her waking me up various ways those years. Spraying me with water seemed to be her favorite while jumping onto me and pulling me off of the bed were her other favorites.

"I hate you," she groaned, pulling the thin blanket over her head.

"Get up, we're getting breakfast," I said, pulling the blanket off of her.

"Olivia, I feel like shit," she said, sitting up slowly and rubbing her eyes.

"I know," I said, "But you decided to get blasted last night, not me."

"So, what's up with the whole, Liam Simpson is here and you didn't tell me, thing?" she asked, sitting up on the couch.

"He had no clue I was me," I replied, "He came in Thursday night and I had my back to the door on a ladder cleaning some stuff. He told me he knew an Olivia who's favorite color was yellow after seeing my door. It was a good minute and a half before I came down and turned around and he was speechless."

"What'd you say to him?" she asked.

"We talked for a minute, I drove him back to his hotel," I said, "But I haven't told Sebastian yet, so be quiet."

"Okay," she sighed, "I'm glad you two are friends though."

"Yeah, me too," I replied.

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"I love this town so much," Nikki remarked as we ate breakfast at the cute little cafe down the street from my apartment building, "I'm so jealous you get to live here and I'm stuck in Waterford," she laughed.

"I kind of miss it," I remarked, "There's nobody from home around here, you know? I'm alone a lot. I really only have Sebastian and Amy, which kind of sucks."

"Yeah and if you're nice to Liam you'll have three friends and a familiar face from home," she replied with a smirk.

"I get it, I get it," I laughed, "I'll tell Sebastian and then we can hang out."

"Good," she smiled, "I feel better leaving you on Sunday now," she smirked.

"I'm not that much of a loner," I laughed, "I do stuff, occasionally."

"Once in a great while, you mean?" she asked with a grin.

"Okay maybe once in a great while," I laughed, "I don't have time to have friends outside of work, I'm there nearly every weekend and when I'm not at work, I'm working from home, watching the game and tweeting the scores. I don't have time to have more friends and I'm okay with that right now. Amy and I go out if we have a free Friday night, I promise."

It was true, Amy and I did have our fun on off weekends. If there was a Friday night home game and Saturday night away game, we'd go up to the bar after the game or go out to the bar we went to the night I hooked up with Sebastian when they did karaoke nights on Thursdays. I wasn't a hermit like I was the last two years, I'd realized that it was the worst thing I could do to myself this summer, that was half the reason I packed up and moved down here in the first place. This was supposed to be a fresh start, I was supposed to try to be my old self again, if I even knew who I was anymore.

"I still say you need to tell Sebastian about Liam," she said.

"Fine, fine, I'll figure it out," I sighed, "What do I have to lose?"

But I really did have a lot to lose, I just didn't know it yet.

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