Love, Olivia

Kiss Me, Olivia

6:03 am

It's time to get up for work and he debates if it's truly worth going in if it means leaving this bed. "They're just friends," he knows. Just friends who spent almost every night together, sleeping in the same bed; who gave each other forehead kisses and pecks to the cheek, cried to one another as they both went through the toughest moments in their lives. He's going down a whirlwind of flooding emotions and shakes the thought of them being anything more. He feels like an asshole for even thinking about it but there wasn't anyway they would be remaining just friends.

She stirred against his body almost as if she could hear everything going on up there in his head. He began moving swiftly from underneath her and he thought he had succeeded until he heard her mumble his name. "I'm right here Liv. I gotta wake Zara up for school, you rest," he leaned over the king bed with his forearms resting on the mattress. It bowed with added weight and her body turned more towards him. Her eyes were barely opened trying to seek him out in the darkness of the room. He rubbed her hair back from her face and kissed her forehead before pulling the comforter up further and padding his way down the hall.

.....

"I'll be right outside," Nick sat in the driver's side of the unmarked SUV parked outside the three story building. Today was therapy day and Olivia was down to one session a week. He was so proud of her. For the last few months he's been taking her to make sure she goes. It has been their routine every week since that first day he offered to take her for support. Nick sat outside waiting for the hour and sometimes even grabbed her a coffee or a snack for after. It was comforting she admitted and couldn't imagine what she would have done without him here.

"See you in an hour," she gives him a small smile before opening the door and heading inside. It was only two weeks ago that she only started coming once a week. Her and Dr. Lindstorm had made so much progress, and as much as she protested therapy she's thankful she bit the bullet and went.

She stepped off the elevator to the second floor and walked through the familiar hallways until she reached his office. She knocked before entering and was glad to finally feel comfortable entering this room. Therapy was scary and defeating sometimes, it always felt like a chore to come here. Now it felt like the one place she could go and not feel like a victim- like she wasn't going completely insane and instead felt like she was healing and moving on with her life.

"Hi Olivia, how are you?" Dr. Lindstorm stood from his desk and just like routine had come around to join her on the two cushioned arm chairs.

"I'm hanging in there," she settled into the chair across from him and wrapped her cardigan tighter around her, suddenly feeling a chill around her.

"You sound a lot different than last week," it was his job to ask, to be concerned but she sometimes wished he wasn't so adamant sometimes.

"I had a night terror- last night actually," her voice is quiet and can't help the shame that follows admitting it out loud for the first time to anyone besides Nick. Her lips pursed together trying to form together the right words. It had been weeks, yes, since her last terror but she felt defeated. This chapter of her life would never close. She would always be healing, always working towards "normal".

"How did you handle that?" He jots down a few notes and looks back up to her.

"Oh well..." she blows out a deep breath sending the few hairs framing her face up. "Nick was there to help me through it. He made me tea, we talked about it, and somehow I managed to get a few hours of sleep afterwards," there's a pause that follows between them and it causes her to fidget with the sleeve of her cardigan.

"You're still sleeping at Nick's house?" His question made her groan internally. Dr. Lindstorm didn't like the idea of her leaning so heavily on him at times through her journey.