Later on that night, Brett and Olivia were sitting in the living room watching TV whilst Olivia read her book, when there was a knock on the door.
"What time is it?", Olivia asked Brett as he rose from the sofa, heading towards the window. He peeked through the curtains before looking over his shoulder at the nineteen-year-old.
"I think it's the new neighbours.", He said and headed to the front door. Olivia placed down her book and practically ran after him, eager to know who their new neighbours were. Brett opened the door and Olivia stood behind him, to the side. Her eyes widened when she recognised the boy standing with an older woman.
Connor. The guy from the bar that night.
"Of fuck," Olivia muttered to herself, but Brett caught it. He looked over at her with a raised brow before focusing back on the blonde woman and her son.
"Hi! We just thought that it'd be nice to come and say hello!", The woman squeaked and Brett fought the urge to shut the door straight in her face. "I'm Lorraine and this is my son Connor.", She smiled, holding out her hand to Brett.
Brett hated the fact that he recognised that name straight away. Connor was the guy that Olivia had spoken about the night she'd returned from drinking with her friends. He now fought the urge to turn to his nanny and laugh. Instead, he took the ladies hand with a restricted smile.
"It's nice to meet you.", he said, his tone monotone as it always were around strangers. "I'm Brett and this is Olivia," He finally stood aside, allowing Connor and Olivia to really notice each other. His lips tugged upwards, finally taking this time to look over her face.
She was as red as a beetroot.
"Hi," Olivia swallowed, shaking the ladies hand first. Connor looked just as shocked as Olivia did.
"Olivia?," Connor raised a brow. Brett just glanced between the two with amusement flowing through his veins.
"You two know each other?," Lorraine finally asks.
"Well we've met once before, at his work.", Olivia finally sighs, stepping forward to shake Connor's hand too. The blonde twenty-one year old just smirked knowingly at her. "It's nice to see you again,", she managed to say.
"Oh that is just great!," Lorraine clasps her hands together. "My husband is at work right now, and my daughter is doing some homework, but I'll make sure that they come to say hello tomorrow," Lorraine says with enthusiastically.
"That sounds good," Brett finally speaks up again, pushing his amusement aside.
"Is this your daughter?," Lorraine gestures to Olivia.
Olivia and Brett stiffen immediately. "What? No!", They both exclaim together.
"I'm the kids nanny, he's my fathers friend," Olivia answers nervously, making sure to not make eye contact with Connor because he knew about her liking Brett - and that made this so much worse.
"Oh, I'm sorry!", Lorraine laughs unknowingly.
Brett smiles calmly. "It's okay, we're just going to head to bed now. We look forward to meeting your husband and your daughter tomorrow.", he shakes her hand again, and sends Connor a curt nod. He closes the door when they turn to leave, and focuses on Olivia who's eyes were wider than he'd ever seen them.
"Oh god," She ran a hand through her hair.
"What is it?," Brett smirks.
Olivia says nothing for a long while, she just stares up at Brett with those wide eyes. Brett continued to smirk down at her, folding his arms across his hard chest. She watches his calm and collected and smug look grow across his handsome features, and resists her urge to slap him.
"Connor knows that I ran away from you that morning. I was embarrassed and I was talking to my friends about how you had a boner and I fucking ran away and he knows!," The words come flying out of her mouth before she could think straight.
"Wait, what?", Brett raised a brow, realizing that she wasn't being so awkward because something had happened between her and the boy, but because Connor knew Brett had had a boner over her?
"He knows that you had a boner over me and that I think you're hot!," She tries again. Brett grows silent for a few moments, watching the nineteen-year-old stress silently.
"You think I'm hot?," He smirks, looking like a teenager in that moment.
Olivia rolls her eyes and turns around. "I'm going to bed.", She calls over her shoulder, running up the stairs without another word. She reached her bedroom and closed the door, locking it behind herself with a loud groan.
It took her hours to finally fall asleep without cringing and hating her big mouth, but when she finally did, she dreamt about Brett - as she always did.
Wednesday
"Dad?," Olivia's mouth fell agape as she opened the front door to reveal her father standing there, flowers in his hand and a huge grin spread across his face. "What the hell?," She laughed weakly, reaching up to hug him.
"What kind of greeting is that?"
"Sorry!", Olivia laughed, pulling from the hug and stepping aside. "You just surprised me that's all, please come in.", She smiled, watching him walk in. Brett was home, and he had no idea that her father was here.
Olivia shut the front door and headed to the kitchen, knowing that her dad would follow.
"How is everything going?", he asks as they walk into the kitchen. "Brett!", Olivia watched as the handsome man spun on his heel, eyes wide with shock and some hidden fear and let out a small laugh. This was already awkward.
"John? What's up?", Brett replied, turning fully to face John. Olivia stood in the doorway, watching them hug and then continue talking.
"I just thought I'd come and see how everything was going. I hadn't heard from Liv for a while so I wanted to check on her, make sure you hadn't killed her yet," Olivia's dad teased, sending his daughter a side glance.
Olivia rolled her eyes, but smiled. "You're so funny.", She resorted, sticking out her tongue.
"What sweetheart? You have a mouth on you - a lot like your mothers.", He replied with a small shrug. Brett laughed at that. A real laugh. Olivia shot him a stare and he instantly shut up, covering his mouth with his hand, coughing into it.
John saw the look and glanced between the two of them. "I see she's treating you just fine," He jokes, unknowingly. Brett nods his head, still chuckling to himself.
"She's helping a lot, that's for sure.", He finally says, his tone serious and meaningful.
Olivia sighs and runs a hand through her hair. She couldn't help but to wonder how her and Brett should be acting around each other. She sure as hell couldn't stare at his lips like she usually did, or eye-fuck him like she usually does.
Instead, she decides that being playful sounded about right.
"I'm helping the kids, Brett's pretty useless.", She smiles sweetly at Brett. He rolls his eyes, but catches himself smiling down at her anyhow.
"That is very true.", John joins in, sending his friend a small shrug.
"What the hell is this? Gang-up-on-Brett day?", he raises a brow, his gaze shifting between the gorgeous teenager that he'd grown fond off, and his friend who he'd known for the better half of his life.
"Absolutely.", Olivia continues smiling.
John laughs. "Isn't that everyday?", he teases. Olivia snorts at that.
"Would you like a drink, or did you just come to annoy the shit out of me?," Brett asked, heading to the fridge as if he already knew the answer. He grabbed two beers and handed one to John. He thanked him and took a swig.
Olivia pouted, watching the two men drinking. "What about me?", She walks up to stand beside her dad. John raised a brow, and Brett did too.
Brett wasn't sure if he should be letting her drink? He had been doing, but now that John was here, he had no idea what the correct protocol was.
"I don't like beer, but you could have offered me one.", She glares at Brett.
Brett sighs, defeated. "Would you like a glass of wine, Olivia?", He asks, placing his beer down, getting ready to pour her a glass if she wished. He didn't care if John didn't like it, he'd have to deal with it.
"Please," She smiled happily at him. Brett turned on his heel and headed to the wines.
"White, if you have any!", She calls after him. Brett shoots her a look over his right shoulder.
"I know what wine you like, Olivia.", there was that father-like tone.
She smiles and looks up at her dad who was staring down at her with a cocked eyebrow. "That's how you speak to your boss?"
"It's Brett?", she says, playing the niece card. John chuckled, shaking his head before drinking some more of his beer. Olivia fought the urge to sigh a breath of relief. Instead she watched Brett return with a glass of white wine.
She took it from him. "Thank you," She sipped at it whilst the men starting talking.
"How's work been?", Brett asked, drinking his beer.
"It's been decent, busy as usual but it keeps me going.", John replies.
"And you? I haven't seen you in office for a few days.", Her dad adds, his tone lower this time.
Brett shoots a small glance towards Olivia, but she caught it. His gaze flickers back towards John, nodding reluctantly. "I've been on the field a lot.", he replied with, casually. Olivia raised a brow, glancing between her dad and Brett.
"What do you guys actually do?," She leaned back against the kitchen counter, sipping her wine.
Both of them seemed to stiffen at her question.
"Work.", her father replied. It was his dismissive tone.
Brett noticed and looked down at the floor at his feet, it was weird for him. It was weird for him to see Olivia being treated like a child, when she wasn't. Brett knew that, she was nineteen, twenty in a matter of days, but he also knew that to John, she would always be his baby.
"Don't do that.", Olivia rolled her eyes. "You always shut me down whenever I ask about your job, you even shut mum down - you've been married for what? Twenty years? She still doesn't know what it is that you do.", Olivia walks forward, standing beside Brett now. Her gaze fixed on her father.
"It isn't important. We have money. You've never had to go a day without a meal, or a roof over your head. What's the issue?", John tested his daughter, his gaze hard.
"The issue is that I'm not a child anymore, I deserve to know what my father does.", She places her glass down on the counter, folding her arms across her chest. Brett sighed, looking between his friend and Olivia.
This was intense.
"This conversation is over.", John said, harshly.
"But-"
"Olivia!", He scolded lowly. Brett's jaw tensed at his tone and he fought the urge to say something. It wasn't his place. He kept telling himself that as he saw Olivia's shoulders slump beside him. She was upset, and he couldn't do anything to fix it.
"I said, conversation over.", John repeated again.
Olivia licked her lips, nodding slowly. Her eyes remained fixed on her father's even with the sadness running through her body. "You made that pretty clear dad.", She spoke calmly. And then turned on her heel, leaving the two men in the kitchen to continue their conversation.
Okay so I think the next chapter is going to be in Brett's POV. I haven't updated since like two days ago because I feel like my writing is shit. I wrote a whole ass chapter last night and deleted it. I hate this.
Please give it a vote or a comment if you're enjoying it.
I'm so close to scrapping this book... :(
Thank you for reading this far anyhow.