"What was so important that you had to storm my hotel room at midnight?" Olivia asked, her eyes still half-closed and her fiery hair a wild mess around her head as she sat cross legged on her bed, stifling a yawn. She was wearing one of Harrison's shirts.
Briar looked disheveled as she chewed on her thumb nail, her eyes brows pulled in together and her eyes swimming in fear. She had barely given her best friend any warning before she had called a cab and made the trip over. She couldn't sleep, and had been on edge for the past day. She could barely look Tom in the eye all day, too busy feeling like a lovesick school girl. "It's about Tom."
"Go on." Olivia urged when Briar hesitated, although a small part of her already knew what Briar was about to say.
"The other night, when—"
"—when Tom was pushing you on the swings, everything suddenly felt perfect and it was like he was holding you in place and not gravity?" Olivia finished dramatically.
Briar screwed up her nose. "Did you just quote Twilight?"
Olivia slapped her best friend on the knee. "That's beside the point! But, yes, I did. The point is, your dumb ass finally realised you feel about a certain Spider-Man."
Briar's face folded in on itself and it was like her entire body shrunk. Briar dropped her hand from her mouth and sighed loudly. It was a shaky sigh, displaying just how worked up she was. "It's bad, Liv. I couldn't even look him in the eyes today at work and I know he picked up on it, but the worst part is that I'm angry at myself. I hate myself for having these feelings. I'm breaking my own rule."
"You made that 'rule' when you were a grieving teenager. You're no longer a teenager, Briar, and I know you know that."
"It still doesn't change the fact that I'm his assistant and he's my client. I hate it."
Olivia pouted. "That's not fair, Bri. You can't hate yourself for something that is out of your control. That was out of your control."
Briar visibly flinched, knowing exactly what Olivia was hinting at. "But it was; I could have stopped him. If I had just gone and picked him up..."
"Stop right there." Olivia halted her best friends words. "I'm not going to let you wallow in self pity and loathing for the rest of your life, not when there is an amazing guy that is smitten with you right in front of your face!"
"Tom isn't smitten with me."
Olivia shook her head sadly. "If you can't see that he definitely is, then I can't help you."
Briar sighed and buried her face in her hands. She wanted to cry; there were so many emotions running through her mind that she could barely think straight. All she knew was that her sudden feelings for Tom would only bring the both of them trouble. "I can't tell him, Liv. It's unprofessional, and unfair. I don't want to risk his career, or mine. That might sound selfish, but it's the right thing to do."
Olivia watched quietly, placing a hand softly on Briar's knee comfortingly. At the end of the day, she would support whatever decision Briar made, even if she would have made a different one had she been in Briar's current situation. That was another stark contrast between them: Olivia was a hopeless romantic, and her heart yearned for both herself and those around her to be happy, but Briar was not that. She was cool and calculated, thinking mostly with her head and prioritising her career over her emotions. "It doesn't sound selfish, Briar. You're not selfish. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I won't lie to you, I would have made a different choice, but you're my best friend and I just want you to be happy. If you're happy, then I'm happy."
Briar forced herself to smile. She wasn't happy about having to hide her feelings, not in the slightest, but she knew it was the right thing to do when it came to her job.