A Beautiful Mess (13 page)

Olivia still had fears of getting too close to people. The fear of her world being swept out from under her was still present, although sometimes buried several layers beneath her skin. It was because of that fear that she had refused to get back in touch with Mo. Olivia didn’t want to admit it, but she was glad Kiera pushed to make sure their paths crossed. Music could be her coping mechanism again and maybe Olivia could finally be normal, whatever that was.

Olivia snapped back from her thoughts when she walked through the front doors of the wellness center and was greeted by a smiling, chirpy Melanie.

“Libby! How are you?” she asked, running from behind the registration desk and giving Olivia a hug. The girl really did have a lot of enthusiasm.

“I’m good, Mel,” she responded, weakly returning her hug. Olivia was not a big hugger, but she did it for Melanie. Melanie loved to hug.

“Here, let me give you your messages. You have a few.” She returned to her desk, handing Olivia a stack of missed calls. “You know, you really should set up your voicemail so that I don’t have to track you down all the time.”

Olivia smiled. “I know. I’ll work on it. Thanks, Mel,” she said, turning down the hall to her office. She popped her head into Linda’s office on the way.

“Hey, Linda. How’s everything going?” Olivia asked her business partner while she sat in her office, smiling through her vibrant blue eyes. She motioned for Olivia to come in as she threw her blonde hair back into a ponytail, taking her reading glasses off her face. The wellness center was her baby; Olivia was just the money behind it. When she agreed to back it, Olivia made her agree to let her teach, having already been certified to lead a few different classes. And of course, she made sure that she had her own office there as well.

“Great!” Linda replied excitedly. “It looks like we’re going to post some big numbers this quarter. Enrollment is up two hundred percent. We may have to hire some new staff to keep up with all the people that have signed up for coaching.”

“That’s fantastic. Just keep it up!”

“Will do.” Olivia left Linda’s office and went down the hall to her own office where she grabbed what she needed for her workout before getting to it in the state of the art gym.

After an intense two-hour workout, Olivia returned to her office, dripping with sweat, and grabbed her messages to sort through. Most of them were relatively mundane and nothing she had to deal with right away. The last message caught her eye. It was Detective Wilder, probably calling to tell her the result of Simon’s arraignment. Olivia had almost forgotten about what happened Friday night, having been living in a bit of an Alexander-induced daze.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her phone and dialed Detective Wilder’s number. She picked up after the second ring.

“Hi. It’s Libby Adler. Olivia. I’m just returning your call from yesterday evening, Detective Wilder.”

“Miss Adler. How are you doing? Is everything okay?”

“Surprisingly, yes. I had actually forgotten about Friday night until now, if you can believe that.” Olivia laughed nervously.

“Well, I’m sorry to have to be the one to reopen that wound, but Simon had his arraignment yesterday. The first thing I need to tell you is that he was issued a no-contact protective order. That means he cannot contact you in any way. If you are both at the same restaurant or bar or whatever, he is under a court order to leave immediately. You do not have to leave. You can if you want, but he is the one required to leave. He cannot approach you under any circumstances. He must stay at least fifty feet away from you at all times. If you initiate contact with him for any reason, he must walk away from you. But if I were you, I would stay far away from him. Do not call him. Do not engage him at all.”

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of ever speaking to him again,” Olivia replied, trying to hide her nervousness.

“If, for any reason, he violates this protective order, he can be charged with an additional felony on top of the other charges of criminal assault and attempted murder. If he violates it by trying to contact you, you must call me immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I do. Thank you. So what’s the next step?”

“Well, as I mentioned, Simon was arraigned on assault and attempted murder charges. The judge set his bail at a quarter of a million dollars. He had an attorney with him and someone posted his bail, other than a bail bondsman. I’m still looking into this. According to his financials, he was eligible for a public defender, so I have no idea how he is able to afford an attorney or to post bail.”

That was a little disconcerting, Olivia thought. Simon did not make a lot of money and his friends didn’t have any money that she knew of. Then again, she didn’t really know Simon that well.

“In the meantime, this case will be assigned to a district attorney who will be in touch with you. If, for some reason, Simon does not accept a plea deal, this will have to go to trial and you will probably have to testify. Do you understand this?”

“Yes, I do. I’m fine with that.” Olivia sounded braver than she felt. She was nervous just thinking about having to tell a courtroom full of people about Simon.

“Just one last word of caution. There’s something about Simon that rubs me the wrong way. He seems like a nice guy at first, but I don’t know. There’s something off about him, Miss Adler. That protective order won’t prevent him from harming you if he really wants to. It will only enhance any sentence he’s given on the assault and attempted murder charges. What I’m trying to tell you is to be very careful, at least until this is all settled.”

“I will be. Thank you for the update, Detective.” Olivia’s voice was clearly shaky now. The detective must have noticed.

“It’s my pleasure. And if you need anything, please contact me.”

With that, Olivia hung up, suddenly nervous. Detective Wilder’s warning concerned her. Why did she feel the need to go out of her way to tell her that something about Simon seemed odd? Olivia had thought the same thing before brushing it off as nothing. But now, maybe she should be worried about Simon, roaming the streets, out on bail.

Her cell phone buzzed, bringing her back from her thoughts. She giggled when she saw the picture of Runner in the dog park with two tennis balls in his mouth. She immediately began to look forward to her date that evening and nothing was going to take away the excitement of that; not even a nerve-racking warning about a potential dangerous ex-whatever loose on the streets of Boston. Olivia didn’t know what scared her more; that she was excited about seeing Alexander, or the warning Detective Wilder gave her about Simon. Both scared her to death.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Donovan, it’s Cheryl.”

“Cheryl, darling, please tell me you have some good news.”

“Well, I do. Burnham is dating this Sarah Olivia Adler. Apparently, she goes by Olivia, though. I don’t know how serious it is yet. They just met over the weekend, but you already knew that.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Martin dropped them off at the Sox game Sunday. Then took them to the North End for dinner. And later this evening, he will be taking him over to Miss Adler’s house.”

“Can you get her address for me?”

“I can do that no problem. Martin is very diligent about his travel logs.”

“Wonderful.”

“Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?”

Donovan thought for a moment and came up with a brilliant plan. “Yes. I’m going to try to spook Miss Adler. If what you’re saying is true, if Burnham is interested in her, he will insist on her having a protection detail, not wanting to take any chances. And when that happens, I want you to try to get that assignment.”

“Yes, sir.”

Donovan hung up the phone before dialing again.

“Grant. It’s Donovan here. I may have a job for you.”

A
FTER
returning home from the gym, Olivia looked at the time, wondering how it was suddenly only a few hours away from her date. She started to panic as she began to get ready, trying on practically every outfit in her closet. She was so nervous and really wanted to look good for Alexander, but nothing seemed to work.

She wanted him to like her. Hell, she wanted him to love her, and that was a strange feeling. She almost texted him to cancel no less than six times, her nerves getting the best of her. She even broke down and called Kiera to ask for advice.

“I’m going to cancel. I’m not going for oysters.” Olivia plopped down on her bed covered in the vast majority of the contents of her closet.

“Bitch, I’m going to start charging you for all the shit you put me through.”

“I know. But I have no one else to turn to.” Olivia laughed anxiously.

“Okay, so why don’t you want to go today? It’s just oysters? Right?”

“Well, yeah. It’s just oysters. But oysters lead to dinner. And dinner leads to kissing. And kissing leads to mind blowing sex. And mind blowing sex leads to marriage. And that will just end in disappointment for all involved.” She started breathing heavy. Inhale. Exhale.

“Okay, crazy. You know I love you. You got over all your issues with me, so why can’t you just let someone else in. Stop being a selfish bitch.” Kiera laughed. “This is good for you. And I swear to God, if I find out you cancel, I’m calling Dr. Greenstein!”

Kiera’s threat to call her therapist was all Olivia needed. She really didn’t want her doctor to think she was any more messed up than she already knew, considering she hadn’t seen her in over five years. “Fine. I’ll go. But I have nothing to wear.”

“Bullshit. I’ll be right over.”

Kiera arrived within the half hour and picked a gorgeous green Grecian style dress that fell right above Olivia’s knees. She paired it with a pair of gold sandals, gold bangle bracelets, and large gold hoop earrings. It was casual enough, but added a touch of dressy.

Alexander arrived promptly at seven that evening. When she opened the door, it felt as if all the oxygen was ripped from her body. The sight of him alone overwhelmed her very being as he smiled with a twinkle in his eyes, holding flowers for her. Olivia openly gawked at how good he looked in his dark jeans and light green shirt that made his eyes pop.
This is one attractive man
, she thought to herself.

Olivia was finally brought back to her senses after staring at Alexander for God knows how long. “Thank you for the flowers. Let me just put them in some water. Would you like to come in for a moment?” she asked, stepping into her foyer and allowing him to enter.

Nepenthe came up to greet Alexander, staring at him with a questioning look on his furry face. “Alexander, this is my cat, Nepenthe,” Olivia explained before walking over to the kitchen island and grabbing a vase for the flowers.

Alexander looked down at the orange long-haired cat that was walking in and out of his legs. He bent down and scratched him near his tail. Nepenthe immediately started to purr. “Nepenthe. That’s an interesting name,” he commented.

“Yeah. Well, when I brought him home with me from the shelter, it was the first night I didn’t have any nightmares for as long as I could remember. I wasn’t even going to keep him. I just brought him to my place after volunteering one day because he wasn’t feeling well and I wanted to keep an eye on him overnight. And, well, I had to keep him, especially if he kept the nightmares away.” Olivia looked down at the wildflower bouquet she was arranging into a vase.

“How did you come up with the name Nepenthe?” he asked, staring at Olivia as she carefully placed the flowers in a vase, making sure it looked perfect.

“I lived out in Big Sur for a while after I graduated college and actually bartended at a great restaurant right on the coast with amazing views. It was called Nepenthe. In Greek mythology, nepenthe is a medicine or elixir for sorrow. I guess it was the first anti-depressant pill there was. So after not having nightmares that night when he was here, he became my own elixir for sorrow. My own personal Nepenthe.” She smiled affectionately down at her cat.

Alexander just stood there, amazed by the woman in front of him. She had so many different layers. He desperately wanted to get to know each and every one of them. And to slowly become another one of her own personal nepenthes.

As Olivia sat in the car holding Alexander’s hand a few minutes later, she was glad Kiera pushed her into actually going that evening. Her heart was beating so loud in her chest, she thought it was going to bust through and walk out of the car. Why did that man have such an effect on her?

She kept hearing Dr. Greenstein’s voice in her head from all those years ago, pushing her to forge real relationships with people. She was engaged in a balancing act of self-preservation and selflessness. It was unclear which would win when it came to Alexander. Should she keep him at arm’s length to avoid the emptiness she would feel when he left her, or should she just jump, feet first, into a new relationship because maybe it’s something he needs or wants, and to hell with Olivia’s selfish thoughts of being abandoned? She was starting to walk the tightrope and it was only a matter of time to see if she made it across or fell to the depths yet again.

“You look beautiful tonight, Olivia,” Alexander said after they sat down at their table. When Olivia had opened the door earlier that evening, Alexander was stunned at the sight of her beauty. She looked like a Grecian goddess, her figure illuminated from behind by light from the setting sun streaking through her house.

“Thank you.” She blushed as she opened the menu. Alexander chose to take her to Atlantic Fish, a restaurant that wasn’t too far from Olivia’s house. It was one of his favorite spots in the city to grab oysters and a great bottle of wine. As he ordered a bottle of Far Niente chardonnay and a dozen blue point oysters, Olivia glanced around the large restaurant, the mahogany walls adorned with various nautical themed prints.

“I hope I’m not being presumptuous ordering for you.” Olivia snapped her head back to the table, her eyes meeting Alexander’s. He was a man who liked control, Olivia could tell.