A Beautiful Mess (19 page)

“Olivia, this is Arnold and Chase. They’ll be rewiring your house for this system. It may take a few hours. Just let them know if you have any concerns. When they’re done, they’ll walk you through how to program and use it. They’re also going to change your front door so that it’s a punch-pad lock instead of a key. It’s more secure.” Mr. Businessman was back. The dichotomy of his sweet side and his business side intrigued Olivia.

The two men entered the house and started to do what they needed in order to secure her home. Alexander looked down on Olivia and grabbed her hand, placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “I have to return to the office, Love. Carter is still out front should you need anything. What are you doing tonight? Any plans?”

“Actually, yes. And I’ll take Carter with me, I promise. It’s Thursday. Kiera usually drags me to Open Mic night at a bar in Davis Square called Johnny D's. It’s a pretty good time.”

“Ah, I’ve been there. Good bar. Great blues brunch on Sundays.” His phone started buzzing. “One minute,” he said to Olivia. He pushed the button on his phone, answering it. “Tyler. What’s up?” He looked at Olivia and mouthed “brother” to her. She nodded and mouthed “okay” back to him.

“Yeah… After the meeting… I’m heading down afterwards… Okay… Hey listen, Ty, I have to go. I’m at my girlfriend’s… Yes, you heard me… We’ll talk about it later.”

Holy crap! He called me his girlfriend!
Olivia thought. Normally that would cause her to break out in hives, but the way the word rolled off his tongue did things to her. It made her burn for him.

Alexander hung up with his brother and dragged Olivia back into his arms, planting a kiss on her forehead. “I hope you don’t mind that I called you my girlfriend, Love.”

She gazed up into his eyes. “No. Actually, it made me a little wet when you said that. I’m not going to lie.”

He groaned and gave her a quick kiss. “On that note, sadly, I must leave you. I’ll see you soon, angel.” He walked out the front door, leaving Olivia feeling wonderful.

She collapsed on the couch, squealing. One of the installation men looked at her. Olivia thought it was Arnold. “I have a boyfriend!” she explained excitedly. He just looked at her and laughed.

“Oh my god! I need to call Kiera!” Olivia jumped off the couch and ran upstairs to her study.

“OHMIGOD! OHMIGOD! OHMIGOD!” Kiera shouted into the phone when Olivia told her the good news. For being over thirty, Kiera sometimes failed to act a day over fifteen, especially when it came to the opposite sex.

“I know! And I let him stay over last night! I actually asked him to!”

“Holy crap. Where is my friend Olivia, and what have you done with her?”

“I know. I feel like I’m thirteen. Is this the honeymoon phase everyone always talks about?”

“Yes!” Kiera replied. “It is. And isn’t it great?”

“Kiera, I feel like I’m on cloud nine. I’m happy. I’m smiling. He’s all I can think about. For once, I’m not thinking about my past. All I’m thinking about is my future and how he could be a part of that.”

“Aww, Libs! I’m so happy for you!”

“But what happens when the honeymoon is over? What happens when I don’t feel like this anymore?” Olivia worried that she would become obsessed with that feeling and would be heartbroken if she didn’t feel it anymore.

“Libby, when you’re with the right person, the feeling will never go away. You will always have that person on your mind. You’ll always miss them when they’re not around. You’ll always have this extraordinary excitement when you are together. That’s how you know it’s meant to be. And any relationship where you don’t have that is not worth your time.”

Olivia took Kiera’s words to heart as she went through the rest of her day. The security system installation was finished by five that evening. Chase quickly walked her through everything, helping her set a code. They also set up the keyless entry. Olivia was thrilled to not have to lug her keys around anymore.

After getting back from the gym, she took a quick shower before Kiera was expected at her house to head to Open Mic.

“What the fuck is this?” Kiera asked when Olivia answered the door.

“Alexander put in a new system. He wanted me to feel safer. And Carter has to drive us to the bar tonight. Don’t worry about the door and the alarm. I’ll give you the code, but so help me God, if you set off the alarm and I have to deal with a panicky Alexander, I will murder you in your sleep. And I’ll tell Mo that you have crabs.” Olivia joked, grabbing her guitar case.

“You do that and I’ll cut a bitch.” The two girls laughed. “Bye Nepenthe,” Kiera said to the cat as he stalked the front door. “Your cat hates me,” she remarked while Olivia armed the security system.

“Nepenthe doesn’t hate anyone. He just has murder in his heart is all.”

“I’
LL
be here keeping an eye on things, ma’am,” Carter said when he escorted Olivia and Kiera inside Johnny D's. He motioned to a table near the door where he would have a view of the entire club. To the right of the door was the bar area with a few high top tables bordering the wall. To the left was a small dining area with a stage.

“Okay. Thanks Carter,” Olivia said, walking toward the dining room area and up to the small front table. She added her name to the list. Open Mic night was getting started and there were already about ten people on the list. She figured it would be about an hour or so before she would go on.

“Hey, Livvy!” Mo said as he and Marcus made their way over to her and Kiera’s table.

“Hey, Mo!” Olivia said, standing up and giving both guys a hug. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”

Mo met Kiera’s eyes and they shared a look as if Mo finally realized Kiera was attractive.

“Oh, I get it,” Olivia smirked, elbowing Mo.

Marcus and Mo pulled up two chairs and joined Olivia’s table.

“So, what are you going to do tonight?” Kiera asked as a server approached their table with their drink order.

“Well, actually, now that Mo’s here, I think I may want to switch it up, if you’re willing to back me up on percussion. Remember the song we were fooling around with last night?”

Mo nodded, his smile wide.

“That’s the one, then,” Olivia said.

“Sweet,” Kiera said, taking a sip of her cocktail.

~~~~~~~~~~

Across town, Alexander finally finished his meeting with his training strategist. Looking at his watch, he saw that it was half past eight. He rushed out the front door of his office building and climbed into the waiting SUV.

“Good evening, sir. Off to home then?”

“Actually, Martin. Let’s make a quick detour. How fast can you get me to Johnny D's in Davis Square?”

“I can be there in fifteen minutes, tops.”

“I’ll give you five thousand if you can get there in ten.”

Martin laughed. “Yes, sir.” He peeled into traffic, heading toward Davis Square.

Less than ten minutes later, Martin pulled in front of Johnny D's and Alexander ran inside.

Carter saw him almost immediately and stood up from his chair. “Sir, is everything alright?”

“Carter, pretend I’m not even here please. Just go on with what you were doing and I’ll be over at the bar. If Miss Adler or Miss Murphy gets up from their table, please intercept them and get their drinks for them.”

“Yes, sir. Oh, and just so you know, she hasn’t performed yet.”

He smiled. “Thank you, Carter.”

Alexander walked over to the bar and sat at a stool that hid him from most of the crowd sitting in the lower dining area that housed the stage. He still had a great view of the actual stage and that was all he cared about.

“Let’s all give it up for the lovely Laura!” the M.C. shouted into the microphone. The crowd’s response was mediocre at best, although Olivia cheered enthusiastically. She knew how difficult it was for anyone to get up on the stage and pour their hearts out to the audience. And anyone who had the courage to even get on that stage deserved an enthusiastic response.

“Next up. Well, looky here. Miss Olivia Adler has graced us with her presence! Libby get your cute butt up here!”

Alexander shot daggers at the M.C., a decent looking guy in his mid-thirties with a shaved head and a short beard. That cute butt belonged to Alexander. The thought of anyone else commenting on it made him wild with rage. He had never felt so possessive before and it was a strange feeling.

Olivia walked up to the stage, carrying her guitar and waving to the crowd as she made her way through the room. Alexander smiled as he took in her appearance. She kept her long dark hair straight and chose to wear a tight yellow halter tank with a pair of dark jeans and giraffe print heels. She looked hot. A guy followed her on stage and sat behind a set of congas. He was about the same height as Olivia and had very similar features. If Alexander didn’t know better, he would have thought they were related.

She sat down at a chair positioned center stage and adjusted her microphone as she checked the tuning on her acoustic guitar.

“How’s everyone doing?”

The crowd cheered.

“Awesome. Well, I’ve brought some backup with me today. My good friend Mo, oops, I mean Jack Distanzio, is going to help me out. Incidentally, his band,
Groove Delay
, is performing tomorrow night at MacFadden’s in the Financial District, so come on by. And I’ll be doing a few songs with them as well.” The audience clapped. “This is
Sleeping to Dream
by Jason Mraz.”

Alexander was transfixed on the woman holding the guitar and interacting with relative ease with the audience. It brought back so many memories of all those years ago.

And then she started playing, plucking at the guitar strings, a sweet melody amplified through the bar. As she sang, Alexander looked over the large audience sitting captivated by the woman on the stage. Her normally strong voice sounded sweet and light, matching the mood of the song.

Alexander listened to the lyrics of the song; a song he had heard many times before but had never paid much attention to. He absently wondered whether Olivia had realized that the boy she saw in her dreams was him. Whether she knew that he pulled her out of that car. Whether she knew that he swore he would always protect her. And whether she knew that he let her down.

Olivia and the guy playing the congas, Mo, as she introduced him on stage, were good together. It was clear they had been playing together for a while. When they reached the bridge, the back and forth between Olivia and Mo mesmerized Alexander. Olivia belted out the words leading to the final chorus, the audience cheering wildly as her strong voice hit a high note, the sound filling the bar and sending shivers through Alexander’s body. She was good, he thought to himself. She looked so at ease in front of the large crowd.

He thought back to all those years ago, spending time with Olivia and her family and learning how to play piano and guitar from her mother, who would always sit in the great room at their beach house, playing for the kids. Olivia loved having the spotlight back then, singing and dancing to a pretend audience that consisted of mostly stuffed animals. And there she was, performing to a real audience. Alexander’s heart swelled with pride.

The song ended and the crowd cheered. Alexander sat at the bar, clapping loudly for the girl on stage. The girl he knew all those years ago. The girl he loved all those years ago. The girl he never stopped loving. And the girl he was falling back in love with all over again.

“Thank you,” Olivia said, walking off the stage and back to her table, the thunderous applause still going strong throughout the entire bar.

Alexander paid his tab, trying to get out before he was caught.

“Miss Olivia Adler everyone!” the M.C. shouted. The crowd went crazy. “Hey, Libs. How about one more? Have anything else ready?”

Olivia stared at the M.C., thinking about what she could possibly pull out of her hat. She conferred briefly with Mo before they both walked back to the stage. The crowd erupted in cheers again.

She sat down in the same chair, still holding her guitar. Pulling up a seat next to her, Mo took his guitar out of its case and checked the tuning. He nodded to her when he was all set.

“Okay. Here’s one we’ll be doing tomorrow night, so make sure you come and see it when it’s the full band. It’s a new one,” she said into the microphone, smiling. “There’s this guy that’s kind of captured my heart these past few days and this song says it for me right now. This is
Brighter than the Sun
by Colbie Calait.” Olivia glanced at Mo and he counted them off. Alexander stood motionless, not wanting to miss a minute of her performance. She was singing that song for him, although she didn’t know he was even there. Maybe that was a good thing.

Olivia and Mo sat next to each other, strumming their guitars in near perfect unison. The crowd was getting into their performance, many people standing up from their tables and dancing along to the upbeat song. Olivia had heard it at the gym earlier in the week as she worked out. She immediately downloaded the song and listened to it repeatedly. She couldn’t help but to think of Alexander as she listened to the lyrics.

She had never expected to meet someone like Alexander. Olivia thought she would go through life having one short-term pseudo-relationship after another, never wanting to get close to anyone. But now, she wanted to have that. She remembered her mama telling her when she was a little girl that she would know when she was with the right person by the constant butterflies. Now, all these years later, Olivia wanted those butterflies. And she had them.

Alexander watched Olivia perform, thinking how perfect the song was. She was captivating, her enthusiasm contagious.
I’ve never felt this way before either, Olibia
, he thought to himself as she sang.

Olivia and Mo finished the song to roaring applause.

“Thanks everyone. See you all next week! And please come see us tomorrow night at MacFaddens!” Olivia jumped off the stage to her friend who gave her a massive hug.