A Beautiful Mess

by T. K. Leigh

  Just wanted to send you something to

  brighten your day and help you forget

  about last night.

  -Yours,

  A. T. B.

  A smile crept across Olivia’s face as she read the card.

  “Who is A. T. B.?” Kiera asked, peering over Olivia’s shoulder at the card.

  “He’s the guy who kicked Simon’s ass last night,” she replied dismissively, grabbing the Willamette Valley pinot noir Kiera clutched in her hand.

  “Okay. I can tell there’s more to this story than what you’ve been telling me. I mean, look at the type of flowers he sent you!” she said, toying with the arrangement.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Why does it matter what type of flowers he sent?” Olivia grabbed a corkscrew and quickly opened the bottle of wine, needing the alcohol at that moment.

  “Libs, he sent you yellow tulips and calla lilies. Calla lilies mean beauty, and yellow tulips symbolize hopeless love,” Kiera replied with a dreamy look in her eyes.

  Olivia rolled her eyes as she handed her a glass of wine. “Please don’t read too much into the flowers. He probably just had his secretary send them or something.” They made their way into the living room, separated from her kitchen by a simple archway. Olivia loved the open floor plan of her house. It was an old brownstone house, but she had updated it with her modern and simplistic style. They sat down on the couch and Olivia turned on the television, hoping to distract her friend. “He helped me last night and just wanted to bring a smile to my face today. That’s all.”

  “So what was he like? There’s definitely something you’re not telling me based on that stupid grin on your face.”

  Olivia looked at her friend and couldn’t help it. “He’s the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on,” she blurted out.

  “Aw, Libby!” she exclaimed, hugging Olivia and nearly spilling her wine. “You’re actually attracted to someone! I didn’t think I would ever see the day this would happen!”

  “Hey! I’ve been attracted to guys before! I don’t just sleep with anyone. They’ve got to be good looking.” Olivia took a hearty sip of her wine, needing some liquid courage to get through that conversation.

  “Yeah, but it’s easy to have sex without feeling any connection to someone. Hell, that’s all you’ve ever done. And there’s a difference between finding someone good looking and finding them attractive. You can be good looking and not be attractive. Being attracted to someone isn’t just digging them on a physical level. It’s something more. It’s opening your soul to someone, letting them in. Telling them your hopes and dreams and fears. Letting them know the real you. I know you have trouble with that, Libby, but don’t you want to have that connection with someone so you know you’re not all alone in this fucked up world?”

  Olivia’s older and wiser friend definitely had a point. “He sent shivers throughout my body every time he touched me,” she gushed. “I had no idea what was going on. Maybe it was because I was just attacked by Simon and he saved me. Maybe I’ve got like Stockholm’s syndrome or something,” she joked.

  “Libs, Stockholm syndrome is when you get kidnapped and want to bone your kidnapper. You definitely don’t have Stockholm syndrome. What you’ve got is a bona-fide crush on a man!” She oozed excitement over the thought. “So tell me,” she crossed her legs, turning to face Olivia. “What happened after he kicked Simon’s ass?”

  Olivia proceeded to tell Kiera all about Alexander taking her to his office, patching up her head, calling a detective to take her statement, and then driving her home. She left out all the details about him owning the building and having a posh penthouse office, as well as a personal driver and/or badass bodyguard.

  She made a mental note to do some research on Alexander later when she had some privacy. She was intrigued to know more about him and how he could have such a successful company when he appeared so young. He seemed relatively quiet the night before, simply listening to her ramble on about her sex life. And he was so gentle when he took care of her. But then she remembered his husky voice saying, “People only have to call me Mr. Burnham in the bedroom.” It almost seemed like there were two very different sides of Alexander. Snapping out of her thoughts, she told Kiera that he left his cell phone number with the specific instructions to call if Olivia ever needed to talk.

  “Dude, you should totally call him!” Kiera shouted excitedly. She bounced up and down on the couch with an infectious smile on her face. Olivia worried that she would spill wine on the red sofa. “Come on. Do it right now so I can hear his voice, too.” She giggled.

  “I think after my last failed ‘relationship,’” Olivia said, quoting the word relationship with her fingers, “I’m off men for a bit. Maybe the whole no-strings-attached thing isn’t such a smart idea, anyway. When I don’t get to know the person, I am blind to whatever propensities they have, you know?”

  She paused for a moment and looked at Kiera who remained silent. She didn’t have to say anything. Olivia knew what she was thinking just by looking at her eyes. Kiera was happy that her friend had finally realized her approach to relationships had been anything but healthy.

  “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Olivia said, breaking the growing tension in the room. “Let’s rent a cheesy movie and drink wine, okay?”

  “Okay.” Kiera relaxed into the couch. Their food arrived a few minutes later. They watched a few chick flicks, drank a bottle of wine, and ate almost half of the Chinese feast Olivia ordered.

  At midnight, Kiera left to go home. Olivia, however, was wide-awake, having slept most of the day away. So, she did what she had wanted to do all night. She grabbed her MacBook out of her bag, powered it up, and typed “Alexander Burnham” into the search engine.

  Olivia was surprised at the magnitude of hits that were returned, her heart beating rapidly as she started to get an overall picture of the beautiful man with green eyes.

  Alexander Burnham dropped out of Harvard after a semester and joined the Navy. He eventually passed SEAL training and had been deployed on a variety of special ops around the world. After his father died five years ago, he left the Navy to take over his security company at the age of twenty-four. He was able to use his SEAL training in building his company into one of the foremost private security firms in the world.

  His firm provided security and military services across the globe. Its contractors had trained local militaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Africa and South America. In addition to training local militaries, its contractors often provided protection services for key staff members traveling abroad and domestically, as well as protection of important natural resources, such as the oil fields in the Middle East.

  Apparently, it also assisted various government and private entities in conducting certain classified operations, which Olivia deducted was a nice way of saying covert and clandestine services. Further, his company had recently expanded its services to include military aviation support, offering air support, medical evacuations, and armed air escort to any location on earth.

  In addition to its vast overseas presence, his company also provided security for a wide variety of clients on domestic soil, from dignitaries to celebrities. What caught Olivia’s eye was the amount of pro bono work his firm did, offering protection services for victims of a variety of crimes, including new identities. He had offices all over the country and abroad, although he made the Boston office his home. All that and he hadn’t even hit his thirtieth birthday. Her research showed that he was successful and compassionate at the same time. It was a unique combination of qualities that most men she came across didn’t even come close to possessing.

  Sighing, she got up from the couch and looked at the flowers he sent, reading the card again. She was about to put it back into the envelope when writing on the back of the card caught her eye.

  Please call me. Anytime.

  So he did send them himself and didn’t just have his se
cretary send them, she thought to herself. Olivia glanced at the clock in the kitchen, observing that it was after one in the morning. She debated calling him. But what would her reason have been for doing so? To thank him for sending flowers maybe? But it was late. She decided to call him the following day.

  Olivia closed her laptop and went upstairs to settle into her bed. Her mind raced thinking about Alexander Burnham. She closed her eyes and thought about what it would be like to actually have a relationship with someone who genuinely cared about her.

  She recalled all of Alexander’s accomplishments and her subconscious instantly told her that he was so far out of her league. He was beautiful and successful. And, while Olivia was attractive enough, she was still trying to figure everything out. Her past haunted her. She had trouble just making it through the day sometimes. She didn’t have anything to offer any relationship. She wouldn’t even know how to act in a relationship. With that thought, sleep enveloped Olivia.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  In the South End of Boston, a man answered his cell phone, his deep voice reverberating through the room. “Donovan.”

  “Mark, um, I mean Donovan, it’s me. Simon,” he said nervously.

  “I thought I made it rather clear that you were never to call this number. Not unless you had good news. Do you have good news?”

  “Well, no. Not really. I tried to get the information you wanted, and the bitch fought back, and, well… I’m in jail. I need a lawyer, man, and you’ve got to get me out of here.”

  “Fuck.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A BEAUTIFUL SOUND

  THE sun seeped into Alexander’s bedroom, waking him up on Sunday morning. Finally, a full night of sleep. He looked at his nightstand and glared at the envelope. “Not yet,” he said to himself. “Soon.”

  Alexander picked his cell phone off the charger and saw that it was eight in the morning. He reluctantly got out of bed and made a cup of coffee in order to prepare for his morning run. Coffee in hand, he made his way into the study to get a few e-mails out of the way before going out.

  As he sat at his desk, his thoughts were consumed by one woman. Olivia. His feelings for her confused him. He was attracted to her. That much was evident. But there was something more there. And he wasn’t sure whether it was because he desperately wanted her to be her, the girl he failed to save all those years ago, or because they connected on a deeper level. Normally, Alexander would ask her out, sleep with her, and then never see her again. But something about Olivia made him want more than just a quick fuck.

  After throwing on some running clothes, Alexander left his three-story penthouse apartment and ran toward Boston Common Park. Olivia lived right around the corner from the famous Boston landmark and he secretly hoped that she was heading out for her morning run at the same location.

  After braving the Boston streets teeming with tourists, Alexander finally reached Boston Common, inwardly detesting the hot and humid weather that early in the morning, but he had run in tougher conditions in the past. As he ran through the large park, he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman he met just a few nights before. Her eyes flashed through his memory. He smirked a little as he recalled the expression on her face during his attempts to hit on her.

  As he rounded the corner, the crystal clear lake came into view. The Swan Boats were out as tourists clambered for their turn to ride the famous boats. In the corner of his eye, he saw a woman sprinting in his direction. He stilled, flashing back to Friday night. It all seemed so familiar, but there was something different. No, this time, the woman was running for fun and not because her life depended on it. It looked like her, but surely, it couldn’t be. What were the chances?

  Alexander continued to run toward the woman. It was Olivia Adler. He couldn’t believe his luck as he full out grinned at her, hoping she would stop for a quick chat. But she was so focused that she wasn’t paying attention to anything around her, including anyone running nearby.

  “Woah! Slow down killer!” Alexander shouted, causing Olivia to stop abruptly.

  She turned around, taking her ear buds out, and searched for the source of those words. She knew instantly when she saw his eyes. Those beautiful green eyes that she had been dreaming about the past few nights.

  “Mr. Burnham, I mean Alexander,” Olivia said breathlessly, blushing when she recalled his words from the other night. “People only call me Mr. Burnham in the bedroom.” She bent down and put her hands on her knees, trying to slow down her breathing. “Sorry. I didn’t see you. I was in the zone.”

  “What zone is that? The heart attack zone? You need to be careful in this humidity,” he said in a stern voice. Olivia needed to take better care of herself, he thought. It was careless to run with such intensity in that heat and humidity. Something could have happened to her. Why did he care? He didn’t know what to make of the strange feelings he had for her.

  Olivia looked up and stared at the attractive man in front of her, taking in his beautifully sculpted biceps threatening to bust through the arms of his running shirt. Licking her lips, she imagined how he would look with his shirt off, wanting to rub her hands all over the finely defined abs she could faintly make out through his shirt.

  Alexander’s face softened with a hint of amusement, noticing her eyes traveling over his body. “You’re not from Kenya, so stop trying to run like you are.”

  Olivia laughed and it felt good. Maybe it was the nerves of being so close to Alexander again, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t remember the last time someone made her laugh like that.

  “That’s a beautiful sound,” Alexander said as Olivia straightened up, finally having caught her breath.

  “What is? A girl out of breath from trying to break the four minute mile?” She smiled as she took a sip from her water bottle.

  “No. The sound of your laughter,” he said softly. “I think it’s quickly climbing on my list of favorite sounds.” Olivia blushed at his words, dropping her gaze from his. He took a step forward, leaning down to her ear. “But I’m sure I’d enjoy the sound of you out of breath as well, just as long as it were my doing.”

  Olivia gasped, blushing again, as she turned her eyes away from him. Something about Alexander and his words made her blush like a teenager. She was normally so confident and sure of herself, but around Alexander, her stomach seemed to be all knotted up, never knowing what words were about to fall out of his sensual mouth. She found herself thinking about all the ways she wanted Alexander to make her completely breathless. She felt the possibilities were endless as her eyes roamed his body to his perfect legs.

  “See something you like, Miss Adler?” he asked with a mischievous grin on his face.

  Shit, Olivia thought. He totally caught me checking him out!

  Alexander smirked, proud of himself for catching Olivia off-guard. For someone who seemed so confident, he could tell it was all a front to keep people away.

  Avoiding his eyes and his last statement, Olivia turned, gazing at the lake. “This is one of my favorite spots in the city,” she said, taking in the Swan Boats as they floated through the park that morning. She had no idea why she felt the need to share that piece of information with him. She was desperately trying to ignore the desire that had begun to grow within her own body, particularly after his previous comments. “I couldn’t decide whether to run the Charles today or come to the Commons.”

  “Well, I’m glad you went with the latter.”

  Olivia turned to look at him and was met with a full beaming smile. There it was again. That electricity between them. After a brief moment of silence, Olivia felt that she needed to say something. “Thank you for the flowers,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her body. “I thought about calling you last night, but it was one in the morning and I didn’t want to disturb you,” she explained nervously as she stood not even a foot away from Alexander, staring into his piercing green eyes. His proximity was overwhelming.

  “I told you to call me anytime
and I meant it,” he replied softly, taking a step closer to her, their bodies almost touching. Olivia could smell him. He smelled of sweat and body wash, and a unique scent that she assumed was just him. A slight breeze ruffled through the trees, causing a few wayward curls to fall in front of her face. Alexander gently tucked a curl behind her ear and she immediately became self-conscious, not wanting him to be turned off by her flushed complexion or her sweaty body.

  Olivia had no idea why Alexander affected her as he did. She never found herself completely speechless in front of the opposite sex before in her life. But something about Alexander made all notions quickly disappear, prohibiting her from forming any rational thought. Most of her life, she had shied away from any sort of real relationship, fearful that she would be left heartbroken and alone, but there was something about the man in front of her that made her want to get to know him better. And there was part of her that felt as if she already did.

  “Well, I should finish my run,” Olivia said, breaking her gaze from his eyes and taking a step back, hopelessly wanting to keep her distance from Alexander. “I’m planning to head to Beer Works later for the game,” she explained.

  “Oh? You’re going to the game today?” Alexander piqued up. This was turning into a golden opportunity for him.

  “I hadn’t planned to. I just love the atmosphere by Fenway on game day. And I love the watermelon ale at Beer Works, so it’s a win-win, if you ask me.” Olivia took another drink of water.

  “Well, I have Red Sox season tickets. If you want to watch the game, I can take you with me. I was going to take my brother, but he can go next time.”