A Beautiful Mess

by T. K. Leigh

  Olivia: Maybe. You’ll find out tomorrow.

  Alexander: I’ll wait with bated breath. Have a wonderful evening, Miss Adler.

  Olivia: You as well, Mr. Burnham.

  Alexander enjoyed their text flirting, so he sent one last text before heading to the gym for his evening workout.

  Alexander: I’ll see you in my dreams.

  Alexander left his penthouse, wondering if Olivia could even know how true that line actually was. If Olivia really was the girl from Alexander’s past, he had been seeing her in his dreams.

  He returned from the gym late that evening and spent several hours in his very own music room. Olivia would drool over his set up, he thought to himself. He made a mental note to invite her over in the near future, grinning at the thought of Olivia giving him his very own private performance. He stepped over to his Steinway baby grand and checked the tuning on one of his guitars. After tweaking the strings a bit, he sat down to play Damien Rice’s The Blower’s Daughter.

  He played through the song, relishing the last verse, thinking of Olivia because he couldn’t get her out of his mind. And he wasn’t sure he wanted her out of his mind either.

  He played and sang for several hours that evening, wondering if he and Olivia were inspired to play music by the same person. He hoped they weren’t and that all the similarities were just coincidences. But those coincidences had become too overwhelming for Alexander to ignore anymore. Still, he continued to ignore that envelope containing the letter.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Olivia woke with a jerk after having fallen asleep on the couch. She had that dream again. She saw the boy with those green eyes. Why was she seeing those eyes after years and years of having that dream? Why was it suddenly different now?

  She sat up on her couch and Nepenthe stretched, giving her a look like he was ready to murder Olivia for disturbing his precious sleep. She shut off all the lights and climbed up the stairs to her bedroom. Sleep found her again quickly.

  The sun woke her the following morning as it filtered through the bedroom windows. She began to stir and Nepenthe started to swat her face, his majesty’s indication that he needed more food. Olivia checked the time and saw that it was a little after seven. Rubbing her eyes, she descended the steps to feed her needy cat.

  Throughout her day, she kept thinking about Alexander and their date that evening. The day dragged mercilessly for Olivia, who found herself extremely nervous. Five minutes felt like an eternity. She had nothing on her schedule, but she tried to keep herself occupied. She caught up on her e-mails, spoke to her financial advisor, and called her shrink to schedule an appointment for later in the week.

  Finally, she decided it was useless to sit at home all day waiting for the clock to strike seven. Olivia grabbed her bag and headed to the wellness center to get in a workout and review some paperwork.

  “Libby! How was your weekend?” Jerry exclaimed when he saw Olivia enter the building.

  “Great, thanks. Relatively uneventful, but that’s how I like my weekends,” Olivia lied as she pushed the call button for the elevator.

  “Olivia, this is Richard. He’s training to be the new night security guard. And I’ve got a few more guys I’m training later this week who will be taking the weekend shifts. We’ll now have security here twenty-four seven. Apparently there was an incident over the weekend and the big boss man figured full-time security would be better.” Jerry sat at his security desk surrounded by closed-circuit TVs, apparently going over an employee manual with Richard.

  “Hi, Richard. Nice to meet you.” Olivia shook the new night security guard’s hand, smiling to herself, knowing she was the reason for the added security.

  “I saw you on TV Sunday,” Jerry said, making small talk. “I was watching the Sox game. You had great seats.” Olivia blushed. Did everyone see her on TV? She needed to rethink ever going to another game with Alexander if she was going to be seen across the nation. “It’s nice to see Mr. Burnham out with someone as sweet as you.”

  Olivia was shocked. She didn’t know how to reply to that. Alexander was obviously Jerry’s boss. He owned the building, after all. Thankfully the elevator car arrived and she was spared having to talk to Jerry about her non-relationship with one Mr. Alexander Burnham. Or about his sexy bedroom voice telling her how he wanted her mouth all over his body. Or about the way he constantly caught her checking out his body, making her entire being alive with electricity.

  The feelings she was beginning to have for Alexander scared her. She still hadn’t quite worked out a few of her issues with her shrink. Granted, Olivia wasn’t the most devoted patient. She had been in some form of therapy as long as she could remember. When she was younger, she thought it was normal to go talk to someone every week about her parents and how they were taken from her. Therapy never really worked, though. She never coped with her parents’ deaths.

  When she moved to Boston, her Uncle Charles insisted that she see his therapist, Dr. Greenstein. She helped her uncle cope with Olivia’s parents’ deaths, apparently. While in college, Olivia made some headway, finally being able to form bonds with certain people in her life without the fear of them being taken away. Music became a healthy coping mechanism for her. Music was always her coping mechanism.

  When Olivia’s uncle was killed, she panicked. The only family she had left was taken from her again, or so she thought. Instead of dealing with the pain of losing anyone else she was close to, Olivia fled Boston. She moved from city to city for the next several years, not staying in one place for more than a month at a time.

  During that time, she no longer played music. Sex and alcohol became her coping mechanisms. And to some extent, they still were.

  When Olivia returned to Boston, she had no intention of staying. One night when Olivia was out at a random bar looking for someone to hook up with, she ran into Kiera. When she saw the hurt look on her face, Olivia finally realized how selfish she had been, pushing people away for fear of losing them.

  After reconnecting with Kiera, Olivia decided it was time to lay down roots somewhere and Boston was the only place she had anything close to family. Within a month of returning to Boston, she bought a house. Kiera had a friend of a friend who was looking for investors for a startup and, after running it by her financial advisor, Olivia became a partner in the wellness center. It had only been open for six months but was already quite successful and popular in Boston.

  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.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  NEPENTHE

  AFTER 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.