Make Time For Me

Chapter 12

“Wasn’t it lovely? Aren’t they brilliant?”

Jason agreed. The twins were definitely brilliant. But he hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away from Olivia.

They said their goodbyes regretfully, but they couldn’t take any more time off. This had been difficult enough. Setting off, he could feel the sadness in Olivia, and he wanted to lift that off her.

“What can I do?”

Olivia smiled.

“It’s just how I always feel when I leave them behind. I miss them so much. I wish Daniel could come home, too, but it will be a couple more months. You will like him. He’s not as friendly as Caleb is, but he’s a lot of fun, too.”

“I’m sure he is. I’d love to meet him. Olivia, you know that I’m not asking you to meet my family because it’s not really… It’s not the same. I don’t share this with my family. It’s not because I’m not letting you in.”

Olivia smiled.

“I guess. Thanks for telling me, though. I think I might have needed to hear that.”

“Olivia. You… I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but I love you. I’m just putting it out there because it’s true. I love you.”

Olivia looked at him, wondering how he could have just said that while driving, his eyes on the road. No flowers, no music, no chocolate – no, only two days full of love and laughter with her family, and when she missed them so much that it felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, he told her that he loved her, that he was her family, too.

It was the most romantic thing ever.

“I love you, too. I really do, Jason.”

“I said there was no pressure.”

“I know. I wasn’t saying it because I didn’t want to pressure you. Or make you run.”

“I would never run away from you. Run away with you, now, that might be something I’m interested in. Why would I run away from you when I want to be with you?”

Olivia laughed when he took her hand, kissed it, and his eyes went back on the road.

“Good point.”

She managed to settle herself so that she could lean on his shoulder, even if she knew that she couldn’t stay in that position for too long. It would ruin her back.

It was the most intimate, most secure moment she had had with anybody other than her family. Because now Jason was family, too. The kind of family you chose.

Jason knew that he should tell Olivia what he had found out, of course. But she had been so happy at home with her family, and then they’d had all those nice moments on the drive back, and she had been so distracted once they got back, and…

All right, so they were all excuses. He was making excuses because he hadn’t wanted to tell her. She had stopped being on edge. She had stopped being so jumpy. He couldn’t bear to take all of that away and tell her that he was pretty sure that one of her friends was obsessed with her and if not actively trying to kill her, then at least a very real danger to her. He couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Nothing could happen when she was at the hospital, of course. He had a later shift, but by the time she got home, Ellie should already be there, so she wouldn’t be alone. Everything would be fine.

So when they met in the cafeteria to eat and joined the rest of the group, he didn’t think that anything was wrong. He didn’t expect anything to be wrong at all. So when she took his hand, squeezed it, smiled at him, and took a deep breath, he had no idea what was coming.

“Guys, I have something to tell you.”

Jason looked at her, surprised, as he might well have been. They hadn’t discussed this. But it made no sense not to tell their friends any longer. They had wanted to wait until they were sure. Well, they were about as sure as sure could get without a marriage and a mortgage, so it was time. It was time to tell them, it was time to end the secrets.

A new beginning.

There had been no more nasty notes and no more incidents. She had managed to convince herself that it hadn’t been any of her close friends. It couldn’t have been. It was somebody else. She was sure of it.

So she would tell her friends about her happiness.

They all looked at her.

“Jason and I are dating.”

There wasn’t as much surprise as she’d thought there would be.

“Damn, girl, you grabbed the finest man here, and here I was hoping he’d swing my way. Oh well, can’t say I’m surprised,” said Paul.

Olivia grinned, masking her surprise. So, her whole theory that Paul was getting obsessed with her had been completely wrong. Thank heavens she hadn’t said it out loud! It would have been the most embarrassing thing ever.

At least in the top ten.

Imagine being self-involved and paranoid enough to think that your gay friend was crushing on you! Oh, what a good thing she hadn’t opened her big mouth and said anything of the sort.

Ellie, of course, knew.

Olivia turned to Angela, and for just a split second, she thought she’d seen anger and virulent hatred on her face. But it was gone so quickly that she managed to convince herself that she had imagined that. Of course she’d imagined that. She’d just blinked wrong. Or something.

“I’m the only one who’s surprised? Well! Well, that’s wonderful! When did you ask her out, Jason?”

“You don’t think that she could’ve asked me out?”

Olivia chuckled.

“It’s been a few weeks, Angela. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but if it turned out that we were terrible together, and broke up, and you guys felt obliged to take sides because we hated each other… This was a good way to make sure that things stayed the same with us even if we did end up breaking up.”

Angela did have a funny look on her face.

“A few weeks? So all those times you said you were too busy for me, you were dating him? You were on dates with him?”

Olivia shifted uncomfortably. This was getting more awkward than she had anticipated.

“It’s not… I know, I shouldn’t make excuses. I’m sorry, Angela. I didn’t mean to lie, but I guess I did. I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

“You lied to me. You kept secrets, and that, I understand that. But you lied to me.”

Olivia almost expected Angela to storm off, but she didn’t. She just sat there, withdrawing into herself, not responding to anybody in more than monosyllables.

“It’s okay, she’ll come around. Just give her time,” said Ellie, but Olivia wasn’t sure she believed that. She had really hurt Angela. She had really messed up.

But no apologies worked. When she was paged and had to leave, she got up and walked away knowing that in trying not to cause damage, she had maybe caused worse damage than she would have otherwise.

She didn’t know how she could fix this.

But she had to try. She knew she did.

Words roared through Angela’s head.

BI*CH! SL*T! LYING WH*RE! YOU THINK YOU CAN HAVE HAPPINESS WITHOUT ME, YOU THINK YOU CAN BE WITH HIM AND LEAVEME BEHIND, I’LL SHOW YOU, I’LL SHOW YOU!!!

She kept them all inside, of course, and she kept her mask on. She was used to keeping her mask on.

She would keep it on. It wouldn’t slip.

But her control, her calculating control, that was beginning to slip, and it made her feel like she was floundering.