Chapter 43 - Olivia
O livia woke up in her bed next to Ms. Darcy and an empty bowl. Her mom must have somehow gotten her into her jammies. A glass of water and two ibuprofen were on the nightstand.
The memories of the night before started to crystallize in her mind. Had Aiden and his siblings sung NSYNC in front of the entire bar? It made her cringe all over, which made her head ache and her nausea more acute. When she peeled back the layer of embarrassment blanketing the entire scene, she remembered Aiden on his knees, asking her to take him back.
Could she? Even if they started over, nothing else had changed. He still had a career in Saint Paul, and Olivia was all but committed to taking on her dad's ‘legacy.’
What was the point of getting back together just to get hurt all over again when distance and logistics would inevitably kill their relationship anyway ?
Hangovers impacted Olivia on an emotional level. She had a theory that drinking used up twice her allotted happiness budget, so her misery the next day was like paying off a debt.
Olivia got up, took care of Ms. Darcy, made some coffee, and crawled back into bed. She opened her phone and turned on a movie, too deep in self-pity to bother opening her laptop. Some people had hangover meals, but Olivia had hangover movies, and her favorite was a relatively old French movie called Amélie. Something about being forced to read the subtitles helped her drift in and out of sleep.
Olivia eventually felt normal enough to shower and get dressed. She made a halfhearted attempt to tidy her house and wash the dishes, but she was moving at a snail's pace. An hour later, she was once again in a prone position when she got a call from Aiden.
She swiped her thumb across her phone to accept it, and her voice came out rusty. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Aiden said, sounding tentative. “I’m hoping I can come over so we can talk, but I wanted to call first.”
“Okay, yeah. I'm home.”
“Oh, good, ’cause I'm at the end of your driveway,” he admitted. “Change is incremental, right?”
Olivia let herself chuckle at his admission and walked out to the porch to greet him.