A Woman Undone: Part 60/?
Hi Everybody! So after the various death threats, "NOOOOO's!", "OMG's", and the like, I figured I'd better get to it and write the next update. However, my get to it-ness wasn't really kicking into gear, which is why this part took a bit longer to post. I think it's an interesting part - a lot going on - so I hope you enjoy it. I hope everyone had a nice weekend and a good Monday. Talk to ya later!
Part 60
Olivia slowly turned around, adjusting the expression on her face to confront Richard with as much confidence and ignorance as she could.
“You thought I didn’t know?” he asked her with a cocky smile. “Alex told me. How long?”
“How long what?” she asked, careful not to give anything away as she felt her head start to buzz and her legs go numb.
“How long have you been fucking my fiancée?”
Olivia couldn’t help but let her jaw drop at his bluntness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she managed to answer.
“Oh c’mon Ms. Benson. You think I’m so dense that I wouldn’t figure it out? That I’m some clueless piece of shit with no brain?”
“Yes.”
“Olivia?” Richard asked her with a confused but curious look on his face.
Suddenly the noise of the restaurant returned, and the room stopped spinning long enough for Olivia to be brought out of her hypnotic and paralyzed state.
“I’m sorry, what’d you say?” she asked, shaking her head, trying to get rid of the horrible conversation she had just been imagining.
“I asked how long Alex going to be staying with you?”
Olivia discretely let out a sigh of relief as she walked back over to the bar and set her bag down on the stool. Richard’s earlier jovial mood had turned forlorn as he motioned to the bartender that he’d like another drink. Feeling a strange sense of obligation to talk to him beyond just answering his question, Olivia sat down where she’d been before.
“I honestly don’t know how long Alex is going to stay at my place,” she said, choosing her words very carefully.
“She was with you last night?” Richard asked even though he already knew that she was.
“Yeah,” Olivia answered quietly.
“How is she?”
“What?”
“Alex, you know, how’s she doing?” Richard asked with a sudden interest in picking Olivia’s brain a little bit while he had her there.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she responded with a puzzled and nervous expression on her face.
“You’re her friend, right?” he said. “I mean you work together, I’m sure you two are friends, so…” He took a long pause. “Do you think she’s happy?” he finally asked with hope apparent in his voice.
“I don’t know if I’m the right person to be asking that question,” Olivia answered honestly. It was true - in more ways than one. How could she possibly sit there and answer questions like that about the woman she loved? How could she possibly tell Richard anything about Alex’s feelings, her true feelings? Should she lie? Should she tell the truth? Should she stay silent? What should she do? What could she do?
“You know it’s strange,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know you that well, but it’s like you’re my one link to her little world that she’s got going on now.”
“I’m not exactly a very reliable link,” Olivia said, trying to find some way to prevent this conversation from going any further.
“Well, apparently you are,” he said, turning his head towards her and lifting his chin up a notch. “She’s staying with you, after all.”
“That doesn’t mean…”
“What, that you two are friends?” he asked hotly, cutting her off.
“No,” Olivia said, putting a quick stop to his rudeness as she continued with what it was she was going to say. “Alex staying with me for a few nights doesn’t mean that I’m the best person to be asking questions regarding her happiness. Just because I share my couch with her doesn’t mean that she shares her secrets with me.”
Richard stared into his glass and was silent for several seconds. Olivia didn’t know whether they were done talking, if she should leave, what she should do, so she just sat there and watched a miserable man sink further and further into the alcohol of his glass.
“I’ve seen her changing over the past few months,” he suddenly said, still looking at his drink. “She’s…changed.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Olivia asked wondering what he meant by that.
“No, no it’s not a bad thing,” he answered, “Just as long as the reason why she’s changing isn’t a bad thing.”
“What makes you think she’s changed?”
Richard let out a small laugh as he swallowed the rest of his drink and set the glass on the bar before asking the bartender for another one. Twirling the empty glass in his fingers, he began talking to Olivia like she was his closest friend. She attributed it to the alcohol, but nonetheless, she was rather intrigued by this sudden opportunity to see Alex from Richard’s point of view and to see Richard as a person, and not as an opponent, either in work or in her personal life.
“Alex has always been a very independent woman,” he started. “She’s never needed a man or anyone to take care of her, and maybe that’s still true, but when I came along it was different - like she needed me. Whether for psychological or social reasons or whatever it might have been, she needed me for something. We were good together, a match, balanced each other out, played off each other. And now…” he sighed, shaking his head, “She’s changed. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. If she’s growing, that’s great, but it’s one thing to grow with someone. It’s a whole other thing to grow and leave that someone behind.”
“You think she’s leaving you behind?” Olivia asked, trying her best to be consoling to a man she despised. In all honesty, she thought his outreach to her was rather unappealing and unattractive, but in an effort to conceal her own secrets, she masked her disgust and listened to him.
“I think she’s changed,” he said once again. “Her goals have changed, her attitude, her mindset. That ‘go get ‘em’ resolve that she used to have has been replaced by something else.”
“She’s still passionate about her job, Richard. That hasn’t changed.”
“It’s not the passion for her job that I’m worried about,” he said sternly as he turned to look at Olivia directly in the eyes.
“What is it that you’re worried about then?” she asked trying to hide her timidity.
Richard didn’t answer right away, only breaking eye contact with her for a brief second when the bartender served him his drink. “You know Alex had an affair?” he asked her. “I told her to break it off, and I thought she did, as far as I knew.”
How did Richard know that Alex had an affair? Did she tell him? Did she tell him with whom? Those were the questions that Olivia wanted to ask him, but knew that she couldn’t. Obviously Richard had no idea that the affair was with her, but the very mention of it made Olivia very curious as to what it was that he actually knew. Shoving those thoughts and questions aside, she focused on the conversation at hand. “If she broke it off, then what’s the problem now?” she asked casually.
“Is she still having an affair, detective?” Richard asked frankly, staring directly into her eyes.
Olivia was startled by the use of his chosen salutation, and she was afraid that it showed clearly on her face. Luckily, though, she was able to recover quickly, having been used to surprises being thrown her way in her line of work, though never about something like what they were discussing. “How would I know that?” she asked with a perfectly straight face.
Richard shook his head but didn’t answer her question. Even though Olivia didn’t know him, this dejected side of him was something she never thought existed in him, let alone be something that she would see firsthand. From the brief moments that she’d spent with him and from seeing him through Alex’s eyes, she thought he was an impenetrable asshole - a dick, to be quite frank. But as Olivia watched him sitting there, knowing that all certainties he ever had about Alex were quickly becoming uncertainties, she actually felt a tinge of pity for him. He loved her. She hated admitting that, but she knew he did, in his own strange way. Despite their differences, she understood what he was feeling. Olivia was no stranger to loving someone and wanting someone when they didn’t want her in the same way. It’s what had hardened her to romance and relationships in the first place…
“I want to give you the world,” she told Olivia as they laid their heads next to one another on the pillow. “You deserve the world.” Olivia closed her eyes as a gentle kiss was placed on her parted lips - a kiss that she’d carry with her for years to come.
Jessica Bliss was the first woman Olivia Benson had ever loved. And she loved her fiercely. The passion between them was one that romantic poets only wished they could write about. Olivia wanted to be her everything, and Jessica wanted the same. But Olivia was young. And Jessica was taken. But the two of them together made more sense to Olivia than anything ever had before. Everything felt so right when she was with her. Nothing else mattered except the touch of her hands, the feel of her skin, the taste of her lips, the beating of their hearts, the warmth of their words, the promises of their future. All that mattered was that Olivia loved her, and she believed that Jessica felt the same way..
“I told her to leave,” she said to Olivia. “I told her I couldn’t be with her anymore, that too many things had changed and that they’d never be the same again.”
“What does that mean?” Olivia asked her, afraid of being too hopeful.
“What does it mean? Silly, it means that I want to be with you,” Jessica said with a big smile on her sweet face. “It means that if you’ll have me, we’ll be together. I’ve never loved someone the way I love you, Olivia. How could I deny it anymore? How could I deny you anymore?”
“Be with me,” Olivia whispered as she clutched the woman in front of her and drew her in for a deep, passionate kiss. “Be with me.”
They made love that night in the perfect world of their existence. And again, all that mattered was that Olivia loved her, and she believed that Jessica loved her too. But then that world came collapsing down around them, and every certainty she ever had about Jessica quickly became uncertainties, quickly became lies, and quickly became painful truths.
“I slept with her last night,” Jessica admitted.
“What?” Olivia asked, feeling her heart being torn out of her chest.
“We slept together,” Jessica repeated. “I don’t know, it just…happened. We were talking and…there’s still a connection there.”
“Do you still love her?” Olivia asked, feeling sick to her stomach at the answer she knew would be.
“Yes.”
“Do you still want to be with her?”
“A part of me does, yes.”
That was all Olivia needed to hear. She quickly stood up from her couch and stormed into the kitchen. Grabbing a glass and the bottle of scotch from on top of her refrigerator, she raced to pour herself a drink but stopped before any of the liquid hit the bottom of the cup. Jessica followed her there and watched her in her frenzy, knowing she was breaking her heart but not knowing how to make it any better.
“I still love you,” she said as Olivia stood at the counter with her back to her. “I still love you very much.”
“Don’t,” Olivia said sharply as she turned around, daggers in her eyes pointing through her tears. “Don’t.”
“I’m sorry, I…”
Olivia put up her hand and shook her head to stop her from saying anything more. “Get out,” she ordered.
“What?”
“Get. Out. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
And she didn’t.
Olivia closed her eyes for a brief second as she remembered that painful night. She could still hear the sound of the glass crashing against the wall, the one she’d thrown across her kitchen after Jessica had left. The sight of the shards flying everywhere, the piercing noise it made ringing through her apartment, made Olivia shake her head and open her eyes to see Richard still sitting in front of her. Nothing had been said between them for what seemed like ages, but was really only a matter of seconds.
“I know I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life,” Richard suddenly spoke, “But Alex is like the one good thing I have to my name.”
“She’s not a piece of property, Richard,” Olivia answered, awoken from her not so blissful state of mind.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” he tried to explain. “She’s the one thing in my life that I know I can be proud of. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” Olivia answered quietly. It made perfect sense to her. It made perfect sense because she felt the exact same way. Alex was the one thing in her own life that she felt was right and good and beautiful. Everything else paled in comparison. It made perfect sense to her that Richard would love Alex as she did, even if their ways of showing it were completely different.
“I just…I know something is different, and I don’t know what it is,” he said, the frustration building in his voice. “She never used to have secrets from me, and now, here I am talking to you, someone I barely know, trying to figure them out. Pretty pathetic, huh?”
Olivia shook her head. “No, it’s not pathetic. It’s not what I would do, but…”
“What would you do?” he asked before she could finish her sentence.
“What?”
“If you were me, if you were in my position, what would you do?”
“Why are you asking me that?” Olivia wanted to know.
“Because Alex has spoken very highly of you, and…you know her,” he said after a pause. “You two seem pretty close.”
“What makes you so sure that we’re as close as you think?” she asked.
“Because Alex wouldn’t talk about you so much if you weren’t,” he snapped.
Olivia jerked her head up at his suddenly irritated voice, but decided not to get defensive. “Alex is my friend, yes,” she said calmly, “But I don’t know if she has any secrets, and I don’t know if she would tell me even if she did.”
“And I’m sure you wouldn’t tell me if she told you something,” Richard replied dryly.
“No, probably not,” she answered quietly.
Richard nodded his head and smiled at her. “She’s got a good friend in you, someone who’d die to protect it her,” he said with a laugh, one that made it hard for Olivia to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. When she didn’t respond, he looked past her at the bag sitting on the stool next to her. “I should probably let you go before your food gets cold.”
Olivia looked beside her at the wrapped-up food, almost having forgotten it was there, and then back at Richard. “Like I said before, I don’t think I’m the right person to be asking these questions to,” she said as she stood up from her seat and grabbed her belongings.
“Neither is Alex.”
Olivia stopped at his words, seeing the confusion and defeat on his face. She hated to give him advice. She hated to tell him anything that would make him a better person in Alex’s eyes. She hated to hear him talk about her the way that he was, and she felt the need to defend her. “She’s a better person than that, Richard. She deserves more credit than that,” she said before turning to walk away.
“Detective,” he called as he laid a few bills down on the bar and walked towards her, “You should really give Robin a call.”
“What?” Olivia asked, surprised at the sudden mention of the name.
“Give Robin a call. I think you two could really hit it off if you weren’t…”
“If I weren’t what?” she said sharply as she squared her shoulders to meet him.
“Look, you’re not the only one who’s protective of Alex. I’ll always be the first one to go to bat for her.” He paused and took a step closer to her so that they were toe to toe. “Don’t make things any more confusing for her than they already are. Do you get my drift?” he asked with raised eyebrows and a serious look on his face. “Give Robin a call.”
Richard patted her on the shoulder and walked past her out the door. Olivia shivered at his touch, feeling like she had to burn her jacket now because he came into contact with it. She couldn’t help but hate him now more than ever. True, her emotions had been played a little bit when he was lamenting to her, but her pity was short lived, and now he actually gave her the creeps. She knew that she didn’t like him when she first met him, but she figured it was just because he was with Alex and it was her jealousy influencing her perception of him. And when she found out about his past involving Tommy, she disliked him even more. But now for the first time, she was actually afraid of him, and not for her sake. She knew that if the time ever came, she could handle him just fine. She was afraid for Alex.
Part 60
Olivia slowly turned around, adjusting the expression on her face to confront Richard with as much confidence and ignorance as she could.
“You thought I didn’t know?” he asked her with a cocky smile. “Alex told me. How long?”
“How long what?” she asked, careful not to give anything away as she felt her head start to buzz and her legs go numb.
“How long have you been fucking my fiancée?”
Olivia couldn’t help but let her jaw drop at his bluntness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she managed to answer.
“Oh c’mon Ms. Benson. You think I’m so dense that I wouldn’t figure it out? That I’m some clueless piece of shit with no brain?”
“Yes.”
“Olivia?” Richard asked her with a confused but curious look on his face.
Suddenly the noise of the restaurant returned, and the room stopped spinning long enough for Olivia to be brought out of her hypnotic and paralyzed state.
“I’m sorry, what’d you say?” she asked, shaking her head, trying to get rid of the horrible conversation she had just been imagining.
“I asked how long Alex going to be staying with you?”
Olivia discretely let out a sigh of relief as she walked back over to the bar and set her bag down on the stool. Richard’s earlier jovial mood had turned forlorn as he motioned to the bartender that he’d like another drink. Feeling a strange sense of obligation to talk to him beyond just answering his question, Olivia sat down where she’d been before.
“I honestly don’t know how long Alex is going to stay at my place,” she said, choosing her words very carefully.
“She was with you last night?” Richard asked even though he already knew that she was.
“Yeah,” Olivia answered quietly.
“How is she?”
“What?”
“Alex, you know, how’s she doing?” Richard asked with a sudden interest in picking Olivia’s brain a little bit while he had her there.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she responded with a puzzled and nervous expression on her face.
“You’re her friend, right?” he said. “I mean you work together, I’m sure you two are friends, so…” He took a long pause. “Do you think she’s happy?” he finally asked with hope apparent in his voice.
“I don’t know if I’m the right person to be asking that question,” Olivia answered honestly. It was true - in more ways than one. How could she possibly sit there and answer questions like that about the woman she loved? How could she possibly tell Richard anything about Alex’s feelings, her true feelings? Should she lie? Should she tell the truth? Should she stay silent? What should she do? What could she do?
“You know it’s strange,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know you that well, but it’s like you’re my one link to her little world that she’s got going on now.”
“I’m not exactly a very reliable link,” Olivia said, trying to find some way to prevent this conversation from going any further.
“Well, apparently you are,” he said, turning his head towards her and lifting his chin up a notch. “She’s staying with you, after all.”
“That doesn’t mean…”
“What, that you two are friends?” he asked hotly, cutting her off.
“No,” Olivia said, putting a quick stop to his rudeness as she continued with what it was she was going to say. “Alex staying with me for a few nights doesn’t mean that I’m the best person to be asking questions regarding her happiness. Just because I share my couch with her doesn’t mean that she shares her secrets with me.”
Richard stared into his glass and was silent for several seconds. Olivia didn’t know whether they were done talking, if she should leave, what she should do, so she just sat there and watched a miserable man sink further and further into the alcohol of his glass.
“I’ve seen her changing over the past few months,” he suddenly said, still looking at his drink. “She’s…changed.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Olivia asked wondering what he meant by that.
“No, no it’s not a bad thing,” he answered, “Just as long as the reason why she’s changing isn’t a bad thing.”
“What makes you think she’s changed?”
Richard let out a small laugh as he swallowed the rest of his drink and set the glass on the bar before asking the bartender for another one. Twirling the empty glass in his fingers, he began talking to Olivia like she was his closest friend. She attributed it to the alcohol, but nonetheless, she was rather intrigued by this sudden opportunity to see Alex from Richard’s point of view and to see Richard as a person, and not as an opponent, either in work or in her personal life.
“Alex has always been a very independent woman,” he started. “She’s never needed a man or anyone to take care of her, and maybe that’s still true, but when I came along it was different - like she needed me. Whether for psychological or social reasons or whatever it might have been, she needed me for something. We were good together, a match, balanced each other out, played off each other. And now…” he sighed, shaking his head, “She’s changed. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. If she’s growing, that’s great, but it’s one thing to grow with someone. It’s a whole other thing to grow and leave that someone behind.”
“You think she’s leaving you behind?” Olivia asked, trying her best to be consoling to a man she despised. In all honesty, she thought his outreach to her was rather unappealing and unattractive, but in an effort to conceal her own secrets, she masked her disgust and listened to him.
“I think she’s changed,” he said once again. “Her goals have changed, her attitude, her mindset. That ‘go get ‘em’ resolve that she used to have has been replaced by something else.”
“She’s still passionate about her job, Richard. That hasn’t changed.”
“It’s not the passion for her job that I’m worried about,” he said sternly as he turned to look at Olivia directly in the eyes.
“What is it that you’re worried about then?” she asked trying to hide her timidity.
Richard didn’t answer right away, only breaking eye contact with her for a brief second when the bartender served him his drink. “You know Alex had an affair?” he asked her. “I told her to break it off, and I thought she did, as far as I knew.”
How did Richard know that Alex had an affair? Did she tell him? Did she tell him with whom? Those were the questions that Olivia wanted to ask him, but knew that she couldn’t. Obviously Richard had no idea that the affair was with her, but the very mention of it made Olivia very curious as to what it was that he actually knew. Shoving those thoughts and questions aside, she focused on the conversation at hand. “If she broke it off, then what’s the problem now?” she asked casually.
“Is she still having an affair, detective?” Richard asked frankly, staring directly into her eyes.
Olivia was startled by the use of his chosen salutation, and she was afraid that it showed clearly on her face. Luckily, though, she was able to recover quickly, having been used to surprises being thrown her way in her line of work, though never about something like what they were discussing. “How would I know that?” she asked with a perfectly straight face.
Richard shook his head but didn’t answer her question. Even though Olivia didn’t know him, this dejected side of him was something she never thought existed in him, let alone be something that she would see firsthand. From the brief moments that she’d spent with him and from seeing him through Alex’s eyes, she thought he was an impenetrable asshole - a dick, to be quite frank. But as Olivia watched him sitting there, knowing that all certainties he ever had about Alex were quickly becoming uncertainties, she actually felt a tinge of pity for him. He loved her. She hated admitting that, but she knew he did, in his own strange way. Despite their differences, she understood what he was feeling. Olivia was no stranger to loving someone and wanting someone when they didn’t want her in the same way. It’s what had hardened her to romance and relationships in the first place…
“I want to give you the world,” she told Olivia as they laid their heads next to one another on the pillow. “You deserve the world.” Olivia closed her eyes as a gentle kiss was placed on her parted lips - a kiss that she’d carry with her for years to come.
Jessica Bliss was the first woman Olivia Benson had ever loved. And she loved her fiercely. The passion between them was one that romantic poets only wished they could write about. Olivia wanted to be her everything, and Jessica wanted the same. But Olivia was young. And Jessica was taken. But the two of them together made more sense to Olivia than anything ever had before. Everything felt so right when she was with her. Nothing else mattered except the touch of her hands, the feel of her skin, the taste of her lips, the beating of their hearts, the warmth of their words, the promises of their future. All that mattered was that Olivia loved her, and she believed that Jessica felt the same way..
“I told her to leave,” she said to Olivia. “I told her I couldn’t be with her anymore, that too many things had changed and that they’d never be the same again.”
“What does that mean?” Olivia asked her, afraid of being too hopeful.
“What does it mean? Silly, it means that I want to be with you,” Jessica said with a big smile on her sweet face. “It means that if you’ll have me, we’ll be together. I’ve never loved someone the way I love you, Olivia. How could I deny it anymore? How could I deny you anymore?”
“Be with me,” Olivia whispered as she clutched the woman in front of her and drew her in for a deep, passionate kiss. “Be with me.”
They made love that night in the perfect world of their existence. And again, all that mattered was that Olivia loved her, and she believed that Jessica loved her too. But then that world came collapsing down around them, and every certainty she ever had about Jessica quickly became uncertainties, quickly became lies, and quickly became painful truths.
“I slept with her last night,” Jessica admitted.
“What?” Olivia asked, feeling her heart being torn out of her chest.
“We slept together,” Jessica repeated. “I don’t know, it just…happened. We were talking and…there’s still a connection there.”
“Do you still love her?” Olivia asked, feeling sick to her stomach at the answer she knew would be.
“Yes.”
“Do you still want to be with her?”
“A part of me does, yes.”
That was all Olivia needed to hear. She quickly stood up from her couch and stormed into the kitchen. Grabbing a glass and the bottle of scotch from on top of her refrigerator, she raced to pour herself a drink but stopped before any of the liquid hit the bottom of the cup. Jessica followed her there and watched her in her frenzy, knowing she was breaking her heart but not knowing how to make it any better.
“I still love you,” she said as Olivia stood at the counter with her back to her. “I still love you very much.”
“Don’t,” Olivia said sharply as she turned around, daggers in her eyes pointing through her tears. “Don’t.”
“I’m sorry, I…”
Olivia put up her hand and shook her head to stop her from saying anything more. “Get out,” she ordered.
“What?”
“Get. Out. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
And she didn’t.
Olivia closed her eyes for a brief second as she remembered that painful night. She could still hear the sound of the glass crashing against the wall, the one she’d thrown across her kitchen after Jessica had left. The sight of the shards flying everywhere, the piercing noise it made ringing through her apartment, made Olivia shake her head and open her eyes to see Richard still sitting in front of her. Nothing had been said between them for what seemed like ages, but was really only a matter of seconds.
“I know I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life,” Richard suddenly spoke, “But Alex is like the one good thing I have to my name.”
“She’s not a piece of property, Richard,” Olivia answered, awoken from her not so blissful state of mind.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” he tried to explain. “She’s the one thing in my life that I know I can be proud of. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” Olivia answered quietly. It made perfect sense to her. It made perfect sense because she felt the exact same way. Alex was the one thing in her own life that she felt was right and good and beautiful. Everything else paled in comparison. It made perfect sense to her that Richard would love Alex as she did, even if their ways of showing it were completely different.
“I just…I know something is different, and I don’t know what it is,” he said, the frustration building in his voice. “She never used to have secrets from me, and now, here I am talking to you, someone I barely know, trying to figure them out. Pretty pathetic, huh?”
Olivia shook her head. “No, it’s not pathetic. It’s not what I would do, but…”
“What would you do?” he asked before she could finish her sentence.
“What?”
“If you were me, if you were in my position, what would you do?”
“Why are you asking me that?” Olivia wanted to know.
“Because Alex has spoken very highly of you, and…you know her,” he said after a pause. “You two seem pretty close.”
“What makes you so sure that we’re as close as you think?” she asked.
“Because Alex wouldn’t talk about you so much if you weren’t,” he snapped.
Olivia jerked her head up at his suddenly irritated voice, but decided not to get defensive. “Alex is my friend, yes,” she said calmly, “But I don’t know if she has any secrets, and I don’t know if she would tell me even if she did.”
“And I’m sure you wouldn’t tell me if she told you something,” Richard replied dryly.
“No, probably not,” she answered quietly.
Richard nodded his head and smiled at her. “She’s got a good friend in you, someone who’d die to protect it her,” he said with a laugh, one that made it hard for Olivia to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. When she didn’t respond, he looked past her at the bag sitting on the stool next to her. “I should probably let you go before your food gets cold.”
Olivia looked beside her at the wrapped-up food, almost having forgotten it was there, and then back at Richard. “Like I said before, I don’t think I’m the right person to be asking these questions to,” she said as she stood up from her seat and grabbed her belongings.
“Neither is Alex.”
Olivia stopped at his words, seeing the confusion and defeat on his face. She hated to give him advice. She hated to tell him anything that would make him a better person in Alex’s eyes. She hated to hear him talk about her the way that he was, and she felt the need to defend her. “She’s a better person than that, Richard. She deserves more credit than that,” she said before turning to walk away.
“Detective,” he called as he laid a few bills down on the bar and walked towards her, “You should really give Robin a call.”
“What?” Olivia asked, surprised at the sudden mention of the name.
“Give Robin a call. I think you two could really hit it off if you weren’t…”
“If I weren’t what?” she said sharply as she squared her shoulders to meet him.
“Look, you’re not the only one who’s protective of Alex. I’ll always be the first one to go to bat for her.” He paused and took a step closer to her so that they were toe to toe. “Don’t make things any more confusing for her than they already are. Do you get my drift?” he asked with raised eyebrows and a serious look on his face. “Give Robin a call.”
Richard patted her on the shoulder and walked past her out the door. Olivia shivered at his touch, feeling like she had to burn her jacket now because he came into contact with it. She couldn’t help but hate him now more than ever. True, her emotions had been played a little bit when he was lamenting to her, but her pity was short lived, and now he actually gave her the creeps. She knew that she didn’t like him when she first met him, but she figured it was just because he was with Alex and it was her jealousy influencing her perception of him. And when she found out about his past involving Tommy, she disliked him even more. But now for the first time, she was actually afraid of him, and not for her sake. She knew that if the time ever came, she could handle him just fine. She was afraid for Alex.