GL - A FEW DAYS MORE - Chapter 11
TITLE: A Few Days More
FANDOM: Guiding Light
PAIRING: Otalia
SUMMARY: Set mid-friendship, this will contain elements of hurt/comfort as I'm a hurt/comfort junkie. Olivia, Natalia and Emma have returned from their few days away and follows canon around the 'Decker days'...hopefully more interesting than the summary suggests. Please request before archiving.
RATING: PG for now
AUTHOR's NOTE: This is my second attempt at fanfic and I have to say I am more nervous with this one than the first, partly because I fear there could be a level of expectation to overcome. So please be gentle with me, I hope you enjoy the formula I have decided to go with this time because personally, I think the best Otalia story and in particular ‘hurt/comfort’ story was the one shown on TV. As always my thanks to my Canadian Buddy, Critic2000, who read this through and offered useful suggestions and insight, let alone put up with my endless angst and anguish as to whether this story would be worth posting, bless ‘er.
An additional thanks to those of you who have actively encouraged me to right this sequel and offered your support, it truly is an inspiration
ADDITIONAL NOTE: This does loosely follow on from my first story 'A Few Days Away' hence I have said it is a sequel but as I never fully intended to write this, it’s been an interesting experience to find a way to make it fit within the time period I wanted to cover, therefore please gloss over any inconsistencies from one story to the next. It is not essential to have read the first story, but some things may make more sense if you do.
Thank you again to those of you that have taken the time to comment and to anyone taking the time to read this little piece of ff. This next part will again seem very familiar to you and if it almost reads just like the show itself, well again for this chapter that's kinda the point...
normal service will resume shortly though. Please enjoy!
DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Guiding Light or any of the characters.
( Chapter 1 ) ( Chapter 2 ) ( Chapter 3 ) ( Chapter 4 ) ( Chapter 5 ) ( Chapter 6 ) ( Chapter 7 ) ( Chapter 8 ) ( Chapter 9 ) ( Chapter 10 )
Chapter 11
Trying to ignore the look of horror on Natalia’s face, keep upright and maintain the pretense this was all proceeding exactly as planned, Olivia stalled for time and moved over to the fireplace. Natalia, for her part, was incapable of restraining her dismay and exclaimed, “You're here!”
The Xiao’s bowed, smiling in response and Decker, perhaps for once being perceptive enough to pick up something was a little off queried, “You did give me a message about our changing the dinner from tomorrow night to tonight?”
“Ugh,” Natalia was frantically searching for a way to let them down gently and postpone the meal, “Mr. Decker, um...”
“No!” Olivia cut in, “there's no problem. You're just here a few minutes early, but it's nothing we can't handle, right?”
Natalia couldn’t understand Olivia’s uncanny ability to completely disguise the fact she was running on empty and act as if this was an everyday occurrence for her to deal with unexpected guests when they had absolutely nothing to feed them, let alone cook with. This was no doubt why she had been so successful in business and Natalia fervently hoped her charade would pay off once again.
Internally amused by the utterly wonderful array of expressions on Natalia’s face Olivia mustered the appropriate hostess persona and asked of her, “Would you please take Mrs. Xiao's coat?” Her energy was waning and she needed to move this along.
Spurred into action, Natalia smiled and took the coat.
“What a charming home!” Mrs. Xiao commented.
“Thank you very much. It's been in my family for generations,” Olivia lied as she shoved her hands deep into her pockets and looked around the room as if it had always been her humble home sweet home. She noticed Natalia’s eyes reacting to the lie and then committing to the cause as the plan was obviously going full steam ahead.
“I hope you'll forgive our clothes. When we changed the dinner plans, we didn't give ourselves enough time to change.”
They experienced the uncomfortable moment when you first enter a strange home or have strangers in your home which inevitably leads to nervous laughter and Mrs. Xiao reassured them, “Oh, you look fine,” a conclusion both Natalia and Olivia had already drawn unbeknownst to the other.
“What can I get you to drink?” Olivia asked.
“Martinis all around,” Decker clapped his hands together and rubbed them specifying, “Dry, on the rocks.” He leaned in to Olivia and pointed to himself, “That's my influence.”
Olivia laughed, very familiar with how Decker liked his martinis from the evidence of the night before.
“Great. Okay. No problem,” Natalia held her smile and clasping Mrs. Xiao’s coat to her, left the room, a small almost imperceptible shake of her head to indicate to Olivia she should follow and a quick tug on her sleeve as she went by in case she failed to notice. Olivia, having no option but to notice, spun on her heel in place and trailed after her.
Natalia waited in the kitchen for Olivia to make her way through the door, concerned when the older woman clung to the worktop and settled herself back against it drawing in a large intake of breath.
“What am I supposed to do?” Natalia asked.
Olivia looked at her.
“I... I have nothing to serve. You could pass out at any second…” Natalia continued, the possibility of hyperventilating herself growing with every observation of their predicament.
“Okay, shh!” Olivia did not want to consider that as an option. Somehow they were going to get out of this unscathed and with her reputation intact. Pointing over toward the back door she inquired, “What's in that little box that you brought over?”
“I... I brought... I brought decorations, candles.” How could Olivia not be picking up on how bad their situation actually was, “We don't have any pans. We don't have any dishes.” Natalia could feel her anxiety rising as she listed all the things they didn’t have.
“Okay.”
“We have no food!” she exclaimed.
“Alright. Alright,” Olivia gestured for silence, “I know…”
Natalia waited, hanging on the dramatic pause to hear what cunning and imaginative plan Olivia would come up with.
“Five martinis,” she held her hand up fingers wide to helpfully visualize the number, “Don't skimp on the olives!”
With that she pushed herself away from the counter and with a supportive pat on Natalia’s arm, went back to play host to Decker and the Xiao’s. Natalia remained, one arm out in appeal, the other clutching a coat and her mouth open as she looked around the beautiful but inadequately stocked, and consequently useless, kitchen wondering what on earth was she going to do now?
***
Olivia returned to the lounge knowing while she had dropped Natalia well and truly in it, she had the equally difficult task of putting her guests at ease, entertaining them and keeping them from realizing anything was wrong. She had faith Natalia would pull something out of the bag, the woman had not let her down yet.
It had been a busy day so far, Emma had been allowed to have the day off school, a onetime thing for a very special occasion. She had been so thrilled about the first day of Olivia’s new job she had almost dragged her out of bed that morning, full of questions about whether her mommy was excited or nervous and being honest, Olivia confessed to maybe a little nervousness.
They were both dressed up to attend the ‘mother/daughter’ photo shoot scheduled at the Beacon a little later on and feeling like she was really ‘back’ and riding the wave of positivity and good fortune, Olivia agreed to Emma’s request for ice cream at Company. She made her promise to be really careful with her clothes and unsurprisingly she was, not one drip was evident on her pretty red dress.
They were about to leave when Natalia walked in with the Cooper clan. Rafe’s sentencing was today and Olivia could only look on as Emma hugged the sad woman and offered what comfort an eight year old could. Olivia felt for her, she did and although she was drawn to Natalia’s sad expressive eyes, today was a good day and Olivia was going to stay upbeat, maintaining the belief she could do this, she had to, she had something to prove.
With surprising difficulty she put all thoughts of Natalia and Rafe Rivera out of her mind to concentrate on the task at hand as she and her daughter met with the photographer, his equipment set up in one of the alcove spots along the Beacon corridors.
“Okay. We'll do you first, and then we'll get some shots of you and your daughter,” he lightly pushed at Olivia’s elbow to place her at the angle he was after, “Alright?”
“Okay. Do I look okay?” Olivia was feeling a little self-conscious and tugged on her jacket.
“Okay?” The photographer stepped back and raised his camera, “You are a knockout. Isn't your mom beautiful?”
“And important,” Emma added.
Olivia laughed, “Thank you, honey.”
“Okay. Good.” The photographer fell into photographer speak as he began snapping away and Olivia assumed a variety of poses and expressions, “Great,” he continued.
They seemed to have been there a very long time and Olivia could feel her smile wilting. The photographer was in full flow however, moving from one side to the other, changing stances and tilting the camera, “Okay, let's try to get a couple from this angle.”
Emma had left a little while ago, Jane had come to collect her and Olivia was doing her best not to be envious.
“So how are the pictures with my daughter? How did they turn out?”
“Oh, they're great.
“Great. She's going to love it.” What had started out as fun was beginning to wear on her and Olivia had resorted to putting her hands in her pockets again, convinced they were shaking from weariness. Still the photographer wouldn’t let up.
“Yeah. Okay, now, a big smile. Try... can you toss your hair for me?”
Toss my hair? As dizzy as she was starting to feel, tossing her hair was most definitely not on the top of her ‘to do’ list.
“Oh, you know what? I could use a break,” she was frankly amazed he hadn’t noticed his subject was drooping and becoming less responsive to his commands. Rubbing at the tension she could feel burning at the back of her neck she suggested, “We've been doing this for a while. I could use a touchup, right?
“A five?”
Wow, he was keen. She quickly countered with, “fifteen,” not waiting to hear if he agreed as she made a swift exit in hopes she wouldn’t drop there and then.
The corridor tilted as she weaved to a nearby door and let herself in. Poking her head around the door and checking there was no current occupancy, she closed the door, threw her keycard on the bed and crawled after it, flopping face down in relief just to be horizontal once more. Breathing heavily she whispered, “Oh, God,” and spent the next few seconds trying to slow her heart rate.
She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she heard was a short rap on the door, the door opening and a voice calling, “Olivia?”
She recognized the voice and wondered why this woman was always present when she really, really wanted to be left alone? Convinced it would make no difference Olivia still gave it a try, “Go away!” she said.
Sometimes being proved right was not all it was cracked up to be. Natalia hadn’t gone away and was speaking again, “What a relief. I thought something was wrong.”
Nothing was wrong, she was just tired. She lay there, aware of Natalia moving around the room and hearing her approach, rolled over so she was lying on her back. Placing one hand under the pillow she pulled it further under her head and having resituated in another comfy position started to doze.
“Can you sit up a little and drink this?”
Olivia didn’t feel like drinking or talking so she mumbled, “No. Just set it down, please.”
Natalia was not going to go that easily and sank onto the bed next to her, “What's the matter?”
“I'm tired.”
“Well, there's tired and then there’s... this.”
“Didn't I ask you to leave?”
“This isn't even your room.”
“It's my hotel,” isn’t that enough? She just needed a few more minutes.
“And people are going to check in here. And what are you going to do when people come in here and they see you sprawled out on their bed?”
“They'll say, hey, there's the owner, and she's sprawled out on... I just need... I just need a little while…” She could feel things going hazy again as she slipped into that wonderfully dissociative moment when reality blurs and slips away; unless someone stops you…
“You need a little trip to the hospital.”
“No!”
“You can't even get up.”
Maybe not right now but, “I... I will. I will.” She really wanted to go back to sleep.
“Why won't you just let me help you? You need to go to the doctor, make sure everything is okay.”
It was a good question, why wouldn’t she let her help her? She had been doggedly persistent about helping her on so many other occasions. She rallied, needing to explain why she was doing what she was doing and then maybe, Natalia would understand and leave her alone.
“Listen, I'm in the middle of a photo shoot, okay? And I need to be healthy. I need to be glowing. They need to think I'm healthy. If he finds out… If Decker finds out...” She was fading again.
“Olivia. Olivia!”
Why was she shouting, she was right there.
“What are you going to do when they come in here looking for you?”
Olivia wanted to cry, couldn’t the woman see she was tired; she would be fine if only, “I just need a few minutes. A few minutes!”
When Olivia woke up what she thought was a few minutes later, no one had checked into the room and Natalia was mercifully gone. Her watch confirmed she had been asleep for nearly ten minutes and she was trying not to panic about the photographer who would no doubt be wondering where she was by now; frankly, Olivia wasn’t convinced she had completely woken up enough yet to deal with all of that.
While the nap had done wonders to restore her energy levels, she dove into the bathroom to throw some water on her face to hopefully freshen up the rest of her, finger combing her hair back into some semblance of order.
Taking a steadying breath, she then made her way with haste back to the photo shoot. As she approached the corridor she could hear voices in conversation and identified Natalia’s saying, “She actually sent me to interface with your photographer but I'm very glad that I was able to tell you personally.”
“I am, too,” a male voice responded and Olivia’s heart nearly skipped a beat when she recognized Lawrence Decker, her new boss.
“So, is there anything else I can let her know?”
Concerned she needed to save face, Olivia strode towards them.
“Ah… Oh Olivia! There you are.”
“Yes, Lawrence. I’m so sorry.” Olivia hurried into the conversation.
“No need to be. Your assistant explained everything.”
Startled, Olivia glanced at Natalia and nearly did a double take as she noticed her wearing one of her own jackets over her maid’s uniform and standing with notepad in hand looking the very picture of elegance and efficiency, “She did?”
“Yeah. She made it clear that you had no intention of leaving our photographer hanging.”
“Oh, well great, yes.” Olivia nodded, thrown once again by the woman beside her who seemed to persist in helping her.
“I know you have a business to run here, so don't worry about disappearing on us.”
“Oh, thank you.” Olivia was more than relieved, “I'm glad she found you.” She shared a smile with Natalia while her mind tried desperately to catch up and make sense of the twilight zone she found herself in. Deciding to go with the flow and reclaim some element of control she announced, “I'm ready to continue.”
“Oh, don't worry about it. The photographer says he has plenty to work with. Let's call off the, um... the publicity photographs for the day, okay?”
“Great. Thank you.” Olivia was genuinely smiling now.
“It's probably pretty grueling, under those lights and all.”
Was he fishing, looking for a sign of weakness? Olivia wasn’t going to give an inch and casually stated, “Oh, I'm used to it.”
“Yeah, well, it must have been...what?” Natalia jumped in and looked at Olivia for agreement, “We were at it for four hours last Saturday with the photographer?”
Incredibly Natalia was jumping in with false evidence to support Olivia’s claims, “Oh, yeah.” She nodded, “Whew!”
“It’s a new brochure at the Beacon,” Natalia went on.
“Oh, really? I'd love to see them sometime.”
Olivia was convinced Decker was challenging them and they were going to be caught in the lie but was astonished when Natalia simply answered very smoothly with, “Well, they won't be out for a while but I will make sure that you get one,” and made a note on her pad.
“Wonderful.” Decker was clearly enamored with Olivia’s personal assistant and had yet to fully take his eyes off her and Olivia, wondering if she had indeed woken up could understand why.
Olivia was seeing a side to Natalia she had seen glimpses of before but this ability to put people at ease, to think on her feet. My god, the woman just lied for me and so easily. Olivia was truly impressed.
Decker, finally turning away, faced her and broke her inner appraisal, “Olivia, while I have you, maybe we can go over a few details of some of your personal appearances?”
“Sure,” she was feeling incredibly confident again for some reason, it was more than having her bacon saved, it was almost like she suddenly felt as if she wasn’t alone in this.
“I'm gonna take that as my cue to go,” Natalia cut in, “but Mr. Decker, it was a pleasure meeting you.”
“The pleasure was all mine,” they shook hands and Natalia left. Decker watched her leave clearly seeing something he liked, “She's a keeper.”
“Yeah.” Olivia studied Natalia’s back as she walked away and experienced an overwhelming sense of possession, “No poaching. She's mine. Okay?”
It was the first time Olivia had seen how effective, dynamic and charismatic Natalia could be.
Reasonably confident this evening would also eventually be a success; Olivia invited her guests to sit and attempted to get the conversational ball rolling. Leading with a positive Olivia enthused, “Well, I can't wait to visit Macau. I thought when I took this job that I would be in China at least once a month. Those darn video conferencing...”
So far so good, the group laughed and as Olivia went on there were footsteps on the stairs, “Oh… hey!” she exclaimed as Emma came rushing into the room and, oblivious to anyone else there, ran straight up to her to announce, “Mommy, I didn't see any cows.”
Not sure how to cover such an apparent non sequitur Olivia steered the conversation in another direction, “Hey, we've got guests. You remember Mr. Decker?”
“Hey, kiddo.”
“And this is Mr. And Mrs. Xiao.”
“How do you spell that?”
“Emma is very into spelling these days.”
“Really? Can she spell martini?”
Choosing to ignore the obvious dig at the lack of drinks and wanting to stall to give Natalia as much time as she needed, Olivia encouraged, “Go get 'em, Em. Mar...tin...I…”
“M...”
“Mar...” she sounded out the word, grateful for the distraction.
“...a...”
“Mar...t...” at least everyone in the room was tolerating the talents of an eight year old.
“Uh...”
“You can do it. Come on,” while silently encouraging Natalia to do the same.
***
Natalia had spent the last five minutes searching through every drawer and cupboard in hopes that there was something, anything she could use to produce a meal. When her efforts had her looking through the fridge again she had to take a step back and rethink, “Okay. Stop. There's nothing. They're all... just empty. There’s... there's no vodka, there's no olives. There's no glasses! There's no food!”
Clearly the rethink wasn’t helping. She was about to give in to despair when her cell phone rang, seeing who was calling she quickly answered, “Hey, how fast can you make a delivery?”
“Well, that's not good! The people from China don't like your cooking?”
Natalia could feel a sense of calm at hearing Buzz’s fatherly tones over her cell, she scoffed, “Oh, cooking-- what cooking? There's no food! I have a house full of guests...” She stopped, the penny beginning to drop, “hey, wait a minute. I told you that the dinner was supposed to be tomorrow night. You... you're the one who told Decker the dinner was going to be tonight?”
“Guilty.”
Natalia felt betrayed, why would Buzz do this to her, “Have I missed too many shifts? Is that the reason why you're trying to get me fired by Olivia?”
“Well, I... we don't want you to get fired, no. We just want you to be the real you. You know, like Frank said, that's all you need to impress people.”
“What do you... Frank, what do you... okay, the real me is not a magician,” her frustration was growing again.
“Oh, and the olives are in the cooler.”
“What cooler?”
“On the doorstep. You've got all there you really need to shine.”
What? Wondering if she was caught up in some weird role-playing mystery where clues were given out at allotted times and therefore you spent most of the time not really having a clue what was going on, she closed the phone and headed to the door, sincerely hoping the caller was right.
***
Meanwhile, Olivia was in the lounge, with Emma and the spelling bee.
“N...”
“You can do it.”
“...N...”
“She's not... that's not... she not saying two N’s. She's repeating the first N, because she does that sometimes when she doesn't know what's next,” the Xiao’s nodded their understanding and smiled. “Go ahead, honey. Come on, honey, sound it out.”
Emma concentrated, “Mar...ti..ni,” Olivia waited, it had been a long road but they were nearly there. She encouraged with her eyes again as Emma finally decided on, “...n... I!”
Olivia cheered and couldn’t contain her motherly pride as she squealed in a rather high pitch, “Oh, that's it! Oh, that's my girl! That was fantastic!”
“Yes, almost as good as drinking one,” Decker drolly observed.
Knowing time was running out on their ruse, Olivia encouraged again, “Good girl!”
***
Natalia had been amazed to discover an enormous cardboard box on the doorstep, so large she had to drag it into the kitchen as she couldn’t lift it. Peeling back the flaps to look inside she was delighted to discover a selection of cooking implements, food and drink.
Now she had something to work with, Natalia set to work.
***
It was bad of her she knew but Olivia was confident for all of Decker’s snide comments nobody was going to be rude to, or in the presence of, a little girl. Therefore, when Emma volunteered to show off her gymnastic abilities, Olivia was hard-pressed to say no.
Emma stepped to the far end of the room and launched herself into a cartwheel, planting her feet together as she finished, hands raised and completing a perfect practiced stance. Her audience applauded and Mrs. Xiao enthused, “Oh, wow! Oh, my gosh. She is just adorable!”
Olivia beamed, “Thank you. I usually don't have her perform like this but I know how important family is to Galaxy. In fact, I was thinking that maybe Emma could be in one of your commercials.”
“Really? You thought that?” Decker was not being so easily won over.
“It's hard to believe she's only taken one class.” Mrs. Xiao commented.
Olivia laughed and hugged Emma to her, aware that Decker was losing his patience beside her and willed Natalia to hurry up.
“You did great, baby.” She hugged Emma again and knew she had to take control of the evening before Decker made the decision to leave, “I have to be honest. Um, I love representing Galaxy hotels. I mean, it's not just a job for me, it’s... I really, genuinely like the company. But beyond that, it's given me a way of living again, you know, where I don't have to sacrifice time with my daughter and…” unsure whether she was winning them over, she was certainly saying all the right things but maybe she should tell them the truth, “…as much as I love it...”
Mr. Xiao interrupted her, “Excuse me for interrupting. What is that wonderful smell?”
“I smell it too,” Decker agreed.
“Chicken and rice!” Emma informed causing all the adults in the room to look at her.
Olivia could smell it now.
“So sorry for the wait,” Natalia walked into the room with a tray loaded with drinks, “I had to run out for some olives. Emma, could you bring in the cheese and crackers?”
Emma disappeared while Natalia handed out the martinis. It was then Olivia noticed they were each being given a glass jar.
Trust Decker to be the one to comment on it, “I, uh... the... the glasses, I assume, are a family tradition?”
Natalia, proving her quick thinking once again provided, “When you grow up without, it's easy to think that something like a fancy glass will make your life better. And then you realize that a glass is a glass. It's what you put in the glass that counts.”
And apparently what was in the glass was just what Decker wanted, having taken a sip he approved, “My God, this is fantastic!”
“Thank you. Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes. Um, nothing extravagant. When you told Olivia that you wanted a home-cooked meal, she knew that chicken and rice would be nice and simple, perfect.” Natalia looked at Olivia unable to resist the following untruth, “And it's been a family tradition for generations.”
Olivia smiled relieved on so many levels, Natalia had come through for them again and none too soon, here at last was someone else to keep the conversational ball rolling.
“I like the way you think, Olivia,” Mr Xiao spoke up, “I'm a self-made man... we prefer simple.”
“Olivia was just telling me that the other day, the reason why she loves your hotels so much,” Natalia glanced briefly at Olivia before sincerely continuing, “they're elegant and beautiful, but then there are all of those little touches. You know, the simple things that a lot of people forget, but those are the things that make you feel so at home when you're very far away.”
“This is all her,” Mr Xiao indicated his wife.
“Thank you for noticing,” his wife accepted the praise.
Olivia was humbled, not something she was used to very often. She was also glad she was sitting down because the last forty-five minutes or so had been truly seat of the pants and she wanted nothing more than to lie down again.
“I'd like to propose a toast to this,” Decker tipped his jar to Olivia, “truly amazing woman.”
“Here, here,” they sounded and clinked jars.
As Natalia bent to reach Olivia’s, Olivia held her eyes and with meaning said, “I'll drink to that.”
Natalia had truly done it again.
To be continued...
Flashback scene taken from episode 6th October 2008 and can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZiwvI7zhpw and part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4ih1-2tIQ...feature=related with thanks to Solari111 for the clips.
Main story taken from episode 14th November 2008
FANDOM: Guiding Light
PAIRING: Otalia
SUMMARY: Set mid-friendship, this will contain elements of hurt/comfort as I'm a hurt/comfort junkie. Olivia, Natalia and Emma have returned from their few days away and follows canon around the 'Decker days'...hopefully more interesting than the summary suggests. Please request before archiving.
RATING: PG for now
AUTHOR's NOTE: This is my second attempt at fanfic and I have to say I am more nervous with this one than the first, partly because I fear there could be a level of expectation to overcome. So please be gentle with me, I hope you enjoy the formula I have decided to go with this time because personally, I think the best Otalia story and in particular ‘hurt/comfort’ story was the one shown on TV. As always my thanks to my Canadian Buddy, Critic2000, who read this through and offered useful suggestions and insight, let alone put up with my endless angst and anguish as to whether this story would be worth posting, bless ‘er.
An additional thanks to those of you who have actively encouraged me to right this sequel and offered your support, it truly is an inspiration
ADDITIONAL NOTE: This does loosely follow on from my first story 'A Few Days Away' hence I have said it is a sequel but as I never fully intended to write this, it’s been an interesting experience to find a way to make it fit within the time period I wanted to cover, therefore please gloss over any inconsistencies from one story to the next. It is not essential to have read the first story, but some things may make more sense if you do.
Thank you again to those of you that have taken the time to comment and to anyone taking the time to read this little piece of ff. This next part will again seem very familiar to you and if it almost reads just like the show itself, well again for this chapter that's kinda the point...
normal service will resume shortly though. Please enjoy!
DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Guiding Light or any of the characters.
( Chapter 1 ) ( Chapter 2 ) ( Chapter 3 ) ( Chapter 4 ) ( Chapter 5 ) ( Chapter 6 ) ( Chapter 7 ) ( Chapter 8 ) ( Chapter 9 ) ( Chapter 10 )
Chapter 11
Trying to ignore the look of horror on Natalia’s face, keep upright and maintain the pretense this was all proceeding exactly as planned, Olivia stalled for time and moved over to the fireplace. Natalia, for her part, was incapable of restraining her dismay and exclaimed, “You're here!”
The Xiao’s bowed, smiling in response and Decker, perhaps for once being perceptive enough to pick up something was a little off queried, “You did give me a message about our changing the dinner from tomorrow night to tonight?”
“Ugh,” Natalia was frantically searching for a way to let them down gently and postpone the meal, “Mr. Decker, um...”
“No!” Olivia cut in, “there's no problem. You're just here a few minutes early, but it's nothing we can't handle, right?”
Natalia couldn’t understand Olivia’s uncanny ability to completely disguise the fact she was running on empty and act as if this was an everyday occurrence for her to deal with unexpected guests when they had absolutely nothing to feed them, let alone cook with. This was no doubt why she had been so successful in business and Natalia fervently hoped her charade would pay off once again.
Internally amused by the utterly wonderful array of expressions on Natalia’s face Olivia mustered the appropriate hostess persona and asked of her, “Would you please take Mrs. Xiao's coat?” Her energy was waning and she needed to move this along.
Spurred into action, Natalia smiled and took the coat.
“What a charming home!” Mrs. Xiao commented.
“Thank you very much. It's been in my family for generations,” Olivia lied as she shoved her hands deep into her pockets and looked around the room as if it had always been her humble home sweet home. She noticed Natalia’s eyes reacting to the lie and then committing to the cause as the plan was obviously going full steam ahead.
“I hope you'll forgive our clothes. When we changed the dinner plans, we didn't give ourselves enough time to change.”
They experienced the uncomfortable moment when you first enter a strange home or have strangers in your home which inevitably leads to nervous laughter and Mrs. Xiao reassured them, “Oh, you look fine,” a conclusion both Natalia and Olivia had already drawn unbeknownst to the other.
“What can I get you to drink?” Olivia asked.
“Martinis all around,” Decker clapped his hands together and rubbed them specifying, “Dry, on the rocks.” He leaned in to Olivia and pointed to himself, “That's my influence.”
Olivia laughed, very familiar with how Decker liked his martinis from the evidence of the night before.
“Great. Okay. No problem,” Natalia held her smile and clasping Mrs. Xiao’s coat to her, left the room, a small almost imperceptible shake of her head to indicate to Olivia she should follow and a quick tug on her sleeve as she went by in case she failed to notice. Olivia, having no option but to notice, spun on her heel in place and trailed after her.
Natalia waited in the kitchen for Olivia to make her way through the door, concerned when the older woman clung to the worktop and settled herself back against it drawing in a large intake of breath.
“What am I supposed to do?” Natalia asked.
Olivia looked at her.
“I... I have nothing to serve. You could pass out at any second…” Natalia continued, the possibility of hyperventilating herself growing with every observation of their predicament.
“Okay, shh!” Olivia did not want to consider that as an option. Somehow they were going to get out of this unscathed and with her reputation intact. Pointing over toward the back door she inquired, “What's in that little box that you brought over?”
“I... I brought... I brought decorations, candles.” How could Olivia not be picking up on how bad their situation actually was, “We don't have any pans. We don't have any dishes.” Natalia could feel her anxiety rising as she listed all the things they didn’t have.
“Okay.”
“We have no food!” she exclaimed.
“Alright. Alright,” Olivia gestured for silence, “I know…”
Natalia waited, hanging on the dramatic pause to hear what cunning and imaginative plan Olivia would come up with.
“Five martinis,” she held her hand up fingers wide to helpfully visualize the number, “Don't skimp on the olives!”
With that she pushed herself away from the counter and with a supportive pat on Natalia’s arm, went back to play host to Decker and the Xiao’s. Natalia remained, one arm out in appeal, the other clutching a coat and her mouth open as she looked around the beautiful but inadequately stocked, and consequently useless, kitchen wondering what on earth was she going to do now?
***
Olivia returned to the lounge knowing while she had dropped Natalia well and truly in it, she had the equally difficult task of putting her guests at ease, entertaining them and keeping them from realizing anything was wrong. She had faith Natalia would pull something out of the bag, the woman had not let her down yet.
It had been a busy day so far, Emma had been allowed to have the day off school, a onetime thing for a very special occasion. She had been so thrilled about the first day of Olivia’s new job she had almost dragged her out of bed that morning, full of questions about whether her mommy was excited or nervous and being honest, Olivia confessed to maybe a little nervousness.
They were both dressed up to attend the ‘mother/daughter’ photo shoot scheduled at the Beacon a little later on and feeling like she was really ‘back’ and riding the wave of positivity and good fortune, Olivia agreed to Emma’s request for ice cream at Company. She made her promise to be really careful with her clothes and unsurprisingly she was, not one drip was evident on her pretty red dress.
They were about to leave when Natalia walked in with the Cooper clan. Rafe’s sentencing was today and Olivia could only look on as Emma hugged the sad woman and offered what comfort an eight year old could. Olivia felt for her, she did and although she was drawn to Natalia’s sad expressive eyes, today was a good day and Olivia was going to stay upbeat, maintaining the belief she could do this, she had to, she had something to prove.
With surprising difficulty she put all thoughts of Natalia and Rafe Rivera out of her mind to concentrate on the task at hand as she and her daughter met with the photographer, his equipment set up in one of the alcove spots along the Beacon corridors.
“Okay. We'll do you first, and then we'll get some shots of you and your daughter,” he lightly pushed at Olivia’s elbow to place her at the angle he was after, “Alright?”
“Okay. Do I look okay?” Olivia was feeling a little self-conscious and tugged on her jacket.
“Okay?” The photographer stepped back and raised his camera, “You are a knockout. Isn't your mom beautiful?”
“And important,” Emma added.
Olivia laughed, “Thank you, honey.”
“Okay. Good.” The photographer fell into photographer speak as he began snapping away and Olivia assumed a variety of poses and expressions, “Great,” he continued.
They seemed to have been there a very long time and Olivia could feel her smile wilting. The photographer was in full flow however, moving from one side to the other, changing stances and tilting the camera, “Okay, let's try to get a couple from this angle.”
Emma had left a little while ago, Jane had come to collect her and Olivia was doing her best not to be envious.
“So how are the pictures with my daughter? How did they turn out?”
“Oh, they're great.
“Great. She's going to love it.” What had started out as fun was beginning to wear on her and Olivia had resorted to putting her hands in her pockets again, convinced they were shaking from weariness. Still the photographer wouldn’t let up.
“Yeah. Okay, now, a big smile. Try... can you toss your hair for me?”
Toss my hair? As dizzy as she was starting to feel, tossing her hair was most definitely not on the top of her ‘to do’ list.
“Oh, you know what? I could use a break,” she was frankly amazed he hadn’t noticed his subject was drooping and becoming less responsive to his commands. Rubbing at the tension she could feel burning at the back of her neck she suggested, “We've been doing this for a while. I could use a touchup, right?
“A five?”
Wow, he was keen. She quickly countered with, “fifteen,” not waiting to hear if he agreed as she made a swift exit in hopes she wouldn’t drop there and then.
The corridor tilted as she weaved to a nearby door and let herself in. Poking her head around the door and checking there was no current occupancy, she closed the door, threw her keycard on the bed and crawled after it, flopping face down in relief just to be horizontal once more. Breathing heavily she whispered, “Oh, God,” and spent the next few seconds trying to slow her heart rate.
She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she heard was a short rap on the door, the door opening and a voice calling, “Olivia?”
She recognized the voice and wondered why this woman was always present when she really, really wanted to be left alone? Convinced it would make no difference Olivia still gave it a try, “Go away!” she said.
Sometimes being proved right was not all it was cracked up to be. Natalia hadn’t gone away and was speaking again, “What a relief. I thought something was wrong.”
Nothing was wrong, she was just tired. She lay there, aware of Natalia moving around the room and hearing her approach, rolled over so she was lying on her back. Placing one hand under the pillow she pulled it further under her head and having resituated in another comfy position started to doze.
“Can you sit up a little and drink this?”
Olivia didn’t feel like drinking or talking so she mumbled, “No. Just set it down, please.”
Natalia was not going to go that easily and sank onto the bed next to her, “What's the matter?”
“I'm tired.”
“Well, there's tired and then there’s... this.”
“Didn't I ask you to leave?”
“This isn't even your room.”
“It's my hotel,” isn’t that enough? She just needed a few more minutes.
“And people are going to check in here. And what are you going to do when people come in here and they see you sprawled out on their bed?”
“They'll say, hey, there's the owner, and she's sprawled out on... I just need... I just need a little while…” She could feel things going hazy again as she slipped into that wonderfully dissociative moment when reality blurs and slips away; unless someone stops you…
“You need a little trip to the hospital.”
“No!”
“You can't even get up.”
Maybe not right now but, “I... I will. I will.” She really wanted to go back to sleep.
“Why won't you just let me help you? You need to go to the doctor, make sure everything is okay.”
It was a good question, why wouldn’t she let her help her? She had been doggedly persistent about helping her on so many other occasions. She rallied, needing to explain why she was doing what she was doing and then maybe, Natalia would understand and leave her alone.
“Listen, I'm in the middle of a photo shoot, okay? And I need to be healthy. I need to be glowing. They need to think I'm healthy. If he finds out… If Decker finds out...” She was fading again.
“Olivia. Olivia!”
Why was she shouting, she was right there.
“What are you going to do when they come in here looking for you?”
Olivia wanted to cry, couldn’t the woman see she was tired; she would be fine if only, “I just need a few minutes. A few minutes!”
When Olivia woke up what she thought was a few minutes later, no one had checked into the room and Natalia was mercifully gone. Her watch confirmed she had been asleep for nearly ten minutes and she was trying not to panic about the photographer who would no doubt be wondering where she was by now; frankly, Olivia wasn’t convinced she had completely woken up enough yet to deal with all of that.
While the nap had done wonders to restore her energy levels, she dove into the bathroom to throw some water on her face to hopefully freshen up the rest of her, finger combing her hair back into some semblance of order.
Taking a steadying breath, she then made her way with haste back to the photo shoot. As she approached the corridor she could hear voices in conversation and identified Natalia’s saying, “She actually sent me to interface with your photographer but I'm very glad that I was able to tell you personally.”
“I am, too,” a male voice responded and Olivia’s heart nearly skipped a beat when she recognized Lawrence Decker, her new boss.
“So, is there anything else I can let her know?”
Concerned she needed to save face, Olivia strode towards them.
“Ah… Oh Olivia! There you are.”
“Yes, Lawrence. I’m so sorry.” Olivia hurried into the conversation.
“No need to be. Your assistant explained everything.”
Startled, Olivia glanced at Natalia and nearly did a double take as she noticed her wearing one of her own jackets over her maid’s uniform and standing with notepad in hand looking the very picture of elegance and efficiency, “She did?”
“Yeah. She made it clear that you had no intention of leaving our photographer hanging.”
“Oh, well great, yes.” Olivia nodded, thrown once again by the woman beside her who seemed to persist in helping her.
“I know you have a business to run here, so don't worry about disappearing on us.”
“Oh, thank you.” Olivia was more than relieved, “I'm glad she found you.” She shared a smile with Natalia while her mind tried desperately to catch up and make sense of the twilight zone she found herself in. Deciding to go with the flow and reclaim some element of control she announced, “I'm ready to continue.”
“Oh, don't worry about it. The photographer says he has plenty to work with. Let's call off the, um... the publicity photographs for the day, okay?”
“Great. Thank you.” Olivia was genuinely smiling now.
“It's probably pretty grueling, under those lights and all.”
Was he fishing, looking for a sign of weakness? Olivia wasn’t going to give an inch and casually stated, “Oh, I'm used to it.”
“Yeah, well, it must have been...what?” Natalia jumped in and looked at Olivia for agreement, “We were at it for four hours last Saturday with the photographer?”
Incredibly Natalia was jumping in with false evidence to support Olivia’s claims, “Oh, yeah.” She nodded, “Whew!”
“It’s a new brochure at the Beacon,” Natalia went on.
“Oh, really? I'd love to see them sometime.”
Olivia was convinced Decker was challenging them and they were going to be caught in the lie but was astonished when Natalia simply answered very smoothly with, “Well, they won't be out for a while but I will make sure that you get one,” and made a note on her pad.
“Wonderful.” Decker was clearly enamored with Olivia’s personal assistant and had yet to fully take his eyes off her and Olivia, wondering if she had indeed woken up could understand why.
Olivia was seeing a side to Natalia she had seen glimpses of before but this ability to put people at ease, to think on her feet. My god, the woman just lied for me and so easily. Olivia was truly impressed.
Decker, finally turning away, faced her and broke her inner appraisal, “Olivia, while I have you, maybe we can go over a few details of some of your personal appearances?”
“Sure,” she was feeling incredibly confident again for some reason, it was more than having her bacon saved, it was almost like she suddenly felt as if she wasn’t alone in this.
“I'm gonna take that as my cue to go,” Natalia cut in, “but Mr. Decker, it was a pleasure meeting you.”
“The pleasure was all mine,” they shook hands and Natalia left. Decker watched her leave clearly seeing something he liked, “She's a keeper.”
“Yeah.” Olivia studied Natalia’s back as she walked away and experienced an overwhelming sense of possession, “No poaching. She's mine. Okay?”
It was the first time Olivia had seen how effective, dynamic and charismatic Natalia could be.
Reasonably confident this evening would also eventually be a success; Olivia invited her guests to sit and attempted to get the conversational ball rolling. Leading with a positive Olivia enthused, “Well, I can't wait to visit Macau. I thought when I took this job that I would be in China at least once a month. Those darn video conferencing...”
So far so good, the group laughed and as Olivia went on there were footsteps on the stairs, “Oh… hey!” she exclaimed as Emma came rushing into the room and, oblivious to anyone else there, ran straight up to her to announce, “Mommy, I didn't see any cows.”
Not sure how to cover such an apparent non sequitur Olivia steered the conversation in another direction, “Hey, we've got guests. You remember Mr. Decker?”
“Hey, kiddo.”
“And this is Mr. And Mrs. Xiao.”
“How do you spell that?”
“Emma is very into spelling these days.”
“Really? Can she spell martini?”
Choosing to ignore the obvious dig at the lack of drinks and wanting to stall to give Natalia as much time as she needed, Olivia encouraged, “Go get 'em, Em. Mar...tin...I…”
“M...”
“Mar...” she sounded out the word, grateful for the distraction.
“...a...”
“Mar...t...” at least everyone in the room was tolerating the talents of an eight year old.
“Uh...”
“You can do it. Come on,” while silently encouraging Natalia to do the same.
***
Natalia had spent the last five minutes searching through every drawer and cupboard in hopes that there was something, anything she could use to produce a meal. When her efforts had her looking through the fridge again she had to take a step back and rethink, “Okay. Stop. There's nothing. They're all... just empty. There’s... there's no vodka, there's no olives. There's no glasses! There's no food!”
Clearly the rethink wasn’t helping. She was about to give in to despair when her cell phone rang, seeing who was calling she quickly answered, “Hey, how fast can you make a delivery?”
“Well, that's not good! The people from China don't like your cooking?”
Natalia could feel a sense of calm at hearing Buzz’s fatherly tones over her cell, she scoffed, “Oh, cooking-- what cooking? There's no food! I have a house full of guests...” She stopped, the penny beginning to drop, “hey, wait a minute. I told you that the dinner was supposed to be tomorrow night. You... you're the one who told Decker the dinner was going to be tonight?”
“Guilty.”
Natalia felt betrayed, why would Buzz do this to her, “Have I missed too many shifts? Is that the reason why you're trying to get me fired by Olivia?”
“Well, I... we don't want you to get fired, no. We just want you to be the real you. You know, like Frank said, that's all you need to impress people.”
“What do you... Frank, what do you... okay, the real me is not a magician,” her frustration was growing again.
“Oh, and the olives are in the cooler.”
“What cooler?”
“On the doorstep. You've got all there you really need to shine.”
What? Wondering if she was caught up in some weird role-playing mystery where clues were given out at allotted times and therefore you spent most of the time not really having a clue what was going on, she closed the phone and headed to the door, sincerely hoping the caller was right.
***
Meanwhile, Olivia was in the lounge, with Emma and the spelling bee.
“N...”
“You can do it.”
“...N...”
“She's not... that's not... she not saying two N’s. She's repeating the first N, because she does that sometimes when she doesn't know what's next,” the Xiao’s nodded their understanding and smiled. “Go ahead, honey. Come on, honey, sound it out.”
Emma concentrated, “Mar...ti..ni,” Olivia waited, it had been a long road but they were nearly there. She encouraged with her eyes again as Emma finally decided on, “...n... I!”
Olivia cheered and couldn’t contain her motherly pride as she squealed in a rather high pitch, “Oh, that's it! Oh, that's my girl! That was fantastic!”
“Yes, almost as good as drinking one,” Decker drolly observed.
Knowing time was running out on their ruse, Olivia encouraged again, “Good girl!”
***
Natalia had been amazed to discover an enormous cardboard box on the doorstep, so large she had to drag it into the kitchen as she couldn’t lift it. Peeling back the flaps to look inside she was delighted to discover a selection of cooking implements, food and drink.
Now she had something to work with, Natalia set to work.
***
It was bad of her she knew but Olivia was confident for all of Decker’s snide comments nobody was going to be rude to, or in the presence of, a little girl. Therefore, when Emma volunteered to show off her gymnastic abilities, Olivia was hard-pressed to say no.
Emma stepped to the far end of the room and launched herself into a cartwheel, planting her feet together as she finished, hands raised and completing a perfect practiced stance. Her audience applauded and Mrs. Xiao enthused, “Oh, wow! Oh, my gosh. She is just adorable!”
Olivia beamed, “Thank you. I usually don't have her perform like this but I know how important family is to Galaxy. In fact, I was thinking that maybe Emma could be in one of your commercials.”
“Really? You thought that?” Decker was not being so easily won over.
“It's hard to believe she's only taken one class.” Mrs. Xiao commented.
Olivia laughed and hugged Emma to her, aware that Decker was losing his patience beside her and willed Natalia to hurry up.
“You did great, baby.” She hugged Emma again and knew she had to take control of the evening before Decker made the decision to leave, “I have to be honest. Um, I love representing Galaxy hotels. I mean, it's not just a job for me, it’s... I really, genuinely like the company. But beyond that, it's given me a way of living again, you know, where I don't have to sacrifice time with my daughter and…” unsure whether she was winning them over, she was certainly saying all the right things but maybe she should tell them the truth, “…as much as I love it...”
Mr. Xiao interrupted her, “Excuse me for interrupting. What is that wonderful smell?”
“I smell it too,” Decker agreed.
“Chicken and rice!” Emma informed causing all the adults in the room to look at her.
Olivia could smell it now.
“So sorry for the wait,” Natalia walked into the room with a tray loaded with drinks, “I had to run out for some olives. Emma, could you bring in the cheese and crackers?”
Emma disappeared while Natalia handed out the martinis. It was then Olivia noticed they were each being given a glass jar.
Trust Decker to be the one to comment on it, “I, uh... the... the glasses, I assume, are a family tradition?”
Natalia, proving her quick thinking once again provided, “When you grow up without, it's easy to think that something like a fancy glass will make your life better. And then you realize that a glass is a glass. It's what you put in the glass that counts.”
And apparently what was in the glass was just what Decker wanted, having taken a sip he approved, “My God, this is fantastic!”
“Thank you. Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes. Um, nothing extravagant. When you told Olivia that you wanted a home-cooked meal, she knew that chicken and rice would be nice and simple, perfect.” Natalia looked at Olivia unable to resist the following untruth, “And it's been a family tradition for generations.”
Olivia smiled relieved on so many levels, Natalia had come through for them again and none too soon, here at last was someone else to keep the conversational ball rolling.
“I like the way you think, Olivia,” Mr Xiao spoke up, “I'm a self-made man... we prefer simple.”
“Olivia was just telling me that the other day, the reason why she loves your hotels so much,” Natalia glanced briefly at Olivia before sincerely continuing, “they're elegant and beautiful, but then there are all of those little touches. You know, the simple things that a lot of people forget, but those are the things that make you feel so at home when you're very far away.”
“This is all her,” Mr Xiao indicated his wife.
“Thank you for noticing,” his wife accepted the praise.
Olivia was humbled, not something she was used to very often. She was also glad she was sitting down because the last forty-five minutes or so had been truly seat of the pants and she wanted nothing more than to lie down again.
“I'd like to propose a toast to this,” Decker tipped his jar to Olivia, “truly amazing woman.”
“Here, here,” they sounded and clinked jars.
As Natalia bent to reach Olivia’s, Olivia held her eyes and with meaning said, “I'll drink to that.”
Natalia had truly done it again.
To be continued...
Flashback scene taken from episode 6th October 2008 and can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZiwvI7zhpw and part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4ih1-2tIQ...feature=related with thanks to Solari111 for the clips.
Main story taken from episode 14th November 2008