How to Liv (5 page)

“Sorry about that.  Ruby’s outside.  Now she can annoy the neighbours.”  She barked loudly then.

“I don’t think she’s very happy about that!”  I laughed.

“Apparently not!”
  He laughed back.  “So what were you doing when I called?”

“Actually, I was just dozing on the couch.”

“Oh shit.  Did I wake you?  You should have said something-”

“No, no, it’s fine.” 
More than fine.  I’m so glad you called.

“Are you sure?  I can call back another time.”

“I’m sure.  I wasn’t quite asleep, there just wasn’t much worth watching on TV.”

“Tell me about it.  I’ve been watching DVDs all week.”

“Anything good?”

“Um…” he stalled, “
I
think so… but you may not agree.”

“Oh now I’m intrigued. 
Spill.”  I giggled.

“I’m not sure I want to now.”  He laughed.

“Well now I’m
really
intrigued… Oh.  Wait.  Is it porn?”

“Ha ha
ha!  No!”  I waited while he continued to laugh. 
God he had a great, deep-sounding, sexy laugh.
  “I’ve been watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” he said that last bit so softly I wasn’t quite sure if I’d heard him correctly.

“
Buffy?
”

“Hey it’s a good show.  Don’t pick on me!”  I could tell he was smiling.  “Everyone picks on me about it.  I’ve got the boxed set.”

“Me too.”

“Really?
  You’re a fan?”  I could hear the surprise in his voice.

“Absolutely.
  From day one.  I’ve recently been re-watching the whole series from the first episode.  Currently up to series four,” I stated proudly as I yawned in his ear.  “Sorry.”

“I’ve been doing the same, but you’re ahead of me.  Hey, you could tell me the name of the episode you’re up to so when I catch up to it we can watch some together.”

“Really?” I asked sceptically. 
Was he for real?

“Well… I mean, if you want.”  I could tell his confidence was wavering.

“Sure.” 
Hell yes!

“So, you like Buffy.  What else do you like?  What kind of music are you into?”

“Um… everything?” 
I’ve gone completely blank, sorry, cannot think of any band names or anything.  Idiot!

“Everything?
  That’s pretty broad.”  He chuckled.

“Yep,” I said popping my ‘p’, not knowing what else to say.

“I’m a bit like that, too.  I’ve been listening to some of my old CD’s lately though.  The Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins, old Coldplay… even Guns ‘n’ Roses… reliving my youth.”

“Oh I haven’t listened to The Cranberries in the longest time.  I must do that!  I have all of the Smashing Pumpkins and Coldplay albums, too.”

“I saw Coldplay last year,” Joel said.

“Really?
  You went to the Mylo Xyloto concert?”  I yawned.

“Yeah.
  Hey, what’s with that name anyway?”

“I know, right?  It’s odd, but I love saying it. 
Mylo Xyloto
.”

“
Mylo Xyloto,” Joel repeated.

“Ugh, I am so jealous you got to go!”

“It was fantastic!  So you like Coldplay’s new stuff then?” he asked.

“I love all of
Colplay’s music.  ‘Charlie Brown’ is my favourite song at the moment.”

“It’s a great song. 
Even better in concert.”

“Oh, rub it in why don’t you?” I said snottily, which only made Joel laugh.

“So, we have the same taste in music, too?  Huh.  It’s seems we’ve got a lot in common.”  He was silent for a moment before he hesitantly said, “I’m not sure if you realised this or not, but when we went to dinner the other night our clothes matched.”

“I noticed that, too.”  We both went quiet for another moment.  “And then there were the matching zits!”  I laughed.

“Well almost, yours
was
bigger!”  He joked.

“Was not!”
I argued. 
His was definitely larger than mine!

“Was too!” he countered.

I stopped laughing before Joel did and got the chance to listen to his toe-curling sexy chuckle again.  I really loved it. 

He stopped suddenly, “Hey do you know that Scott Pilgrim movie?”

“Yeah I do, why?”

“Turn your telly over to Channel Ten, it just started.”

I sat up, reached for the remote, and changed the station.  I heard the sound coming through the phone as Joel turned his volume up.  I left mine on low.

“Finally, something decent to watch.
  I love this movie!”  I cried excitedly.

“Me too.
  Let’s watch it together.”

“Okay?”  I yawned again. 
Squeee!  Really?  You want to watch a movie and stay on the phone with me?

“You’d do that?” he asked.

“Sure.  Why not?”

“Ah, because you’ve been yawning and you were falling asleep before I called.”

“I’m okay.”

“Liar.”
  He sniggered.

“So I’m a little tired, but I do love this movie.  Maybe we could just watch a bit of it?”

“Okay,” he agreed.

So we did just that.  For about ten minutes, I watched Scott Pilgrim with Joel on the other end of my mobile phone.  I laughed with him and I listened to him breathe.  It was a little surreal, and almost like he was beside me.

“Liv,” he said, startling me.

“Yeah?”
I breathed, my heart jumping at the way my name sounded coming from his lips, right in my ear like a whisper.

“Before you fall asleep-”

“I wasn’t falling asleep.”  I argued. 
I was getting a little sleepy.

“Okay,
but before you do
, I just need to know something…”

“Yeah?”

“When can I see you again?”

“Um…” 
Heart skipping, breath quickening.
  “I’m having drinks tomorrow night… with a few friends from work.  You know the Palms Hotel?”

“Yeah, I know it.”

“You could come.”

“Okay… sure.”  He sounded a little unsure actually, but I really wanted him to come so I ignored it.

“You could meet us there… say seven-thirty, eight o’clock?”

“Okay, it’s a date.”  He paused for a moment and then laughed at something on the TV, “I love this movie!”

We both turned our attention back to the TV screens in front of us.  I’m not sure when it happened, but at some stage I did fall asleep.  I woke up when Ally came home.

“Hey what you
watchin’?” she asked, taking a seat in the arm chair.

“Scott Pilgrim,” I said, rubbing my eyes.  “Oh shit!”  I scrambled to pick up the mobile phone that was loosely hanging in my hand resting against the couch.  “Hello?”

“Yep, still here.”  Joel chuckled down the line.

“Oh sorry,” I replied, my voice thick from sleep.  “How long was I out?”  Ally eyed me warily from across the room.

“Not that long,” Joel said huskily into my ear.  “Who was that?”

“Oh, um, that was my sister
Ally, she’s been staying with me.  She just got home.”

“And woke you up,” he finished for me.

“Yeah.  I’m sorry I fell asleep.”

“That’s okay, I enjoyed hearing you snore.”  He laughed at me.

“I wasn’t snoring, was I?” I asked horrified.

“No you weren’t… but you should go to bed.”

“You’re right.”  I sighed.  “So I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

“Looking forward to it.
  Oh and
Liv
?”

“Yeah?”

“Spank you for sleeping with me,” he said smugly and hung up the phone.  Those parting words had me wide-eyed and choking on air.  My cheeks went red and I started giggling.

“Who was that?” Ally asked, before I even had a chance to recover.  “And did you seriously just fall asleep while you were talking to someone on the phone?”

“We weren’t actually talking, we were watching TV.”

“
Riiiggghhhtt?
” Ally looked at me quizzically, obviously wanting more information.

“His name is Joel.  We were chatting and then Scott Pilgrim came on and we
kinda decided to watch it together.”

“While on the phone?”  She raised her eyebrows at me.

“While on the phone,” I said nodding, unable to hide my smile.

“How come you haven’t mentioned this Joel before?” she asked, a smile breaking on her own face.  “Come on, I want details.”

“There’s not much to tell.  We met last week.  We had dinner last Friday and until tonight I didn’t think I’d ever hear from him again.”

“I didn’t know you had a date last week.”

I shrugged at her, it’s not like she tells me everything
she
does.

“You’re seeing him tomorrow night?  I thought we were all heading to the pub.”

“Yeah, we’re still on.  I invited him.”

“Oh, okay.  Good.  ‘Cause I already took the night off work.  Well, I look forward to meeting him then,” she said with a mischievous look on her face.  I knew that
look, she was going to enjoy this.

“I’m going to bed,” I said, rolling my eyes at her.

“Good night.  Oh and happy birthday Libby!”

“Spanks, Ally.”

M
y family has always called me Libby.  I was always Libby to everyone growing up.  It wasn’t until I finished high school and started applying for jobs that I began introducing myself to people as Olivia.  It seemed more mature, more appropriate as I embarked on the new chapter in my life called ‘adulthood’.  At the time, it almost felt like a name change, even though it was the one I was born with.  Nowadays everyone except for my family and a few childhood friends calls me Olivia.  Until Joel.  He called me Liv three times on the phone last night, and numerous times in my mind ever since.  Something about the way it rolled off his tongue gave me a rush.  The fact that he was practically the only one that ever called me that, made it seem special.  It was familiar and affectionate and I really liked that.

I started work at eight o’clock this morning, which felt like a sleep in, and I was surprised to find Jess already there.

“Hello, stranger.  Feeling better?” I asked as I dumped my bag in my locker.

“Yes thanks Olivia,” Jess replied quietly, from the staff room table where she was making a coffee.  Then her eyes narrowed in on me.  “Turn around.  Oh wow, your hair looks great!  God, I take a couple of days off and everything around here changes.”

“Everything changes?” I asked, spinning back to look at her.

“Well your hair… the labels for our biggest client…”

“Oh that.”

“Yes that, I’m so sorry you were left on your own when there was such a big stuff up,” she said sincerely.

“Never mind, I got through it.  Besides it’s not like you got sick on purpose.”

“I guess not,” she said wrinkling her nose.

Jess really was adorable.  She was a couple of years younger than me.  She was a petite thing, with big brown eyes and dark brown wavy hair.  She was softly spoken with the sweetest nature.

“That’s only two things.  So what else around here has changed since you’ve been gone?”

“Well you turned thirty for one, happy birthday by the way.  We still on for tonight?”

“Yep.”

“Good, I really need a night out.  Oh and the other thing is,” she leaned forward and continued in a whisper, “apparently Eric is thinking of leaving.”

“
What?
”  I whisper-yelled.

“That’s what Natalie said anyway.”

Natalie was the receptionist.  I didn’t associate with her much, but from what I could tell she was a fairly pleasant girl.  She did love to gossip though, quite often before checking her facts.

“Well until I hear it from him, I won’t believe it,” I said.

Jess shrugged, giving me an odd look.  I guess she believed he was leaving.  As far as I could tell Eric loved working here.  He was the accountant so he spent most of his time at his desk, but whenever he came out in the factory he was always happy and friendly.  He was also a lot of fun at Friday night drinks.  He was a little hands on which made me a bit uncomfortable at times, but I’d always liked the guy.  I would be sad if he left.

I spotted Eric about an hour later as he headed out from the staff room with a coffee and I called him over to our area.

“Morning ladies.  Like the hair Olivia,” he greeted me with the same reaction I’d had from most people that day.

“Thanks.  So, Eric
are you coming tonight?”

“Um,” his eyes flitted over to Jess who was sitting opposite me and then back in my direction.  “I don’t think so.”

“What?  Why not?”  He hesitated for a moment, so before he opened his mouth to say no I spoke again.  “You know it’s my birthday.  You have to come.”  I pouted.

“Uh-”

“Pretty please.”  I batted my eyelashes at him.  It made him smile.

I noticed Jess watching our interaction but refusing to look Eric in the eye when he glanced back her way.

“Okay, I’ll come.”  He gave my back a light rub, before walking away.

Jess seemed a little tense.  She kept her head down and continued her work.  I opened my mouth to speak but she abruptly stood from her stool.

“I need to go to the loo,” she said and then hurried away. 

There was certainly something going on there, something that Jess didn’t want to talk about.  A few minutes later, I took some paperwork over to Karen and decided to ask her about it.

“Have you noticed anything strange between Jess and Eric?”

“No why?  He hasn’t been sleazing all over her again has he?”

Karen immediately got her back up about it.  I liked the guy and I really didn’t think he meant any harm.

“No.  He’s not a sleaze, he’s just friendly.”

“Well if you say so.”  She rolled her eyes.

She obviously wasn’t going to agree with me on this.  Maybe that’s
it, maybe Jess was uncomfortable with Eric touching her like I was sometimes.  Although, he didn’t go near her today and she was on edge anyway.  I guess it wasn’t any of my business, but I was still hoping that tonight at the pub I would be able to get to the bottom of it.  I’d also like to find out if the rumour about Eric leaving was true.

That opportunity came faster than I would have thought.  Karen picked me up from my place after work.  I was planning on having a few drinks tonight so decided to leave my car at home.  When we got to the pub Eric was already there, he was chatting to Daniel at the table I had booked.  After the standard greetings Daniel went to the bar to get some drinks with Karen.  They met up with Scott, another worker from despatch, and were happily chatting at the bar.  That left Eric and I alone at the table.  I moved to a seat beside him and he automatically moved his arm to the back of my chair.

“So how’s it feel to be dirty thirty, huh?” he asked, wriggling his eyebrows at me.

“The same as twenty-nine.
  You’ll know soon enough.”

Eric was having his 30
th
in three weeks’ time.  Instead of opting for casual drinks with a few friends, like me, he was having a proper cocktail party at his house.  He’d given out the invitations earlier this week.

“I haven’t handed Jess her invite yet.  Do you think she’ll still come?”

“Okay, what is going on with you two?”

“She hasn’t said anything?” he asked, looking surprised.  I shook my head.  “I asked her out. 
Last Wednesday, after work.”

“You did?  Wow that’s...”

“Stupid,” he said dropping his head, he looked really sad.  “She said she’s not interested in having a fling with someone like me.  When I asked her what she meant by that, she basically called me a manwhore.”

“She did?  That doesn’t sound like Jess.”

“I don’t know why she thinks that,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken, “I haven’t been dating that much, and the few girls I have dated haven’t been anyone
she
knows.  I really like her, but now… I just don’t know how to talk to her.  She speaks to you, what do you think?”

"Well I…”

“Why does she think that I’m some guy that screws around?”

“Uh…”  I looked pointedly at his arm casually resting across the back of my chair.  He just continued to stare at me completely clueless.  “Don’t take this the wrong way, okay?” 

He nodded and gulped.

“You kind of come across a bit… you’re a bit of a flirt.”

“Really?”  He looked genuinely surprised.  “A flirt, how?”

“You touch…”
Could this be any more awkward?
I glanced over to the bar, making sure our friends were still there before continuing.  “Some people think that you can’t keep your hands to yourself.”

“
What?
”

“It can make people uncomfortable-”

“Do I make you uncomfortable?” he interrupted me, looking concerned.

“Sometimes.”
  I drew the word out, not really wanting to say it.

“
Fuck
,” he gasped, genuinely looking shocked.

“Eric, I don’t think you’re a sleaze-”

“
Sleaze?
” he said it like a curse word, causing me to flinch.  He withdrew his arm from the back of my chair and leant forward, his arms resting on the table.  He honestly looked hurt.

“I’m sorry.  I don’t think that, I just think that maybe you need to consider…”

“Keeping my hands to myself, got it.”  He sighed with a shake of his head.  “I’m sorry Olivia.  I had no idea.  It’s just who I am, I touch as I talk, I don’t mean to offend anybody.”

“I know that.”

“So Jess thinks that means I’m coming onto everyone?”

“She hasn’t said anything to me.  You should probably-”

“Hey guys!”  Jess stood in front of us with an overly happy smile.  “Let’s get drunk!  Do you want me to get you something?” she asked, turning to me.  Just then Karen, Scott and Daniel arrived with our drinks – a beer for Eric and a Scotch and Coke for me.

“No, I’m right thanks Jess.”

“Okay.”  She smiled brightly, but it was off, it was fake and so unlike her.  She then left to go to the bar.

“Glad she’s feeling better,” Karen laughed before taking a seat down the table and returning to her conversation with Scott and Daniel.  I turned back to Eric.

“What’s this rumour I hear about you leaving?”  I asked quietly, leaning in towards him so the others couldn’t hear.

“Leaving?  I’m not leaving.”

“I didn’t think so, but that’s apparently what Natalie’s been spreading around.”

“Natalie?”  I watched as the information soaked in and understanding crossed Eric’s face.  He leaned in closer to whisper, "I asked Jess out on Wednesday and then she didn’t come to work for a couple of days.  I thought she was avoiding me and I commented in anger to Natalie that I’d had enough of working here… that was Friday, I think.  It was stupid.  Jess wouldn’t just skip work to avoid me.  I know that.  Plus I saw her when she came in on Monday; I know how sick she was.  I was upset, but I have no intention of actually leaving.”  I nodded my understanding.  Eric sat up straight again.  I saw his gaze drift over in Jess’s direction where she stood at the bar.

“You really like her, huh?”  I whispered back.  He nodded and gazed straight ahead. 
Yep, he had it bad.

I saw Jess eyeing us from the
bar, she looked angry and perhaps even a little hurt.  That’s when I realised Eric’s arm was against the back of my chair again.  He was also just whispering in my ear, so I can only imagine what she was thinking.  I really should speak to her about it.  My eyes steered away from Jess when she turned her back to me and that’s when I noticed the tight arse in the jeans of the man that just walked by our table.  My eyes drifted up his lean but muscular back and focused on the mop of brown hair.  I’d recognise that hair anywhere.

“Joel!” I called out.

He spun around and gave me an easy smile, taking a couple of steps in my direction.

“Hey.”  His smile faltered a little as his eyes flicked over to Eric.  Joel glared at Eric’s hand that rested on the back of my chair, near my shoulder.

“Eric,” I whispered harshly, turning toward him.  “This is one of those times.”  I glanced at his arm.

“Oh sorry,” he said
sheepishly, quickly removing it and leaning away from me.  I stood and walked over to Joel.