He Wants Me A Decade later

Olivia looked down at her wrist watch and sighed when she saw the short golden hand of the accessory resting pointedly on the sixth hour. Her left hand came up to rub her temple tiredly as she signed off on yet another document before adding it to the pile that was sitting on her desk to her left.

She was supposed to have left her office two hours ago, and yet here she was working overtime for the umpteenth time this week. It was not as if she wanted to spend all her time here, but for Olivia, this was just a way for her to exist outside all the annoying troubles that just seemed to have come stumbling into her life lately.

And all of it had started when that ghost of her past, Noah Grant had decided to appear in her city. Her talk with Damian this morning, if it could even be called that, had definitely given her more insight on the current situation. Now that she knew what Noah was after, she was going to have to plan accordingly. Maybe she might even Lisa for help. Running into her friend right after her meeting with Damian Grant had certainly been unexpected and surprising, but Olivia was still glad it had happened. Lisa had always been so supportive of her anyway.

Glancing outside the open window of her office, she noticed the fading orange glow of the setting sun from behind the clouds. That was the last push she needed. Olivia shut down the programs on her computer and packed up the files she had worked on. Slipping her bag into her shoulder, she made her way out of the office and down to the lobby where a short haired young woman was sitting behind a desk at a corner.

"Hey Tris," Olivia greeted and placed the files on the woman's desk. "I think this should be the last of today's files. There are still the ones from last week on my desk but I'll get started on those tomorrow."

The woman, Tris smiled and shook her head. "You know you don't have to help working so late, Olivia. The office closes at 4pm for a reason."

Olivia leaned back with a raised eyebrow and a sly smile on her lips. "Oh yeah? Then why are you still here?"

"'Cause unlike you, I actually get paid for working overtime," said Tris as she ushered Olivia towards the exit. "Now get outta here and try to take it a little easier, okay?"

Olivia replied her with a smile and a two finger wave before pushing the doors open. Her car was parked just at the corner of the street where the office was, something she had done since it would let her get some more cardio early in the morning. The drive home was remarkably uneventful, although that quickly changed as she pulled into her driveway, only to find another car parked just up front beside the curb in front of her house.

It only took her seconds to recognize the car with the poor illumination from the car's headlights. It belonged to Michael, which meant that the man was most likely close by. Unlike the last time she had run into a man's presence at her home uninvited, Olivia felt no sense of danger or any unpleasantness of that sort. When Noah had come by here, she had spent most of that time filled with anger and disgust. But just thinking about Michael brought a small flutter in her stomach that had the corner of her lips curving up faintly.

Just as she stopped her car, the familiar tall figure of Michael stepped out from the garden at the side where he had probably been waiting for her. She left the car and walked down to him with her hands in her coat pockets. Honestly Olivia still had no idea what to expect from Michael right now, thanks to the situation with that other woman Amelia.

"Hey," she murmured lowly.

"Liv," Michael half whispered, his feet taking a step closer to her. "Can we talk?"

Olivia nodded and moved to unlock her door. "Have you been waiting for me?"

Michael looked away calmly as he answered. "Not really. I only just arrived here myself a few minutes ago."

That was not true, but Michael had no intention of letting Olivia know that. He had come here over an hour ago but he had not found anyone home. Since he had no way of knowing just how late she was going to be, Michael had just decided to stay here and wait for her rather than leave. That was how important it was to him that he did this.

The two of them entered the house and Olivia closed the door behind them. Turning on the lights, she dropped her keys on the mantelpiece and turned to Michael with an expression that basically asked him to get on with whatever he had come to do.

The man sighed and ran his hands through his hair slowly. "Listen Olivia," he began. "Amelia and I... We're an old story from my past. We used to be good friends, really close ones back then. Close enough that we even got engaged for a while. But it didn't work out then because of a bunch of reasons."

Michael paused for a moment and glanced sideways at Olivia to gauge her reactions to what he had said so far. The young woman had her arms crossed in front of her with an unreadable expression on her face. Michael really could not tell if that was good or bad, but since she had not thrown him out by now, he figured he might as well run with what he had.

"Our relationship ended a long time ago and I didn't hear from her again when she left. Honestly I thought she would have forgotten about that by now, because I definitely did," Michael explained. He sat down on the couch and ran his fingers down the soft material. When he looked up again, Olivia had come close with to sit on the arm of the furniture and her features had become visibly more relaxed.

"I don't know what she wants now, Liv. But I have no interest in having anything to do with her now. You're the only one I care about, Olivia," he finished gently, reaching up to grasp her hands in his.

Olivia stared deep into his eyes for a few moments, before finally giving him a small nod that had the man releasing the breath he had been holding unknowingly.

"Why didn't you tell me about her earlier?" Olivia asked him gently as she placed her forehead against his. "We could have avoided all this, you know..."

"I know," said Michael in a low sigh. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's alright," she muttered. "But you'll have to make sure you do things right this time."

"I know Liv, and I will."

Michael tightened his hold on her hands just the slightest bit and brought them up to his lips to place kisses on the back of her hands. The feeling of his lips on her skin sent a rush of sensation through Olivia in an instant. Her eyes flickered down to those same lips and within seconds she had already planted hers on his. Michael wasted no time in slipping his hands around her waist and pulled her into his lap, one hand reaching up to hold the back of her neck to deepen the kiss.

But just as he did that, Olivia released her grip on his shirt and leaned back a little to look at him right in the eyes.

"Michael... I think... I might have to accept Noah again..."