What Lies Beneath

Chapter 13

About five beers later, Oliva’s sides were in stitches. She could not remember the last time she had laughed like this. Drunk people watching drunk people try to sing. Hilarious. Whoever thought of this is a f*****g genius, Olivia decided. “Glad to see you’re not nearly drunk enough to head on up.” Kat motioned to the stage.

“I’d have to drink something a little stronger than beer for that to happen. But I’d probably just shoot myself first.” Olivia shuddered at the thought of getting up on that stage. Kat laughed at her horror. Frowning, she pulled her phone from her pocket.

“Mason?” she answered. “Hold on.” She got up and headed for the door. Olivia could barely hear herself think in here. Her slightly intoxicated brain was hoping Mason was on his way. Turning on the stool, she was about to prop her boots onto the vacant chair next to her before someone snagged it but had to pull back as a denim-clad a*s plopped down on it, anyway. Leaning with his arm on the bar, facing Olivia, Daniels beamed at her. “I have to admit, my ego was feeling a bit bruised there for a while.” He wasn’t drunk, but he wasn’t sober either.

Frowning at the nonsense coming from his mouth, she found herself suddenly irritated by the sounds and people around her. She guessed the new company had more to do with that because she was having a high old time before he came along.

Motioning to Kat, leaning against a streetlight pole, staring at the sidewalk as she spoke to Mason. “Seeing you with Kat, it makes sense now.”

“What are you on about Daniels?”

“Your coolness towards my advances.” He pretended to pout at that. “But it doesn’t sting so much now that I know you’re into girls.” He shrugged.

What? “I’m not gay, Daniels.” She regretted the words just as she spoke them. If he thought Olivia was into girls, it might have just been reason enough for him to leave her alone.

Smirking at her, he asked. “Does Kat know that? Sure looks like she wants to be more than friends to me.”

“Well, let me go right ahead and ask her,” Olivia said sarcastically while she remained seated. “The only person here who wants to be more than friends is you, Detective.”

Throwing his hands in the air in exasperation he said. “We’re at a bar, for f**k’s sake. Call me Cole.” She didn’t respond. “Ok, you’re not gay, so what’s the problem then?”

His persistence was grating her nerves raw. “Cole.” She smiled sweetly at him and saw a spark of desire flashing before his eyes. “Has it ever occurred to you I just don’t find you attractive?” She turned her body back towards the stage as she kept eye contact with him, making sure he understood she wasn’t playing hard to get. “Besides, I don’t have affairs with my colleagues.” She gave him a true reason.

He was grinding his molars, obviously very offended. “We’ll see about that, Olivia.” His mouth was on hers before she could even formulate a retort to his arrogant statement. Her body turned to stone. Her brain needed a few seconds to wrap itself around the fact that Daniels was trying to shove his tongue down her throat.

She placed her hands on his shoulders, which he obviously took as encouragement because he tried to wrap his arms around her. She shoved him back, hard. Daniels had to act fast to catch himself before he fell right on his a*s. Recovering quickly, he shot from the stool, looking around to make sure his humiliation was not being witnessed. Olivia leaned forward when his blazing eyes landed on her and she was sure she had his attention, she sneered. “If you ever do that again, I’ll cut off your balls, do you understand, Detective?”

“What’s going on here?” Kat demanded.

“Nothing,” Olivia said, glaring at Daniels, who turned on a huff and stormed off.

Sitting back in her chair staring at Olivia, she laughed a little. “Seriously, Olivia, what the hell just happened? I was heading inside just to see you pushing Daniels off you.”

Not looking at her, Olivia told her all about Daniels, the coffee and pastries, the tacos, the Bolton case, everything up until what she witnessed just now.

“Jeez, get a hint already!” she exclaimed. “Idiots.”

Olivia could only nod in agreement.

“So, he told you I was trying to hook up with you?” She laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world.

A little offended for reasons unknown, Olivia shrugged. “Looks like it,” she muttered.

“Don’t get me wrong, Olivia, you’re hot. If you’d swing the other way and wanted to have a go at me, I’d be on you like white on rice.” She grinned at her joke before she got serious “But, I feel something else when I look at you. Something warm. I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe I had too much beer, but I look at you and I feel the same thing I did when I first laid eyes on Mason. Family,” she said honestly.

Olivia couldn’t feel more anymore uncomfortable if Kat had told her she would like to throw Olivia down on this very bar and have her way with her.

“I know you’ll need time to open up, I could see your reservations from the beginning. One day,” she promised as she looked behind them for Johnny Boy. “One day Olivia, you will let me in.”

Her words had Olivia struggling to keep a neutral face, saying nothing as she headed for the loo. Why did she have to say that? Lord knows Olivia didn’t want any complications in her life. She felt just a little stupid sitting on the closed toilet seat, taking deep breaths to calm her racing heart. Family, friends, lovers. They all complicate life sooner rather than later. Olivia headed back and neither of them spoke about it again for the rest of the night.

Countless beers later, a very annoyed Johnny Boy shoed their drunk asses from the bar. Giggling like two schoolgirls, they hooked arms around shoulders. It made sense in their drunken state to hold each other up. Not realizing that the moment one of them loses her footing, they’re both falling flat on their asses.

“Wait, wai. Hol up,” Kat stammered as they reached her car. Digging for her keys with the unoccupied hand, she swore. “Damn keesh.”

“Your damn keys are in your back pocket, you idiot.” Turning in unison, they cheered when they saw Mason standing in the open door of his Mustang. “Come on, you two. Let’s go home.” They stumbled over to the car and spilled in after a slight struggle of trying to remember how to open a car door. She fell into the backseat and Mason closed the door behind her. “Thanks,” she slurred while he shook his head.

Olivia was existing on a dream plane where she was a different person. Light, open, caring, lovable. She smiled as the sleepy city zoomed in a blur. Her eyes drooped, but just before the blackness swallowed her whole, she smiled again. She hasn’t had this much fun in a very, very long time.

She jolted awake, drenched in sweat. Olivia rolled over to her side just in time to vomit violently on the floor.

Fun, she remembered, as her body shuddered with aftershocks, came with a hefty price.