Olivia POV:

I woke up and smiled up at Alex who was still peacefully sleeping. I wriggled out of his grip without disturbing him and I tiptoed downstairs. I was only wearing one of his shirts and some underwear but it’s only us. I looked at the clock to see that it was seven o’ clock already. I should get ready for work now. I went back upstairs with a cup of water and went straight into the bathroom. I did my makeup and tried my best to cover up my no longer swollen black eye. Now it was only discolored, score! I had to thank Lex for that; he took good care of me yesterday and made sure that I did everything to make the swelling go down. I went into the closet and quietly changed into some clothes before going quietly back downstairs. I had spent an hour in the bathroom due to my stupid eye. I sighed and made some coffee and breakfast for my Lexy pie. I made some eggs, hash browns, and toast. I decided that was good since I need to make up for the famous Gaskarth pancakes I’ve been eating almost every morning. I’m in awe that I’m not sick of pancakes by now but they’re so damn good. I dished everything up on two plates before setting them down on the table and pouring Alex a cup of coffee. He stumbled down the stairs and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Thank you baby,” He managed to mutter before sloppily kissing my cheek and sitting down in front of his plate. I sat down in front of him and we started to eat our food in the quiet.

“You covered your eye up really well.” He complimented. “You look gorgeous.”

“Thanks sweetie,” I smiled and took our dishes over to the sink.

“Do you want me to take you into work today?” He asked.

“Sure.” I smiled.

“Okay let me grab my keys.” He was more alert now that he had some caffeine in his system. I took a long drink of his coffee even though Dave did a coffee run every morning. I grabbed my purse and followed Alex out to his car. He was wearing his sweats still but that didn’t stop him from looking sexy. He hadn’t bothered to brush his hair but I liked it messy. I brushed his hair with my fingers before pulling him over to me and kissing him deeply.

“Thanks for taking good care of me Lexy,” I smiled at him.

“Anything for you baby.” He smiled and started the car. I turned on the radio and we sang along to almost every song that came on. He pulled in front of my building and leaned over to kiss me.

“Have a great day.” He smiled against my lips.

“You too babe,” I smiled and got out of the car. I waved at him and went inside the building. I was met by Liz, like every morning, as we made our way into the elevator.

“Morning Olivia,” she chirped and looked over at me. Her face soon twisted into a frown when she noticed something was different. “What happened to your eye?”

“Is it really noticeable?” I covered it with my hand and looked at her.

“No, no.” She shook her head frantically. “I just see your face a lot.”

“Oh okay.” I smiled a little before dropping my hand back down to my side. I waved at our receptionist as Liz and I went into our office. I slumped into my chair and started up my computer.

“So what happened?” Liz leaned over from behind her computer. “Did Alex hit you?”

“No,” I said protectively. “We went to find a Christmas tree and we ran into his crazy ex. We found a tree and they wanted it too, then she got mad when she found out I was his girlfriend and she hit me, then she clawed my neck.” I moved my scarf so she could see the damage.

“Oh my gosh, that’s terrible!” She gasped when I showed her the claw marks. “What a bitch.”

Dave walked into the room and waited for us to spit out our orders. He looked shocked when he saw my eye. I told him the story and he pulled me into a hug telling me that he’d knock her out for me. I laughed and asked him to get me a peppermint mocha; he copied me, like almost every day because I was “Full of such good ideas.”

“Morning guys,” Drew walked into the room. “So I was going to talked to you guys about- What happened to your eye?”

“I thought I covered it up!” I was irritated now, I checked in my phone. It wouldn’t be that noticeable if it wasn’t still a little squinty. Liz told him the story and he came and sat down on my desk.

“What’d Alex do?” He asked.

“He pulled the bitch away and took care of me all day yesterday.” I sighed.

“Well if you need anything, don’t be afraid to call me.” He patted my back and smiled at me. It was really nice having one of my childhood friends back in my life. It was hard to keep in touch with my other friends but it was worth it.

“Have you told Kristi yet?” He asked.

“No I haven’t told any of them yet.” I ran a hand through my hair and looked down at my phone. I had one message but it was from Alex.

From Lexy:
Knock ‘em dead today baby!

I smiled at his little confidence boost before standing up.

“I’ve gotta go talk to the boss.” I walked out of the office and made my way down to his door. I knocked and earned a response telling me to come in. I opened the door and sat down in front of his desk.

“My goodness Olivia, what on earth happened to you?” He sounded genuinely concerned. I explained to him what had happened the previous day earning a supportive smile from him.

“So what can I help you with?” He asked.

“Well Mr. Smith,” I started.

“For the last time Olivia,” he laughed, “Just call me Don.”

“Okay Don,” I restarted, “I was wondering if I could take a week off in April for a vacation. I know I haven’t been working here very long but-”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” He held up a finger. “We haven’t had someone as hard working as you come into this office at such an early time. You’ve been busting your butt ever since you started with us. So I would be more than okay with you taking time off.”

“Thank you so much sir,” I couldn’t hide the giant smile on my face. “I can work from there and answer emails-”

“Olivia, the point of a vacation is to get away from the stress of work.” He laughed at my enthusiasm. “So I want you to enjoy every minute of it. Now go mark it down on the calendar so everyone knows.”

I thanked him a whole bunch more before being kicked out of his office. I went over to the calendar that was up on the wall near the front desk. I went over to the April page and marked off the first full week, which were the days we were vacationing on. I wrote “Liv will be on vacay” and drew a thin line across the top of those days so there would still be room for others to write things down. I smiled and went back into my office. Dave had left my hot coffee on my desk and I gladly took a deep drink to help kick start my day.

Notes

Decided to update today since mothafuckin House Party is tomorrow! I've been jumping up and down out of excitement since the month started and it's finally time to go see all of my bbs again! Gah!

Oh and I decided to start putting outfit links in the actual chapter so you'll know what's going on with her lookwise (even though I know it honestly doesn't matter at all so idek why I use it... Maybe so my polyvore actually has a use...)

Anyways thanks so much for reading and hello to my new subscribers! (And my older book is approaching 10k views.) Sorry for rambling, I just have so much to talk about and nobody cares so um, bye! Love you all! xoxo