Meant to Be

Olivia brushed the ends of her hair one last time before setting down the brush on the counter. She stared at herself in the mirror, making sure she looked okay for dinner with Charlotte, Charlotte’s fiancé Jesse, and Travis. She ran her fingers through her hair, down her cheek, and gently brushed them against her lips, smiling as she remembered Brendon’s lips pressed against hers. It was unexpected and perfect, sending goose bumps throughout her body.

And then there was the CD, which she had listened to on her way home, as she laid in bed before she went to sleep, and as she got ready for dinner. It wasn’t anything like she had expected, but she absolutely loved it and what made it more special was that Brendon wrote the songs or most of them, she assumed. He really did love her still. She sighed knowing she had a decision to make by tomorrow before Brendon left back to L.A.

Her phone rang as she walked out of her bathroom and into her bedroom. She tensed up thinking it could possibly be Brendon, but once she saw it was Travis, relaxed and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey! I just pulled up in your driveway and I must say I am looking awesome for dinner.” Olivia laughed, wondering if he really did clean up nicely. “Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be down in a minute,” she answered before they both hung up.

Olivia placed her phone in her purse and before heading downstairs, looked at herself once more in the mirror. She didn’t have an oversize blouse that could hide the ever growing baby bump, though she tried. She smiled while she rubbed her belly and slightly shrugged her shoulders as she walked out of her room.

Travis’ headlights blinded her for a bit as she walked across the driveway to get to the passenger’s seat. He smiled as she slowly sat in the front seat. She let out an exhausted sigh and smiled back at him. He really did know how to clean up well she thought.

“You’re looking lovely,” Travis commented as she backed out of the driveway.

Olivia smiled shyly and thanked him. “So do you,” she replied back.

“Awe, well thank you,” he responded. “So how has your day been so far? Anything exciting happen?” he asked.

She chuckled a little and shook her head. “Not today,” she said a little sarcastically.

She saw him turn his head in her direction and could only imagine the look he gave her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked curiously, catching the way she responded.

“Well, yesterday I got a couple of visits from two people I thought I left behind. I guess I wouldn’t call it exciting. More surprising than anything.”

“Wait, are you saying you saw your fiancé and Brendon yesterday?” Travis asked redirecting his attention towards the road.

Olivia slowly nodded her head. “Yeah. Actually Jason visited my house and sometime later Brendon somehow found me at my favorite café near my dad’s. It was like a bad dream,” she said remembering yesterday.

“Even seeing Brendon?”

She turned her head to the side to face the window. No, seeing Brendon couldn’t be compared to a bad dream. It was nice seeing him again, but some part of her wished he hadn’t found her.

“No,” she said simply.

They ended the conversation at that, only letting the music from the radio fill the silence in the car until they got to the restaurant. Travis opened the door for Olivia and she clung to his arm as they walked to the front doors. It was actually one of the nicer restaurants that wasn’t in the heart of the Vegas Strip. They spotted Charlotte and Jesse immediately as they entered the restaurant and made their way to the table.

“Hey!” Charlotte said happily as she got up to hug the pair. Jesse hugged Olivia and shook Travis’ hand.

They all sat back down and ordered their drinks – Olivia optioned for a glass of water for apparent reasons.

“So, how have you been since the last time I saw you? Everything okay with the baby?” Charlotte asked.

Olivia smiled and nodded her head. “The baby’s fine. I’m fine. Every-everything’s good.” It was the partial truth.

Travis gave Olivia a subtle look, but not subtle enough for Charlotte, who caught the look they both gave each other. She knew there was something Olivia wasn’t telling her.

Charlotte rose from her seat. “Excuse me, I need to head to ladies room. Olivia, can you come with me?” she asked politely.

Olivia got up and followed behind Charlotte, knowing neither of them intended on using the bathroom.

“Spit it out,” Charlotte demanded as soon as they were in.

Olivia laughed to herself at Charlotte’s abruptness, but shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“I saw the way you and Travis looked at each other. Something’s going on. Are you and him…”

Olivia’s eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. “No!” she exclaimed shaking her head.

“Well then tell me what’s happening!” Charlotte said, getting irritated.

Olivia licked her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. A heavy sigh escaped her mouth. “I saw Jason yesterday.”

Charlotte’s facial expression softened and quickly wrapped her arms around Olivia. “Does he know?” she whispered.

Olivia shook her head. “No, but he wanted me back and I told him to forget about me.”

Charlotte held Olivia at arm’s length and gave her a proud smile. “Good. Good for you. So why didn’t you want me to know that?” she asked curiously.

“It wasn’t that. Jason was only the first surprise visitor I got yesterday.”

Charlotte already knew who that second visitor was. “Oh no,” was all she managed to say.

“Oh yeah,” Olivia said nodding her head slowly.

“But why?”

Wasn’t it obvious though? Olivia thought to herself, but realized it probably wasn’t if you didn’t know the whole story. So Olivia began when he found her at the café and told her everything, from Kayla’s lie to giving her the album – making sure to emphasize he didn’t know of her pregnancy.

“Did you listen to it?”

“What do you think?” Charlotte rolled her eyes. “And now he wants an answer by tomorrow and I honestly don’t know if I have one for him,” Olivia said, still unsure about what to do.

Charlotte rubbed the side of Olivia’s arm to try to comfort her. “Well, don’t mull over it during dinner. Let’s just enjoy ourselves.”

Olivia nodded her head in agreement.



Brendon laid on his bed facing the ceiling, fixated on a small crack above him. For once in a long time, his mind was completely void of thoughts. Bogart slept next to him and Brendon stroked his coat lightly until he felt his head perch up and look towards the door.

“You okay?” Kara asked, peering through the half opened door.

Brendon turned his head slightly to face her. “Fine,” he said apathetically.

“No word I’m assuming?”

Brendon told her what had happened the day before and knew what she was referring to. “Nope.”

Knowing she wasn’t going to get any more than one worded answers out of him, she bid him good night and closed his door. The next day he was heading back to L.A. with or without Olivia and the thought of her not going with him was hard to imagine. He lifted his arm up and held his phone over his face to check the time. 10:15 PM . It had been well over a day since their conversation and he figured she’d tell him tomorrow or not at all. With that thought, he closed his eyes, trying to drift to sleep and then his phone went off, causing him and Bogart to startle awake.

“Hello?” Brendon answered, not recognizing the phone number.

“Brendon is that you?” the person asked.

“Yeah? Who’s this?” he asked curiously.

“It’s me, Charlotte.” She almost sounded out of breath.

“Why are you calling me?” he said with unintentional harshness.

She hesitated and he could hear the tremble in her voice. “Brendon, it’s Olivia.”