Meant to Be

Olivia was supposed to be waiting for Brendon in her hospital room as he ran a couple of errands, but she figured this would be the only time she could see Travis. He was just on the floor below hers and she figured she’d be back before Brendon.

The nurse at the desk was on the phone and held one of her fingers up letting Olivia know she’d be with her in a minute. As she waited, Olivia looked around, watched as nurses traveled from room to room and visitors coming and going. She was all too familiar with the setting and began to miss her job as a nurse.

“Can I help you?” Olivia returned her attention to the nurse.

“Yeah, I’m looking for Travis O’Brien. Could you tell me his room number?” she asked.

The nurse nodded her head and looked down at something on the desk. “Yes, he’s in room three-twelve.”

Olivia smiled at the woman. “Thank you.”

She lightly knocked on the door and heard a low “come in” from the other end. There was a young nurse in the room, checking over Travis’ vitals. Travis was in worse shape than she had thought. There were stitches just above his left eyebrow, his right arm was in a sling, and his left leg in a cast, but despite all that he wore a smile.

“Hey Liv, you found me,” he said cheerfully. “I wanted to go see you yesterday, but the doctors told me I had to stay put and no one would give me any updates on you. You okay? The baby?” he asked.

Olivia shook her head in disbelief and walked closer to him. “I can’t believe you’re more worried about me and the baby when you got the worse of the accident,” she said grabbing his hand.

He laughed a little. “It’s really not as bad as it looks, plus Nurse Rachel here has been taking great care of me.” He turned his head towards the nurse and winked at her.

She blushed and smiled. “He’s going to fine. Nothing to worry about,” she assured Olivia. “I’ll be back later to give you your meds,” she told him.

Olivia waited for the nurse to close the door behind her. “Nurse Rachel huh?” she said teasingly.

Travis patted Olivia’s hand and laughed. “She’s pretty isn’t she? We were in the same grade in high school and on the academic decathlon team together.”

“Seems like someone has a crush.”

“We’ll see. But really, are you and the baby okay?” he asked changing the subject.

Olivia placed her other hand over her stomach and rubbed it. “We’re both fine. The doctor cleared us to go home. But I needed to make sure you were fine; I just feel guilty that this happened to you.”

“Don’t. Don’t you think that. I think it could’ve been a hell of a lot worse. I’m alive and well. I mean, I won’t be landscaping anytime soon, but that’s why I have employees right?” Olivia nodded her head in agreement. “So, is your cousin picking you up?” he asked.

Olivia led out a deep breath. “Actually,”

“Liv?” Olivia and Travis’ attention turned towards the door and peering from behind it was Brendon.

“Brendon. Hey, you’re back,” Olivia said.

He walked towards the pair and placed his hand on Olivia’s back. “Yeah. What’s going on? Who’s this?” he asked looking at Travis.

“Oh right, I never told you. Brendon, this is Travis…from high school.” She smiled and looked at Travis. “He’s been a really big help these past few months, I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

Brendon couldn’t believe he was the same Travis from high school and from what he recalled, he knew Travis had a crush on Olivia back then. He tensed up when he heard Olivia say that and the way Travis looked at her, hoping he had gotten over her.

Brendon licked his lips. “Well, I guess I owe you a lot of gratitude for helping Liv out then.”

“Really, it was no problem. I’m glad I was able to help as much as I could and it was great catching up with her.”

Olivia felt herself get teary eyed and thought it was the perfect time to ask him a very important question before her emotions took over. “Like I’ve said, you’ve been such a big help and great friend when you didn’t have to be; I owe you so much. But I do have one more thing I’d like you to do for me.”

Travis looked at her curiously. “Okay? What is it?”

She looked at Brendon and then back at Travis. “I’d love it if you would be the baby’s godfather.”

“Really?” he asked surprisingly.

“Well yeah. I couldn’t imagine anyone else. So, what do you say?”

“I was not expecting that, but of course. I’d love to be his godfather,” he smiled.



After saying good-bye, Brendon and Olivia made their way back to Brendon’s car. “Oh God,” Olivia said after getting into the front seat.

Brendon looked at her with grave concern. “What? Is it the baby? Oh my God, you’re going into labor!” he yelled as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

Olivia laughed. “No. I think I just peed myself a little.”

Brendon couldn’t help but smile and rebuckled his seatbelt before driving back to Olivia’s. “So, Travis as the godfather huh?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?” she asked, getting the hint of annoyance in his voice.

“Oh, so now you’re asking for my opinion?” he retorted.

She gave him a dirty look, not liking his tone one bit. “What’s your problem? Are you mad that I asked Travis to be the baby’s godfather?”

“I’m just mad that you didn’t include me in the decision,” he said, calming his voice down.

Olivia reached for his hand and interlocked their fingers. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was that important to you. He doesn’t have to be if you don’t want him to.”

Brendon shook his head. “No. I don’t mind he’s the godfather. He’s obviously done a lot for you. Been there for you when I wasn’t.”

“You’re here now. That’s all that matters,” she said, giving his hand a comforting squeeze.

Brendon brought her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on it. “So, uh, who were you thinking to be the godmother?”

“Charlotte, of course. Well, she kinda volunteered herself, but I had always planned on asking her.”

“Charlotte? Really?”

“Yeah. What’s wrong with her being the godmother?”

“Well for one, she hates me, and two, she’s kinda a bitch,” he said as a matter of fact.

Olivia couldn’t believe what he said, punching his arm as hard as she could. “Hey! That’s not very nice. She’s my best friend – always there for me, through everything,” she said, thinking about all the good and bad times Charlotte had been there.

“I know she has and I’m okay with her being the godmother. But she does hate me and she’s a bitch to me. You can’t deny that.”

Olivia laughed at his comment, knowing it was very true. “I definitely will not deny that. For some reason she’s never liked you, but I can see that changing soon.”

Brendon smiled at her and parked by the curb of Olivia’s driveway. “I guess they wanted to be here when you got home,” he said, referring to the cars parked in the driveway.

“Can’t blame them for being worried,” she replied, looking at the cars. “Do you wanna come in?” she asked, turning her head towards him.

Brendon looked a little unsure. It had been years since he’d seen Olivia’s family, excluding Charlotte. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

Olivia nodded her head understandably. “Okay, but you should know I told them the break-up was mutual. Charlotte’s the only one who knows what really happened all those years ago.”

Brendon eyed her curiously. “Why would you tell them that?” he asked.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess a part of me hoped that we’d get back together and if we did, I didn’t want them to hate you.”

His fingertips slowly brushed against her cheek until they fell to her chin. He gently turned her head towards him and leaned over, softly pressing his lips against hers. With one last kiss he pulled away from her and smiled as he looked into her eyes.

“I love you and I’m the luckiest man alive to have you in my life.”

“I love you too,” she said before giving him a peck on the lips. “And you are extremely lucky to have me in your life,” she smiled. She unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for the door handle. “I better get inside before they think you kidnapped me,” she joked.

Brendon told her to hold on while he got out and opened the door for her and held his hand out to help her out of the car. “Thank you,” she said as she got out of the front seat.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She nodded her head. “There’re a few things I want to talk to you about, so how about I pick you up for lunch?” he asked.

“Sounds perfect.”

Brendon bent down and placed his hands on Olivia’s baby bump. “And you little guy, I can’t wait to meet you in a few months. You’re not even here yet and I already love you so much,” he said before standing up.

Olivia started to fight the tears. “Okay, okay. Go before this gets worse,” she said, wiping under her eyes.

He laughed to himself and brought her forehead to his lips. “See you tomorrow.”