Never Crossed My Mind

On their second day in Carolina, Olivia had convinced Johnny to spend the late afternoon and evening with her on the beach and Surf City for supper. Johnny agreed, although he did tease her again about her tanline once the cast came off when they returned back to Olivia’s apartment.

“I’ve got a good couple of months before this thing comes off, so there’s just not much I can do about that,” Olivia reminded him. She tossed their towels in her dirty clothes basket and fell back on the bed. “I’m so tired. It was a good day though.”

“It really was,” Johnny agreed, crawling on top of her. He kissed her on the lips and then her cheek, following those with more kisses down her neck and collarbone.

Olivia giggled. “Didn’t I just tell you I was tired?”

Johnny sighed and fell to his back beside her. “You made me stare at you in a bikini all day and you’re not even going to let me act on any of the thoughts that puts into my head?”

“Even with my cast, you still like seeing me in a bikini?”

He propped himself up on one elbow and smiled, pushing her hair away from her face and behind her ear. “I just like seeing you, really. I like looking at you and knowing that, even if it took a while, we came back to each other.”

“Me too,” she smiled, leaning up to kiss him.

Johnny kissed her back, letting his hand rest on her hip. Olivia moved to put her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his. Johnny knew exactly where this was headed and it wasn’t at all that he didn’t want her again – he would take Olivia as often as he could – but right now he had something to say. If he didn’t say it now when they were alone, he was afraid it would come out at a completely inopportune moment when it wasn’t just the two of them.

He pulled away and took a deep breath, letting his forehead lean against hers. “I love you, Livvy.”

She immediately sat up, her eyes wide. “What?”

“You heard me,” he said, sitting up and leaning on one arm placed behind her. “I love you. We talked about this, and I’m not trying to pressure you. I don’t want you to say anything if you’re not ready. I just … I can’t hold back anymore and I don’t want to. It took us a whole year to come back to each other, and if I ever lost you again, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d be a mess.”

Olivia swallowed. “Johnny, you know how much I care about you. I thought I was crazy or a creeper even, for thinking about you all that time that we were apart. Once we were finally in each other’s lives again, you were the one who convinced me it was all right to open up again, and to take a chance on something. Being around you and the guys has changed me, for the better. I feel like this is who I really am -- a girl who skateboards off ramps into swimming pools and who makes her boyfriend get another guy’s name tattooed on him.”

Johnny chuckled. “That is precisely why I love you.”

Olivia smiled and nodded. “And I love you for showing me the person I really am. You saw me, even through my workaholic, control-freak front. And I really do love you for that.”

He kissed her again, resuming the position they had been in with her body pressed against his. With Olivia it had never been just sex, but this time was different. He loved her and she loved him -- and he didn’t have to push her to admit it. She trusted him enough to just tell him how she felt.

Afterwards, she laid on his chest, their bodies tangled in the sheets of her bed. She hummed the same song she had hummed her first night in Los Angeles, when he had to carry her in from the car.

“You like that song, don’t you?” Johnny smiled.

Olivia shrugged. “It reminds me of you.”

He pulled her in for a kiss. “This is all working out, isn’t it?”

“I think so,” she said with a small smile. “I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop … but then I look at you and everything is just perfect.”

“And it’s going to stay that way,” Johnny promised her.

***

The call from Jeff that woke them early the next morning made Olivia doubt Johnny’s assurances that everything was going to be fine from there on out. The sun was just coming up over the horizon when Johnny’s phone went off; it was three hours earlier in California, so Olivia could only imagine what was going on that would be so important.

“I need you guys back here immediately,” Jeff directed. “No questions. Get on a plane and get here. We’ll talk then.”

“You can’t tell us anything?” Johnny asked.

Jeff sighed. “This is huge, Knoxville. If it weren’t for the loyalty we have from some MTV employees, I wouldn’t even know about this. I need you back as soon as possible -- absolutely today.”

“All right, we’ll get going.” He disconnected the call and roused Olivia from her sleep. “Hey, pretty girl. Wake up. We’ve got to get going.”

“We’re supposed to have two more days,” she argued, burrowing deeper under the covers. She giggled when Johnny nuzzled into her neck, blowing raspberries and doing his best to wake her. Finally, she emerged from under the blanket. “All right, all right! I’m up.”

“Me too,” Johnny teased, pulling her back under the blankets.

Olivia giggled again, but her giggles soon turned to moans when Johnny let a very convincing hand find its way between her legs and into her panties.

An hour later, they were still in the bed when Olivia’s phone rang. Groaning and rolling off of Johnny, she reached for it. “Shit, it’s Jeff … Hi, Jeff. We’re just, um, packing up.”

“Good, because we really need the two of you here. The investors are furious, Olivia.”

Olivia sat up and frowned. “Why are you yelling at me like this is my fault?”

“Just get your ass here, and come with a fucking explanation.”

The slamming of Jeff’s desk phone in her ear made her jump a little. “Okay, Jeff is really pissed. He said the investors are furious and that I need to come up with an explanation, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to be explaining.”

“Wow. I guess we really should get going,” Johnny said, raising his brow.

***

Bam had spoken with Jeff as well, so the three of them traveled back to California together. It was late afternoon when they arrived at LAX, and Olivia had fretted the whole way from Carolina.

“Liv, relax. Jeff probably just called you after he was already worked up and you got the brunt of it,” Bam told her. “Let’s just head over to the office and we’ll go from there.”

But once at the office, Olivia was even less assured than when she had talked to Jeff on the phone. Wee Man, Steve-O and Ehren were all waiting in Jeff’s office and they wouldn’t even look at her. Chris walked into the office not long after they were seated; he greeted Bam and Johnny but didn’t reply to Olivia when she greeted him.

“All right, what the fuck is going on?” she demanded. “Why won’t anyone talk to me?”

Jeff took a deep breath and looked at her across the desk. “Nick had the courtesy to call me last night and let me know about a documentary MTV will be airing later tonight. You want to tell me what that documentary might be about?”

Olivia frowned. “How am I supposed to know?”

“Because you fucking sold everything to them!” Jeff yelled. “Everything that has gone in the last couple of months since you got here -- everybody’s comments on Ryan, your relationship with Johnny -- according to Nick, you even included Julie’s little love triangle.”

Bam’s eyes immediately snapped to Ehren’s, but Ehren ignored it. “Danger, man …”

“Take care of it later, Bam,” Jeff told him. “This meeting is about Olivia. I need you to clear out everything from this office, get your shit from Knoxville’s, and get the hell away from all of us, Olivia. The next time you hear from our side, it’ll be through a lawyer.”

Olivia stood up, shaking her head. “No, that’s not possible. There weren’t even supposed to be any cameras going after hours … we were going to whittle down what everyone said about Ryan … I would never do this!”

“We’ve been advised by our lawyers not to talk to you anymore than what I’ve said,” Jeff said. “You guys can all go.”

Everyone walked out from the room, leaving Olivia on her own. Tears streaming down her face, she made way for her office and started to load everything up.

“Hey,” Johnny said quietly from her doorway.

She looked up at him and shrugged. “I don’t know what happened, but I swear I didn’t have anything to do with any of that.”

Johnny looked at the floor before looking back at her. “Was anything that you told me true?”

She stood and reached for his hand, but he pulled back. “Everything that I told you was true! Johnny, I’m in love with you!”

“You know, it makes sense now. Why you never called back, why I always had to push you to go the next step with me. One of the first conversations we had was about ethics, you remember that? So much for ethics, I guess.”

“No! I had no part in this!”

“You realize you’re killing the whole crew here? Everyone’s going to have to take sides with Bam and Ehren. My God, what about Julie? Do you realize what you’ve done to her? Do you care? You were the one pushing her and Bam together -- was it because of this?”

“I can’t believe you don’t believe me!” Olivia yelled. “Johnny, you know me. I would never do something to ruin your career, or anyone else’s.”

“No, I thought I knew you. I was dead wrong. See you in court, Olivia.”

Hearing him use her full name sunk in the reality that he didn’t believe anything she was saying. Olivia had no idea how everything had fallen apart, but she was determined now to find out. She had to prove to all of them that she would never take advantage of the situation like that.

The first person she called when she left Johnny’s house with her things was Nick. He had been the one to tell Jeff about the documentary, so he had to know what was going on.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’m the one who sold all the footage to MTV. The investors were never going to back this project, and I can’t afford to let all that money go.”

“Why did you drag me into it?” Olivia demanded. “I’ve lost everything, Nick! The guys don’t trust me at all. Johnny won’t even look at me. Fuck, Julie is going to get dragged into it, too! My career is shot.”

“MTV wouldn’t take it if you weren’t backing it.”

“So you lied?”

“I had to, Olivia. I’m sorry.”

“You’re going to be sorry, Nick, when I get this all straightened out.”

She closed her phone and sighed. Her plan had originally been to go back to North Carolina immediately, but not now. If Nick thought she was going to take this lying down, he was sorely mistaken.

***

Julie sniffed through her tears. “I can’t believe this.”

“I know,” Olivia sighed. “I’m so sorry, Julie. I didn’t want to tell you, but I had to. That documentary is going to be on in an hour and you’re bound to get harassment of all kinds from it.”

“It’s not your fault,” Julie assured her. “I’m going to kill that Nick kid though.”

“You and me both,” Olivia replied. “I’m meeting with a lawyer first thing in the morning. This has all just fallen apart so quickly.”

“Johnny won’t talk to you at all?”

“The lawyers advised all of them not to talk to me.”

“Shit,” Julie sighed. “It really is falling apart. Are you going to watch it?”

“Probably not. I can’t. Not when I know they’re trying to say I’m behind it.”

“Call waiting,” Julie told her. “Can you hang on?”

“Sure.” Olivia waited while Julie clicked over. She pulled up her laptop and considered emailing all of them, but it wasn’t going to do any good.

“Liv?”

“Yeah, I’m still here.”

“That was Bam.”

Olivia winced. “Is he pissed?”

“No, actually. He believes you. He asked where you were, and he’s on his way.”

Olivia couldn’t believe it. One of them actually believed her. If that was possible, then maybe the rest of them would believe her too one day.

“Thanks, Jules. Call me if you have any trouble, all right?”

“Will do.”

Olivia disconnected the call, then used the hotel phone to let the front desk know Bam was coming and that they could just let him up. She sat anxiously on the bed, keeping the television off. She was too worried that if she turned it on, she would be tempted to watch whatever Nick had put together.

Finally the knock on the door she was expecting came. She opened it and hugged Bam quickly. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

Bam hugged her back, closing the door behind him. “Of course I’m here, Liv. You’re my friend.”

“So you believe me?” she asked.

“Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I may be a douchebag and I may do some crazy shit, but I read people pretty well. I’ve known from the start that you’re genuine. You were there for all of us, especially me.”

Her tears started again. “I wish Johnny agreed with you.”

“Have you talked to him?”

“Called him twice but it went straight to voicemail. He made himself scarce when I was getting my stuff from the house. How can he love me and really think I would do something like this?”

“I’m not at all saying I agree, but the evidence against you is pretty convincing.”

Olivia informed him about her call with Nick earlier. “I don’t know how he proved to them that I backed the whole thing, but somehow he did.”

“He’d have to forge your signature. That footage was essentially under your ownership because it was under your project.”

“I’m meeting with a lawyer in the morning.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Olivia nodded. “Is Ehren really upset with you?”

“Oh, dude, I’ve never seen him like this. Dave’s out of town still, but Jeff talked to him about what happened, and he called and ripped my ass, too. Everyone else is playing cool, but I can tell they think I’m pretty sketchy.”

“At least you haven’t been exiled,” Olivia mumbled.