Never Crossed My Mind

Olivia picked a nearby taco place with an outdoor eating area. They both sat down to eat and dug right in. Usually Olivia wasn’t so hungry the day after such a long night of drinking, but tacos were something she could never turn down. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Johnny finally spoke up.

“I’ll never be able to apologize enough for not believing you,” he told her.

Olivia shrugged; honestly, she didn’t want to dwell on it for too long. Yes, some things needed to be talked about – specifically, Charlotte – but she wanted to just get it all on the table then never bring it up again if at all possible.

“Bam and Julie were by my side the whole time,” she replied. “I wasn’t alone, you know.”
“And I’m really glad they were there for you. The first person to stick up for you – it should have been me. I told you I loved you and it wasn’t even a day later, I just wrote you off.”

“And picked up Charlotte.”

Johnny winced. “That was a huge mistake. On my part mostly, and some on Charlotte’s. I knew what I felt for you, and she should have seen it. It was really low of me to go to her I just … I was really confused and if that stuff was all true, I wanted you out of my head. There was a lot of evidence against you.”

“Just thought you’d know me better than that. To think I’d do something like that … Johnny, that’s not who I am.”

“I know that, now. It should not at all have taken the blatant statement that it did from Nick to convince me otherwise – I should have given you the benefit of the doubt, absolutely. This is all so new, even though it’s kind of not –”

“You think we rushed things?” Olivia asked.

“I don’t know,” Johnny sighed. “Maybe.”

Olivia set down the taco she’d just taken a bite from, made sure to chew it thoroughly, then looked at him. Slowly, a smile came over her face. “I think we didn’t trust it enough. Maybe I didn’t trust it enough, and that hesitancy read through into your doubting me. Whatever the problem was, I don’t think it was that we rushed things. I’m not the girl who thinks about a guy for a long time with nothing happening. I’m not the girl who risks everything I’ve worked for to be with someone. Actually, I wasn’t that girl. You changed it all, Johnny. I met you and that was just it for me. You’re it for me. It fucking sucks that we had to go through all of this for me to not just realize this, but to accept it and trust it. You remember when you told me that once we have to be apart, it doesn’t matter where either of us are, if things are shitty you’ll come to me or bring me to you? I think I just thought it was a nice sentiment at the time. I’m sorry that my mind took time to catch up to how I feel about you. I think if my head and my heart had been on the same page from the beginning, we never would have had to deal with this like we did. I’m sorry.”

Johnny reached across the table for her hand. “We’ve both been kind of ridiculous about this.”

She nodded, looking down at her food then back at him. “What do we do now?”

“Come back, Livvy,” Johnny pleaded. “Move out of that dumb hotel and come back to live with me. Even if it’s just for now – however long you have left in Los Angeles, come stay with me.”

Olivia looked hesitant. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?” Johnny frowned.

“You better kiss the hell out of me like … right now,” Olivia grinned.

Chuckling just a little, Johnny stood and pulled her from her seat to stand with him. He held her face in his hands and kissed her for all they both were worth.

***

She spent the rest of the day editing in her office at Dickhouse. There was a lot more footage that Nick had filmed that she needed to go through – some of it would go to the fourth movie, some of it would stay in her documentary. As she went through it, she made a list of everything she needed to still get commentary on. She jotted down notes here and there. By the time she was done, she had several pages of memos that she needed to organize.

Johnny wandered into her office and spotted the pages in front of her. “Am I actually going to get some time with my girlfriend tonight or are you going to be a workaholic?”

“Umm,” Olivia drawled out while she finished tapping out an email. “Depends on how late you stay awake, I guess.”

He groaned. “C’mon, Liv. We’ve been without each other for a couple of weeks. You’re going to work the whole of our first night back together?”

Letting out a deep sigh, Olivia stood. She sat him down in her chair, then climbed into his lap. She started on his neck, her fingers quickly finding the hem of his shirt.

“Livvy, honey, what are you doing?” Johnny stuttered out.

“I have twenty minutes right now. You can take some while you can get it, or you can wait and see how late I work tonight.” She lifted his shirt up and over his head, tossing it on the floor.

“Okay, but there’s just one thing,” Johnny told her between kisses.

“What?” Olivia said, barely stopping to actually listen to him.

“The door isn’t –”

Before Johnny could finish his sentence to warn her, Ehren stepped into the office. He took one look at the two of them in the chair and groaned.

“Are you kidding me? I mean, really. What are the chances that three separate occasions I could walk in on you guys getting it on?”

Olivia couldn’t stop laughing. She slid off of Johnny’s lap and handed him his shirt. Ehren just stood in the doorway, shaking his head.

“I can’t … I can’t …” Olivia couldn’t speak. It was just too funny.

Johnny chuckled and shook his head. “Sorry about that, Danger. Did you need something?”
Ehren nodded. “But it escapes me now. I’m scarred for life, I think.”

“In that case, do you mind giving us some privacy?” Johnny asked. “I promise to lock the door this time.”

Ehren scooted out of the room, walking down the hall shouting about Olivia and Johnny doing the dirty in the office. Johnny just grinned and locked the door as promised. He went back to Olivia who was still laughing on the floor.

“All right, pretty girl. That was pretty funny but I have some very serious … reuniting I’d like to get down to.”

***

Julie rolled out her suitcase the next day and yelled to Olivia that she was ready to go. Johnny appeared from the pool outside.

“Heading back East?” he asked.

“Yes. Olivia is taking me to the airport.”

“Unless she’s set up some elaborate plan to get Bam or Ehren to take you to the airport,” Johnny teased.

“Or both,” Julie added, rolling her eyes.

“No elaborate plans,” Olivia said, rolling her eyes and slipping some sunglasses onto her face. “I will be the one taking you to the airport.”

“Thank God,” Julie mumbled. “Johnny, thanks for letting me spend my last few nights here. That hotel was starting to feel like home, and that’s a scary thought.”

Johnny smiled. “No problem, Julie. We’ll see you soon.”

Julie wheeled her suitcase out to the car, leaving Olivia alone with Johnny. She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and kissed him.

“I shouldn’t be gone too long. Just dropping her off, then coming back.”

“Promise you’re not going to even think about work until later? We have plans,” Johnny reminded her.

“Yes, I remember,” Olivia smiled. “I can’t promise not to think about it while I’m driving but once I get back here, I’m all yours, Knoxville.”

“Good.” He looked out the window from the kitchen and frowned. “Hey, is that Ehren?”

Olivia pushed in front of him and hoisted herself up so she could see out the window as well. “Yeah, it is. What is he saying to her?”

Olivia made for the front door, but Johnny stopped her. “Their little triangle has been broadcasted enough, Livvy. Give them some privacy.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You know Julie’s just going to tell me about it on the way to the airport.”

“Or maybe she won’t. Remember before you found out about the whole thing and you two actually weren’t talking for like … two hours?”

“I don’t like it when you make sense.”

“I know,” Johnny chuckled, pulling her into his arms. “Let them figure it out, though. If Julie wants your advice or opinion, you know she’ll ask for it.”

Olivia leaned against him. “This is kind of comfortable. Would it be horrible to ask Ehren to take her to the airport?”

Johnny laughed again. “I thought you had no elaborate plans.”

“None but to stay here and cuddle with you.”

“Go,” he directed her. “Take your cousin to the airport, listen if she wants to talk, shut your mouth if she doesn’t, then come back here.”

Olivia smiled and kissed him again. “All right, fine. If you insist.”

She yelled out the front door that she was coming out, just in case, and headed out the front door. Johnny watched after her, just grinning to himself. He loved that girl, more than anything, and he never knew it could be so easy.

***

Johnny was right; Julie hadn’t wanted to talk about Ehren or Bam on the way to the airport. Olivia tried to handle it better this time. She hated not being in the know when it came to her cousin. Julie recognized this and thanked her for not pushing the issue.

“I’ll see you soon,” Julie said, getting out of the car and making way for the ticket counter.

“Call me!” Olivia yelled after her. Julie gave her a wave and a smile, then disappeared into the crowd.

Just like she’d thought she would, Olivia thought about work the entire way back to Johnny’s. She had a lot to catch up on, but she knew she would get it done. Johnny might not be too happy about the hours she kept until she was caught up, but the way Olivia worked, it would only be two, three days tops until she was back to normal hours.

There was a note on the door telling her to come up to the bedroom when she returned. Olivia smiled, took down the note, and opened the door. There were papers hanging all along the way; she took them down one by one. Each one showed a house or a condo; her eyes were as wide as saucers by the time she got to the bedroom. Paper arrows on the floor led her to the bathroom where a bubble bath was waiting. Johnny was nowhere to be found … this could be a prank. And she’d be walking right into it.

“Fuck it,” she said out loud. This was going to be relaxing, and even if she only got to enjoy it for a few minutes, well, she’d take that.

But after a few minutes, no one had come in and surprised her. There were no cameras to be seen. She was beginning to wonder if anyone else was even in the house when soft music started playing from the bedroom.

“Johnny Knoxville, that better be you,” she called.

He smiled as he entered the bathroom and took a seat on the counter. “It’s me, pretty girl.”

“Good. What is all this about?”

“Figured you deserved a little relaxing.”

She pointed to the papers she had collected on her way up the stairs. “And the houses and condos?”

Johnny picked up the stack and held it in his lap. “I was actually looking at some of these before all that shit went down. I love this place here, you know that. But I love you more, and I want to be around you. It’s not like either of us are leaving Dickhouse any time soon, but we also have about a million places to crash when we have to be in LA. I thought, you know, maybe we could find a house back South. For the both of us.”

Olivia raised her brow. “South? How far South? Mexico?”

Johnny laughed. “Not South here, dork. South like … where we’re from. Carolina, Tennessee, that area.”

“Really?” Olivia exclaimed. “You’d do that for me?”

“It’s not just for you,” he replied. “It’s so I can be around you, too, but yeah. You make me want to do that.”

Olivia grinned. “Count me in.”

Johnny grinned with success. He leaned over and kissed her. “This isn’t just because I made you this great bath and got you those awesome flowers, is it?”

“Flowers?”

“Yeah, flowers.” Johnny pointed to a bouquet sitting on a corner of the sink.

“Oh, I didn’t even see those,” Olivia grinned. “No, it’s not just because of that. But it did help. Although you know … nevermind.”

“Tell me.”

Olivia shook her head.

Johnny held up a clawed hand as though he was about to tickle her. “You better tell me.”

She shied away from the edge of the tub and caved. “Fine, fine. I was going to say that now that you’ve done this, you’re going to have a hard time topping it when you propose. Then, I realized that was maybe too much of an assumption and jumping the gun.”

Her cheeks were bright red; Johnny thought it was adorable. “Well, would you say yes?”

Olivia shrugged. “Maybe. If you asked nicely.”

Johnny kissed her forehead. “Finish your bath, pretty girl. I’ll grill us up some supper and then you can get to work.”

Olivia frowned after him. She didn’t like leaving that subject open like he had. It made her nervous – was it a good nervous though?

Leaning back into the bath, Olivia just smiled despite her nerves. It was a good nervous. And anyway, when she was hanging out with these jackasses, when were her nerves not on end?
Before she could take that thought any further, Johnny appeared again in the doorway, this time with a bucket in hand.

“What the hell is that?” Olivia asked.

Johnny just cackled and dumped the bucket of ice into her bath. She yelped and jumped out of the tub, grabbing for a nearby towel. Fortunately she got it wrapped around her before the other guys came in.

“Damn it!” Bam exclaimed. “I was really looking forward to that sight.”

“I told you to be right behind me,” Johnny scolded. “She’s quick when it comes to being cold. Hates it.”

“He’s right,” Olivia shrugged. “You guys are assholes.”

“But you love us!” Dave added.

Olivia laughed with him. “Yeah, I guess I do.”