Oliver Thorton

Oliver was back at work...falling asleep at his desk. Six weeks...that was all the paternity leave that he was allowed. He hated the idea of leaving Johanna and Sam at home alone - with James, but that was no different than being alone - but he knew that he had to make money to support them. They were his family now.

After the talk with Johanna’s parents, Oliver had been somewhat...obsessed with house hunting. He scoured the internet day and night for affordable homes in much quieter areas. Unfortunately everything that was perfect was way out of his price range.

His own parents had yet to visit. His mother made an attempt to call at least once every week - much more than her usual once a month phone call - but her and Oliver’s father had yet to make a move to come visit the new family. Oliver did not complain.

Unfortunately Thomas was due back at Oxford in just another week's time. He really should have left already, but he was drawing out his stay. He absolutely adored his nephew; spoiling him rotten. But how could he not? Sammy was absolutely adorable.

At six weeks old Samuel could make eye contact. Oliver almost burst into tears the first time that his son held his gaze when he spoke. And then he smiled. It was for a short period of time and it only happened the one time in the last week, but Johanna had finished changing his diaper while Oliver was making funny faces at him and he smiled! Oh they were over the moon! Their baby smiled at them, who wouldn’t be thrilled? He was also more awake. Not by much, but he was able to keep his eyes open longer and look around.

Oliver and Johanna were quite surprised to learn that they have a very calm baby. Samuel rarely cried. Only when needing a change or feeding. Sometimes he also cried because he got lonely and needed to be held, but this was a rarity, he liked laying alone in his bassinet.

So why was Oliver so tired at work? Well he still shared a bed with Johanna and Samuel required to be fed every three hours...therefore Oliver was awake every three hours. On cue. If Johanna didn’t wake him, Sam did.

But he had to admit that he loved that Johanna was still around. She loved Samuel so much, it was wonder she was thinking of leaving at all. It didn’t seem as if she could peel herself away from him for two seconds. At least one of his wishes came true. He could raise his son with a mother.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a knock coming from the office door. He did not have his own office - that was simply too much to ask for - he shared with the other three managers and apparently neither of them knew how to organize themselves very well.

One of the cashiers entered the room with a scowl on his face.

“There’s a customer wanting to speak to you. She says the prices are too high and that you need to lower them immediately or she’ll stop shopping here.” As he walked away, Oliver could have sworn he heard him mumble ‘good, we don’t need twats like her to shop here anyway’. He chose to ignore it.

Letting out a sigh, Oliver raised himself heavily from his chair and made his way out onto the floor. Another splendid day at work.

...

“Benjamin, will you please hurry up? This is a special day!” Charlotte screeched from her bedroom.
It was a special day indeed. They were having guests over...and he could not believe whom.

Of course...Johanna and Oliver. Johanna’s parents were dropping by as well for supper seeing as they had not seen their friends in quite a long time. But why Oliver? Benjamin had been doing so well to not think of him and now he has to drive all the way to this family home for supper? It could not have been a worse idea.

But they were bringing 6 week old baby Sammy along and Benjamin had yet to meet him; he loved babies. He still never wanted any of his own, but they were still adorable. Charlotte had been spending loads of time with Johanna and Sam since they rekindled their friendship, but Benjamin had yet to attempt to make a stop to visit. Charlotte knew why - and she hated him for it - and thankfully she did not pressure him to go visit with her.

Benjamin stared at his figure in the mirror, letting out a sigh. He should not have put so much effort into getting ready, going as far as to gel his hair some to give it volume and shape. He never did that for anyone, seeing as he had no one, but he figured it was best to look nice for the person he’s secretly pining for.

Helena had spent the majority of the day in the kitchen, slaving away with Edward, refusing to let Benjamin even step one toe into the kitchen - she believed he worked too hard. The doorbell rang at approximately 6:47, supper was set for 7 o’clock. 
Benjamin felt his palms begin to sweat, the breath left his lungs and he stood in the centre of the dining room, staring at the front door, yet making absolutely no move to answer it.

It was Charlotte who came by to finally open it - with a scoff and glare directed at her brother.
Benjamin finally let the breath out. It was Johanna’s parents.

At 6:54, Johanna and Oliver made their way into the home with little Sam in his car seat, happily dozing away without a care in the world.

Benjamin had been better able to control himself and managed to answer the door.
It was comical, trying to find seats for 11 people - plus Sam - at the dinner table. Edward had run out of chairs by person 8 and instead decided that they would eat supper outside on the large picnic table. It was still warm, but with a few sprays of mosquito killer, no one had any problems eating outside.

....It was tense.

Both Johanna and Charlotte purposely shoved Oliver and Benjamin together at the table, forcing them to sit beside one another...forcing them to speak with one another.

Olive was quire dejected, not that he had to sit so close to Benjamin - he quite enjoyed that part, actually - he simply had no idea what he had done to cause Benjamin to want to have nothing to do with him anymore. It was obvious that the older man had been avoiding eye contact all night and did his best to not be alone with him, but Oliver simply could not figure out what he had done to cause this.
So he sat in silence and stared at his plate, suddenly not very hungry anymore.

‘Who needs relationships?’ Oliver thought to himself. ‘They all just leave anyway.’

...

“Ah booga booga boo!” Helena cooed as he rose Sam in the air and blew a raspberry on his cheek.
The youngest kids had scattered immediately after supper, up to their rooms to do God knows what! The parents went back into the family room with Sam and the young adults were outside talking. Well, Johanna and Charlotte were talking, the boys were completely silent. What would they say to one another?

‘Hey, I'm attracted to you in every single way but I can’t pursue a relationship with you because my work is the most important thing in my life. Plus, you have way too much baggage to handle right now, but good luck meeting someone later in life who can deal with all of this.’
Benjamin almost scoffed out loud at the thought.

“So Oliver, how’s work? You know, with you being the manager and all.” Charlotte turned to the boy, a kind smile on her face. Benjamin was the only one who did not miss the half glare she sent his way.

“Oh...um...i-it’s pretty good, I guess. Lots of angry customers all of the time.” Oliver’s cheeks flared in embarrassment. He could not understand why she was suddenly paying him any attention.

“Well that’s good...sort of. You know, Benjamin’s doing really well at work as well. Angry customers too, but he’s too busy perfecting his new recipe to really care much about them, perhaps you should set a distraction for yourself.”

Benjamin wanted to hit her. Oliver simply ducked his head and nodded shyly. 
Johanna took this as her cue to step in.

“Oh you’re making a new recipe, Benjamin? How lovely, would you mind divulging your secrets?”

Benjamin let out a small chuckle, darting his eyes ever so quickly to the boy still beside him. Oliver’s head had not moved as he continued to stare at his feet.

“Um...I can’t really say much, seeing as I haven’t really gotten much done on it yet, but I’m just trying a bunch of new mediterranean flavours on chicken to, you know, give it a bold new flavour I guess.” He should have stopped, but for some reason Benjamin’s mouth seemed to have a mind of its own. “It’s all for that third star for the restaurant. It’s really all I have time for in my life right now. It’s been the dream since father opened up the restaurant and I will not rest until I see that third star next to our name. Yep, no time for just about anything...not even myself really....certainly not for any relationships or waste any time on new friendships really. It took everything to even leave my bedroom this afternoon for this supper.”

All was silent.

Oliver understood loud and clear.

Johanna frowned deeply, glancing to Oliver’s dejected features.

Charlotte wanted to punch her brother so hard.

Benjamin wanted to sew his mouth shut for the rest of his existence.

Johanna cleared her throat after a few minutes of awkward silence. Benjamin wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole.

“Okay, well it was wonderful to catch up with you guys again, but Oliver and I really should get going. He has work tomorrow morning and Sam’s probably knackered. So...”

All four raised themselves from the back table. After more awkward goodbyes, Oliver and Johanna made their way into the main house to get Sam from the doting grandparents.

“Are you stupid? Why would you say something like that? God, I can’t believe you.”
Benjamin sighed.

“Just get over it Charlotte. We’ve seen each other a total of two times. It’s not like we’re soul mates or something. And you know what? It’s a bit creepy that he’s so infatuated with me after meeting me two times, it’s not right!”

Charlotte had never wanted to slap her brother more than she did that night.

“What are you talking about, you hypocrite? You talked non stop about him like everyday after you met him! What happened to you, Ben? You used to care about other people and you used to love to make new friends and dating didn’t scare the absolute crap out of you. I miss that Benjamin; I don’t think I like this one.”

Charlotte moved into the house, leaving her brother outside on his own, eyes downcast, facing the table. Had he really changed into that bad of a person? So bad that even his own sister couldn’t stand him anymore?

He could say that it was because he had such bad relationship experiences that stopped him from connecting to anyone else, but...everyone went through bad relationships. If Benjamin remembered correctly, he could have sworn that Charlotte had told him that Oliver’s ex was sent to prison for the rest of his life...talk about bad relationships.

Now Benjamin just felt ashamed. He was rude. And how does he know that Oliver wanted a relationship in the first place? It’s not like the boy came right out and stated that he wanted to date him. He had a child to take care of now, he probably didn’t even realize that Benjamin was single and available...maybe he just wanted to be friends. And Benjamin managed to muck that up.

Sighing, he too turned to make his way back into the house. He must have stayed out longer than he thought, the entire house was empty by the time he made his way back inside. Even the dogs had gone to bed. He thought of asking Johanna to apologize for him, but how cowardly would that be? Getting your sister to apologize for the way that you acted. No, he was a grown man and as a grown man, he would take responsibility for his own actions. Besides, how hard could it be? He knew where Oliver worked and he could just ask Charlotte for his hours.

But would she talk to him after this? She was probably too angry to speak to him at the moment.
So Benjamin made his way into his old bedroom and laid down for bed.

Why did Elizabeth ruin him?

...

The next morning, Oliver awoke with a headache. He wasn’t sure if it was because he barely got enough sleep the night before, thinking, or if it was because Sam kept him up the rest of the time with his incessant crying.

But either way, he made his way to open the store nearly dead at 7 o’clock in the morning. He despised it, but he had to do it; all part of being an adult he supposed.

Did being an adult also mean getting your heart crushed in the process at least twice? It wasn’t Benjamin who crushed his heart, it was the reason. He barely knew Benjamin; he didn’t really mind that the man wasn’t attracted to him that way, he would expect it. But was it because he had too much baggage that he didn’t want to at least try to be his friend? Was that how it was going to be for the rest of his life? No one would be willing to be in a relationship with him because he had a baby? Was he doomed to be single forever?

Sure, Oliver probably didn’t want to be in a serious relationship at the moment because he had a little bit too much on his plate with the baby, work, bills, etc., but he did want to have friends. Yeah, he did suck at making new friends and talking to new people, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to try.
Oh well, he thought that Benjamin was too good for him anyway. Maybe he would go out with James and his friends more often.

‘Oh who am I kidding.’ Oliver thought to himself as he unlocked the shop doors for the clerks. ‘Going out with James and his friends? Like I have time to do any of that.’

He sighed and sat himself at his small desk. He shouldn’t be worrying about this; he had a family to care for.

...

By hour four of his shift, Oliver wanted nothing more than to bang his head against his desk. He had been forced to give an employee another warning because they had another three customers complain about his service. And then he got the most surprising visit of all.

“Benjamin?” He gasped, seeing the handsome man standing in the middle of the wine aisle, two bottles smashed under his feet. Oliver did not know what to say in this situation. The employee who had come to gather Oliver from the office had said that the man in the aisle had been purposely throwing bottles on the ground, but Benjamin had the most innocent look on his face. How could he believe that he wasted alcohol on purpose?

“Benjamin...what are you doing here? Um...” He looked around him, the shop was virtually empty, but the employee was just down the aisle, glaring at the back of Benjamin’s head. 
Oliver called him over and asked him to clean up the aisle while he brought the other man into his office.

Benjamin was wringing his hands. He came here on his own free will, but he had not planned on what he would do at this point. When he first came into the shop, he was not 100% sure how he was supposed to find Oliver. The normal person would speak to a clerk and ask to speak to the manager, and he had. The clerk was definitely a jerk. He had refused and Benjamin had gotten desperate, so he assumed that if he broke something, surely Oliver had to come out.

He chose a not very expensive bottle of wine - that he had every intention of paying for - and smashed it on the ground. The second bottle was purely accidental. The clerk had come and Benjamin had panicked and knocked the second bottle over.

But it worked and here he was, standing in the small, cluttered office with the boy he had been thinking about for the past few hours.

“Hey...Oliver.” How awkward. What does he even say to the man? Sorry for being a jerk? Yeah, that sounds good. “Um...I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about...yesterday. I’m really sorry for coming off as a jerk. It’s not that I don’t like you or want to be your friend or anything. I mean, I would really like it if we were friends....I just...”

Oliver wanted this to stop. What did Benjamin say that was so bad in the first place? That he was too busy? That he had no time to waste on people like Oliver? It was true, so why was he apologizing? This just made Oliver feel pathetic.

“Stop, I have no problem with you being busy and not wanting to make any new acquaintances it’s fine. I have other friends. I just don’t appreciate that you come into my workplace and mess with my shop and my employees. It’s very disrespectful.”

Benjamin hung his head in shame. He could have done many other things to get Oliver to see him, he did not have to go ruin the store. It was very disrespectful and he would not blame Oliver if he never wished to see him again.

“You’re right and I am very sorry for what I did. I just...I had asked if I could please speak to you and your employee was very rude and adamant that I was no one of any importance. I just...it was the only way that I knew to get your attention so that I could apologize. I’ll pay for both bottles of wine, I promise.”

Oliver sighed. Another complaint about Daniel. He couldn’t fire him, he was not given the jurisdiction and he could not bring it up to the other managers because they would not take Benjamin’s complain seriously, seeing as he had destroyed two bottles of wine purposely. He could feel the migraine coming.
Looking through his eyelashes, he could see Benjamin’s worried and frightened expression looking back at him. What was he to do?

‘Forgive him, obviously, you idiot.’ Oliver thought to himself.

“W-Why did you say what you had last night?” Oliver found himself asking.

“Honestly, I really don’t think I know. I knew that I should have kept my mouth shut, but for some reason it just came out. And you seem like a really wonderful person. I guess I’m just afraid of anyone being too close to me. I...I haven’t had a very good rap sheet with relationships and I just want to focus on the store and I figured that if I said something then everyone would leave me alone.” Oliver once again hung his head. It hurt more the second time. “B-but as soon as I said it and thought over it, I realized that I didn’t really want anyone to leave me alone. I love having friends and having something to do with my life. I was just...scared...I guess.”

Another sigh before Oliver looked back up at the older man.

‘He truly is the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever laid eyes on, but it’s no wonder he’s still single.’ Oliver thought bitterly.

“Fine, I’ll forgive you and we can try to be friends. But don’t forget that I have my own life too, I have a job and a son and bills to pay, so you’re not the only one under stress. And...I might not have a good rap sheet with relationships either.” He shuddered at the thought of Carter. “But I think we might be able to pull it off...maybe.” Benjamin gave a wide toothed grin and practically began bouncing in place. “But...you are going to pay for those bottles of wine and you are not allowed to step foot in this store for at least another week, understand?”

Benjamin nodded with a sheepish smile and allowed Oliver to walk him to the front till where he was expected to pay for his mess. The clerk was still glaring holes into his back, but one glare from Oliver and he was on his way to do his work.

‘Well the day didn’t go as I expected, but I’ll take it.’