Standing in front of you |ON HOLD|

The morning after (2)

They were almost back at the hotel and Seb glanced again at Olivia anxiously. She'd been silent all the way home, staring out of the window and not looking his way once or replying to anything he'd said. It was as if she was angry with him.

He braked to wait at a junction for a gap in the traffic, the silence in the car felt stiff and uncomfortable, not at all how it usually felt between them. "Are you angry with me?" he asked, briefly placing a hand on her knee before a gap in the traffic appeared.

"You were a bit harsh on Curtis," she admitted, still not looking his way because right now she was in one of those situations where looking at his beautiful face hurt her.

"So you're angry then," he affirmed as he turned off on to a much quieter road.

"You virtually accused the poor guy of raping me," she muttered, putting a hand on her tummy as she started to feel nauseous again.

Next to her, she heard him scoff and then tut, "that's an exaggeration, I did not accuse him of rape. I just said that I hoped he hadn't taken advantage of you, that he hadn't hurt you. You're the one who's mentioned rape."

"Ok, let's call it sexual assault then. He's a really nice guy, I like him." The last part was kind of a lie. Yeah, he was a nice guy but that's as far as it went, she certainly didn't feel the same way as he felt about her.

"He took you to an illegal gathering and got you wasted on god knows what...."

"Jägermeister," she cut in, "we were drinking shots of Jägermeister."

"And you know you can't handle your drink very well," he pointed out with a smile tugging at his lips because she'd stuck to their favourite drink.

"Neither can you," she countered, finally looking at him and noticing the way the sun gave his skin a beautiful golden glow. Why did he have to be so damn gorgeous?!

He stayed quiet and concentrated on the road, the DBS was a powerful car and if he wasn't careful he'd be exceeding the speed limit without realising it and he didn't want to lose control on this narrow country road or get a speeding fine. Olly was right, he couldn't really hold his drink either but then his excuse was that he drove fast cars for a living and so drinking alcohol was a less common occurrence that resulted in him having an embarrassingly low threshold for a man. "So did it not occur to you that what you both did last night was illegal in the current climate?" he asked, glancing at her and catching her gazing at him. Was she looking at him in the same way that she had during the meal out with her parents? Again it felt good, it gave him that warm, happy feeling of being liked in 'that' way. Why do I feel like it's ok for her to do that? Why is it ok for her to do that but not anyone else? Maybe it's because I'm comfortable with her, she's the only other person in my life who I trust outside of my family apart from Britta and Antti.

She groaned and looked away, he was sounding like her dad, "Seb. It's not really that different to when we went out with my parents."

He gave a small a shake of his head and briefly accelerated, the pedal getting his frustration instead of a gear shift paddle as the DBS was an automatic. "Serve food there last night, did they?" he asked as he lifted his foot off the pedal to let the car slow down.

She didn't answer, he was right.

"So you know you'll have to have extra tests done in a few days time, you'll have to make sure you're clear because if you get it then you won't be coming to Bahrain," he added, becoming annoyed again because he didn't know if she fully appreciated the situation she could have put herself in.

"Fine, I'll do them," she chuntered back, clutching on to her stomach as it began to churn and make her feel really sick.

He glanced at her again; he knew from experience and arguments with his beloved late wife that if a woman said the word 'fine' it usually meant the exact opposite. She was holding her stomach and she looked white, "Olly, you ok?"