True Love Forms

Three

Alexis' POV

I was cooking dinner when Olivia came in and offered to help. I told her she didn't need to, but she insisted. I hear giggles coming from the living room and look to see Nick playing with Emily.

"So tell me about yourself Olivia." I suggested.

"Well, I was born and raised in San Francisco, California until I was eight years old. That's when my mom died and dad moved us up here to New York. He married his college girlfriend when I was ten. I started getting into photography like my mom had been about a year after that. When I was about thirteen I met Emily's father and then when we were sixteen I got pregnant and here we are. I'm a single mom raising a six month old girl on her own." She tells me.

"Do you do anything for a living?" I ask. "Actually, I lost my job a few weeks ago. I'm still looking for something else." She tells me. "Oh. What had you been working as?" I ask her.

"I was a waitress at this restaurant that closed down a few weeks. I'm just waiting for my friend Mario to come back from his son's wedding down in Texas so that I can ask him for a job at his pizza place." She tells me.

I watched as she swiftly placed the food on some plates and smiled. "If you want, you can have a job at the coffee house. Until this Mario comes back." I say and her eyes light up.

"Are you serious?" She asked. "Yes." I say. "I'd love a job at your coffee house! Thank you!!" She said.

"Of course. We mothers need to help each other out." I say and she laughs lightly. "I guess so." She says.

We continue to talk and I get what Nick was saying about her only telling the basics.

"Why do you only let people know the basics about you?" I ask curiously. She shrugs. "I've been that way since Michael left me." She said.

"Who's Michael?" I ask. "Emily's father." She said simply. "Ah. Do you know why he left you?" I ask. "Yea, but I'd rather not talk about that." She said. "I understand." I say.

"So you're from San Francisco?" I ask. "That's right." She says. "I grew up there." I say and she looks at me. "Really?" She asks. "Yep. It was just my mom and I after my dad died when I was about, fourteen." I say.

"I'm sorry." She says. "It's alright. It's probably harder on an eight year old girl losing her mom. I'm sorry." I say.

"It's alright." She says with a shrug. "Judging by that reaction, you two weren't really close, were you?" I ask. "Not really." She says.

There was loud giggles from the living room and I looked to see Nick tickling Emily.

"He's really good with her." I commented. "Yea, he is." Olivia said.

"He's single you know." I say. "I know." She says. "He's got a lot to offer a girl." I continue. "Oh! I'm not looking for a guy. I'm okay with just Emily and I." She said.

"Alright." I say and we take the food and plates to the dining table. "Dinner!" I yell and within seconds, my husband & five year old daughter were in the room as Nick came in carrying Emily.

Olivia took Emily from him and set her in the highchair that I had brought out for Emily.

"Thank you again, for letting me stay here until I get back on my feet." Olivia says. "Of course. You're welcome here anytime Olivia." I say.

We begin to say grace and when we looked up, I noticed that Olivia seemed a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"So Olivia, what do you plan on doing for college?" Jack, my husband, asked. "I'm actually not sure yet. I may end up taking some online classes for NYU, but if not I'll probably take the classes for Juliard." She says.