bitter (michael gray.)

THREE.

♛

"Here he goes, Go on Arthur!" Various jeers came from around the room as Arthur stood up for his speech.

John was now out of his tree, slurring his words and his eyelids drooping. Grace interlocked her arm into Tommy's. Despite the fact that she sold him out a few years ago, they were very much in love.

Olivia was raging. She didn't have the chance to defend herself against the man who kicked her out of her seat, even though it was actually his. She was sat next to Curly, his innocent soul constantly checking to see if Liv was okay. He pulled her away from starting a fight and took her to her proper seat to avoid confrontation on Tommy's wedding day, everyone was under his strict orders of no fighting. Curly used to let Liv help him look after the horses, they had a close friendship.

"Miss Hamilton is there anything I can do to help you?" He tapped her on the shoulder once more.

"Call me Liv. You don't have to look up to me Curly. We're on the same level." She smiled at him. He nodded in approval, feeling rather proud of the respectable woman she's become.

"Right, I'm not one for speeches-" Arthur began. The nerves were evident in his face, and also on Tommy's.

"Sing then!" John shouted between drags of his cigarette.

"John shut up." Olivia scolded him, bringing attention to herself from everyone. She dropped her head in shame, feeling vulnerable from all the stares. A small snort came from Polly's seat at the table as she tried to conceal her amusement.

"I will later John. Thank you for that Olivia." Arthur nodded at Liv who still hadn't looked up from the fork she was fiddling with. "But, uh, I do have some words written down here." He continued, fumbling for a bit of paper that was tucked away in his jacket. "This doesn't include everything I want to say."

Tommy was getting increasing agitated and mumbled some words to Arthur that Liv couldn't hear down at the other end of the table. Once she figured it was safe, Olivia stopped playing with the fork. Everyone was staring at Arthur except for one. The man Liv nicked the seat off was focusing on her. He was looking the girl up and down, trying to get an explanation of who she was.

"The fuck do you want?" Olivia mouthed to him, as not to cause another scene. He shrugged and flicked some ash off the end of his cigarette.

"I'm Michael." He mouthed back to her with a smirk.

"I don't give a shit." She smiled sarcastically back at him and took a sip of her wine. The smirk dropped off of Michael's face, turning in his seat to face Arthur.

"It's a wedding Arthur tell a joke." Michael sighed as John backed him up.

Belt up, Liv thought as she glared at Michael. She was getting rather angry at the fact that Michael thought he could get her into bed, he didn't even know who she was. He probably thought she was a whore, brought in off the streets.

"-her name's Grace." Liv tuned back into Arthur's speech. "Like the grace of the Good Lord.' He carried on with the shit show. Had Arthur genuinely found God? Probably down to his wife, Olivia mused. Linda was sat beaming at Arthur and gently stroking his very tensed up arm. They were yet to speak, but Olivia made it her mission to find her later on and thank her. Arthur was on a slippery slope when she left and half expected him to be 6 feet under when she returned, so there was that to be grateful for.

"To marriage." Tommy announced, pulling Olivia out of her daydream and forcing her to stand up. Evidently she missed something but thank god the speech was cut short, it was becoming almost unbearable.

"Well don Arthur, beautiful speech. Really nice. Really really nice." John teased his older brother who was on his way out of the room, closely followed by Linda and Tommy.

"What's happening now Olivia?" Curly tapped Liv on the shoulder once again.

"Dunno Curly." She sighed and threw her head back. "Come on, let's get this shit over with."

♛

Polly and Olivia were chatting. Polly had not caused serious harm to Liv, and Liv had not yet put her foot in it. In fact, the conversation was that of one before Olivia left, down to earth and normal. They were talking about Polly's decision of which man to go for this evening, she currently had two eyeing her up. The dinner table was abandoned very swiftly, now the party was in some extensively large room of Tommy and Grace's mansion.

"Olivia Scarlett Hamilton." John sauntered up to the pair of them, the alcohol now wearing off. "Our dear Thomas wants to talk to you." A look of fear crossed Olivia's face that Polly picked up on.

"Don't stress, he's probably just missed you. Straight down the hall and third on the left." She turned Liv by the shoulders into the right direction and shoved her.

The hall was much quieter. There were a few cavalry members talking and being generally racist, making Olivia squirm as she collected certain snippets. Millie was talking to Charlie for some reason. Her eyes met Liv's, giving her a reassuring wink and nod. Millie knew full why she was summoned, but didn't dare tell her.

The wooden door in front of Liv was shut, meaning she would have to knock and bring attention to herself. Doing just that, a gruff voice told her to come in. Tommy was stood looking out of the window behind her desk. The room was silent except for the ticking of a clock.

"Congratulations are in order I guess. Grace looks lovely. She actually invited me, how she got my address I don't know but-" Olivia started to ramble in nervousness. Normally she would have no issues talking to Tommy Shelby, but this was the first talk since she left.

"Shut up. Olivia I need you." Tommy turned to face her. He looked a little older, maybe due to the stress of having a child and being the leader of the most notorious gang in Birmingham. Something like that.

"Tommy you've just got married be careful." She tried to joke. Obviously, Tommy's sense of humour was as dead as Olivia's Australian grandmother, he just raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, alright that was shit."

"How are you with maths?" He asked her. She opened her mouth to reply but was quickly shut down. "Excellent. You start work on Monday, Watery Lane betting den." He fiddled getting a cigarette out of the case in his pocket. Walking past her, he gave her a kiss on the head and left the room, Olivia was on her own.

"I'm shit at maths, but sure yeah why not!" She shouted down the corridor in sarcasm at Tommy.

"Oh, and you answer to Michael. He's your boss."

♛

a/n: happy new year! x