Olivia smiled to herself in the mirror as she did her hair. She had just gotten a new cut and color and all she hoped for was for her husband to notice. She knew he wouldn't but it never hurt to at least be hopeful. She thought of how nice it would be if he even looked at her for more than 5 seconds. Before she could get lost in her thoughts, she heard a noise waking her from her Lala land.
Olivia jumped out of her seat at her vanity and hurried over to the bed in the corner of the room. Just as she made it to the suitcase sitting wide open on the foot of the bed Gary, her husband, burst through the door. She knew he was only here to rush her.
"You almost finished?" He asked. She knew him better than a pastor knew the Bible.
"Yea, just need to grab my shoes and I'll be right out" She said with a smile. If he would have paid enough attention he would have noticed how false her smile was and how fast she was breathing.
"Ok well... I'll be waiting in the car" and with that he walked out the room. Olivia stood in silence for a few seconds and then huffed air through her nose and gave a pitiful laugh.
"He didn't even look at me". Was she surprised? No. Disappointed? Only a little.
Olivia listened as Gary trampled down the stairs and then listened as the door was slammed shut. She fastened her pace and zipped up the last of their suitcases and threw on the closest pair of shoes. She cursed herself for doing so when she realized she put on the only pair of shoes that seemed to hurt her feet. It was too late to turn back now, they were already running late. Not that it mattered to Gary, he would rather stay at home and write that book of his that he's been trying to start for the last 7 months. This trip was an escape for the both of them in some way. For Gary to finally stop writing and for Olivia to try and salvage what little romance they had in their marriage.
The trip in question was a couples retreat that Olivia's best friend Phoenix and her husband Parker had been organizing for months now and it was finally time to drive down to the cabin that belonged to a friend of Parkers, who would also be joining them with his new fiancé.
Parker. The name sent chills down her spine. Once upon a time he was more than just her best friends husband. Once upon a time he was the man she could always call on. Not anymore though, now he was just the man she said 'Hi' and 'Bye' to when visiting Phoenix. Did Phoenix or Gary know about the very little past that was shared between Olivia and Parker? No, and it was going to stay that way for as long as the two were breathing.
Olivia struggled her way out of the door and to the car with the heavy suitcase. She continued to struggle by herself internally screaming at her husband as she noticed he was too busy hunched over the steering wheel scribbling in his notebook to notice that she was in dire need of help. He was always writing in that notebook she said to herself while rolling her eyes. With one last huff, Olivia was able to get the suitcase in the car.
"You promised there would be no work on this trip" Was the first thing she said as she sat in the passenger seat.
Garys lips twitched up into a smirk as he gave a slight laugh, eyes never leaving the little tan notebook as he answered her. "I know I know, I just needed to get my thoughts on papers before we started driving. You know how fast things get lost in my mind"
He finally closed the book and looked at her with a goofy smile. That was the one thing that she loved about Gary. No matter how neglectful he was sometimes, he still looked at her as if she hung the moon. She just wished that it was enough to make her feel the way she did before they were married. She hated to admit it, but there have been more than a handful of times where she wished she had said no to marrying him, but there were just as many moments where he made her wish for nothing other than to spend her life with him. Olivia was nothing if not a ball of confusion when it came to her feelings about the man she was meant to spend the rest of her dying days with.
"Close the book Gary". She had to be firm with him sometimes.
This time a bigger laugh erupted from him "Alright, look its gone, out of sight" He said as he turned around in his seat and tossed the notebook in the backseat. He turned back to her and raised his eyebrows "Happy?" He questioned
"Very" She replied and slumped back into her chair with a smug look
"You are too much" he sighed, but his eyes were still warm. They always were when they were locked on her.
After a few seconds of Olivia and Gary admiring each other, Gary broke the silence by clapping his hands and declaring that it was time to hit the road.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's been a few hours since Gary and Olivia first started driving. Since then neither one of them have said a word to each other, only letting the indie radio fill the silence between them. Olivia sat still in her seat, she was with her husband physically, but mentally she was somewhere else. Somewhere she had no business being. As she sat next to her husband, she thought of Parker for the second time today and her stomach churned with guilt.
'Its been awhile since I've seen him'. She thought, she wondered if he looked the same as he did six months ago at their last reunion. It was at her surprise birthday party that Gary had planned. She remembers telling him she didn't want a party, but clearly he didn't listen.
'Stop it' she scolded herself. She had been doing that a lot recently. Scolding herself for her wandering mind. Ever since Phoenix told her about the cabin trip and basically forced her into this couples retreat, she had been thinking about been locked in a cabin with her best friends husband for a whole weekend.
"OLIVIA!". Her eyes grew wide and her hand flew to her chest.
"Jesus Gary" Her breathing was erratic and her heart was pounding. "What the hell?"
He looked at her with concern painted across his features "I've been calling you for 2 minutes now, but you were just sitting there. We're here"
As soon as he said that, Olivias gaze switched from him to the large cabin in front of them. 'How did she not notice that?'.
"Oh...sorry" She shrugged and got out the car. She had every plan to go around the back of the car and help Gary with the bags but before she could, a loud and ghastly scream ripped through the air.
"AHHHHHHHH".
