In My Life

Chapter 24:

The noise of the telephone ringing abruptly awoke Olivia from her peaceful sleep. As her eyes were blinking open and trying to focus on objects in the room, her mind recognised that there was a strong arm that was gripped tightly around her waist. Her mind trailed back to memories from last night and felt saddened for John and also remembering that Julia was gone.

The last moment she was in this house with John, and the telephone kept ringing this same way was when her father died. She carefully pulled off his arm from her waist and slowly and quietly slid out of bed. Olivia couldn't help but turn back around and gaze at John sleeping peacefully on the bed. She wished that she could have savoured that moment with him because she realised the minute he would wake, he would forget everything about last night.

She quickly snuck out the bedroom, shutting the door behind her and moved throughout the living room. Once she approached the telephone, she picked up the receiver, unsure who might be at the other end of the line.

"Hello?" She whispered.

"So, you are back home in Liverpool," Don spoke through his gritted teeth, trying to control his anger, "May I ask why in the hell you decided to ditch everything, including me?"

Olivia winced as she recognised the voice and realised he was more than just upset, "There was a death in the family, and it's more important that I'm here."

There was a little bit of silence on the other line for a moment, "I'm a little confused because what family are you referring to? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have no family left."

Ouch, that was harsh. "I don't have any blood relatives, yes, but that doesn't mean I don't have a family. Julia passed last night and..."

"And she is...?" His voice was getting rougher and angrier, the more confused he was.

She bit her lip, just feeling what she was going to tell him next would most likely upset him, "It's John's Mum. She was a second Mum to me and.."

He gripped the receiver, shaking his head, "Oh... I see. Your ex-boyfriend's mother. So, you ran back to him, didn't you? You left everything to go back to him."

"Don, she was an important part of me life and.."

"Listen here, Liv," he interrupted her, clearing his throat, "You've created a mess now with you leaving the way you did. Nobody knows where you went..."

'Good', she thought to herself as she listened to him ramble on.

"... your manager Larry has been a wreck and frantically trying to figure out what to tell everyone about your absence. You just damaged a good opportunity for yourself and your career."

She inhaled a deep breath and slowly let it out, "I understand, and I'm sorry. I didn't have a choice, Don."

He laughed sarcastically at her comment, "Oh, but you did, Liv. You chose to go back home and chose to go to him," Don shoved the two white pills that were in his hands and popped them into his mouth, quickly swallowing them, "And you've made up your mind that you want to be with him."

"Oh bullocks, that doesn't mean anything," she huffed, sitting down on the blue sofa next to the telephone. She realised Don would be angry, but she had never heard him this furious before, "I'm not here for..."

"How serious are you about your career, Liv? I wanna know, " He interrupted her once again, raising his voice even louder than before.

"I'm serious, Don. You know I am," she pressed a finger to her chin, trying to understand what was going on in his head.