New Year, New You, New Me

Chapter Three

That morning, Olivia woke up in an empty bed in Fitz's bungalow, her body diffused with a delicious ache from head to toe, in tumbled sheets that smell like Fitz - that smelled of them.

For endless moments, she's in that space between sleep and wakefulness and Olivia feels like she's inside of some fantasy, that a fairy godmother has waved her magic wand and has transported her off to some foreign land, complete with ocean breezes and oh, it's such a lovely place to be, even more so as her mind returns to a full awakening and remembers that this is no fantasy, this is no dream, but this is heart-achingly real.

And so is the smile that spreads across her face.

Fitz walks into the room, bearing a tea tray with two cups already filled, smiling to see that she's awake. He sets the tray down on the nightstand, then leans down to greet her with a good morning kiss. "Hi."

She smiles back. "Hi."

Fitz lifts a brochure from the tray. "Explain to me again what the purpose of a white party is?"

"An excuse to play dress up." Olivia explained. "Extra dress up. Extreme dress up."

"How extreme?"

"Not only is everyone dressed in white, we're talking tuxes and tails."

"Really?"

"Really. I've never actually attended one myself, but..."

"So we have a reason to go." Fitz said. "Something new to the both of us."

"True - and if I remember right, you are devastatingly handsome in a tux with tails."

"Am I?"

"You are."

"Well, it's not like you aren't eye candy either, you know." His eyes soften. "And you know that I would love to see you all dressed in white."

They both knew exactly what he meant and it hung in the air between them.

"I'll have to go shopping." Olivia said. "I need to find something special."

Fitz's hand found its way to her face, fingers tracing her delicate jawline. "You are my something special." He murmured just before he leaned forward and brushed his mouth against hers. The unspoken vision of Olivia dressed in white lingered between them and the emotion it invoked turned the kiss sweet and slow and tender, the softest mingling of lips and tongue that left them both a little light-headed and dazed when at last they drew apart.

His heart is in his eyes, Olivia realizes as her eyes open again and it says everything that she's waited a lifetime to hear. Difficult, devastating, life-changing, extraordinary love - it was here right in front of her and if she didn't know it before, then she definitely knows it now - she's made the right decisions for her life and his...

The smile she gave him was brilliant.

"Olivia Pope, what's going on inside that mind of yours?"

Her smile grew even wider. "Ask me later."

***

New Year's Eve
Thirty Minutes Until Midnight

So here they were, on a beautiful and elegantly decorated yacht beneath the tropical stars on New Year's Eve, just another couple among a crowd of happy laughing people. If there was a better way to start the new year, Fitz couldn't think of one.

Well, actually he could - but this... this was foreplay to the fantasies dancing in his head. Fitz could already imagine the limo ride back to the bungalow.