Trading Heartbeats

Chapter 3:

Olivia sighed hearing her alarm go off on her phone. She rolled over grabbing her phone turning it off quickly half tempted to toss it across the room. She yawned stretching out feeling the warmth of her sheets. Her mind began replaying the previous night. Was it a dream? She grabbed her phone again going through her contacts seeing the name "Dean". Covering her face with a pillow she tries to push away the memory of their interaction before he was called away to help his friends. He probably just didn't want to make her feel bad. Nodding in agreement with herself she resolves not to bother him.

After showering and getting ready for the day she makes her way out to the glossy white kitchen of her apartment. She glances over to the oversized sofa seeing Alexis still curled up sleeping so peacefully she looked almost angelic. She smiles at her friend as she pours herself a small glass of juice waiting for her tea kettle to warm up. She sat down at the kitchen table and opening up her laptop. With a sleepy yawn, she began to browse through social media first, growing bored of it rather quickly, before going through the local news that she was a few days behind on.

"LOCAL MAN FOUND DEAD AFTER ANIMAL ATTACK."

"Animal attack?" Olivia whispered as she began reading the text of the article.

"Mark Simmons, 57, found dead in what appears to be a vicious animal mauling according to local police. His body was discovered in the woods behind 'Mac's Tap Room' in the morning hours of..."

"What are you doing?" Alexis yawns causing Olivia to jump in her chair. She looked up at her friend as she made her way over to the now screaming tea kettle.

"Um, just reading some stuff online. Did you know Mr. Simmons died?" she asked her friend closing her laptop.

"The guy that owned the pharmacy with his wife? Yeah, happened...last week, I think." Alexis shrugged setting two mugs on the table and sitting across from her.

"Lex, it happened behind Mac's...that's crazy." she shook her head picking up her mug and blowing gently on the steaming tea.

"Yeah...but wasn't Mr. Simmons a drunk? We saw him at Mac's all the time. He probably just got loaded and stumbled into the woods and pissed off a coyote or something." She offered.

"It's still sad...and strange." She started as her mind began to wander. She sighed as she blinked away the unpleasant thoughts. "Anyway, how did you sleep?" She asked.

"Good. Thank you for letting me crash last night." Alexis responded before taping her nails on the kitchen table. "So...are we just not going to talk about the beautiful man who gave you his number last night...or?" Olivia shook her head in protest.

"There's nothing to talk about," she stated.

"Bull. Shit." Alexis challenged. "He was watching you all night after I seen you two at the bar."

"No. He wasn't." she shook her head quickly. "He wasn't even inside most of the time...was he?" she asked.

Alexis sighed. "Call him. Please?"

"No. No way. He's probably married or just in town for work or something." Her excuses were met with disgust.

"Regardless. Even if he is in town for work or something, that's perfect. You should've hooked up with him and got back out there." She rolled her eyes at her. They argued about the mysterious man for what felt like an eternity before Alexis made her way to the door to go home. Alexis meant well, she did. She had been the first call Olivia made after finding Brian and Whatsername, she knew how badly she had been hurt. But, she wasn't like her fearless and confident best friend.

Olivia sighed closing the door behind her friend before making her way to the couch and turning on the television. After about 15 minutes of scrolling through Netflix, she settled on an older movie she hadn't seen in years. She allowed a yawn to escape as she sank deeper into the couch. She began to drift off a few minutes into the movie, visions of intense green eyes claiming her dreams.