I choose me.

Part 11: Crawford Wallace

"Hi." She smiled, caught off guard.

"Hi." He smiled right back, "Can I help you?" He took the bag from her.

"Come on up." She motioned to the staircase, suddenly worried how frumpy she looked in her scrunchy black sweats and plain black t-shirt. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm flying out to Hawaii tomorrow night and Fred wanted me to come look at some board designs he's working on, and you have been off the radar, so here I am." He tossed the comforter up and caught it while he waited for her to unlock the door.

"Yeah, sorry, I saw you called on my birthday—I—it's been rough, the past few days I've actually been more myself."

"I hope you don't take this badly, but you look so tired." He said it with a forced grin.

"Well, there's that too. Uh, can I get you some..." She quickly opened and closed all her cupboards and the refrigerator, "Water?"

"Water is great." He sat on the couch and looked around, "This is a cool little place." She brought him the glass of water.

"It used to be Mulligan's, now it's all mine." She forced a smile, her eyes burning with fatigue.

"You're all settled then? With the gym?"

"Oh yeah, he moved his boxing stuff, it was all 'clean', all done." She nodded and sighed.

"Break-ups suck, no matter the who or why."

She nodded, "I'm sorry I have nothing to offer you, I've pretty much been making peanut butter and jelly a new food group on the pyramid." He was studying her face, which she was sure was nothing pretty, she stared back at him staring at her. He scooted closer to her and pulled her into a hug, she almost whimpered out loud. It was literally her first touch since the day she'd gotten back from New York. Being close to someone was something she had feared as a little girl and as an adult to a degree, but right now this was one of the best feelings she could ask for.

"How about I cook you dinner and help you sleep?" He traced the dark circles under her eyes.

"That sounds wonderful." She said, sleep was a luxury that she wanted "There's a little market like two blocks form here, if you don't mind, I'll stay here and clean up, I wasn't expecting company—well ever." She scribbled down the address, there was one closer, but it was also closer to Benny's gym. Once he left she clicked into fast forward, she showered and shaved, picked up all her scattered laundry and started a load of wash. She washed her peanut butter knives and threw all the peanut butter and jam jars into the recycle bin, wiped down the counters and vacuumed, she was just wrapping the cord up when there was a soft knocking at the door, "Come on in." But the door didn't open so she turned the knob, he had two heavy bags in his arms.

"Well I was going to do a really fancy lasagna with a caesar salad, but I'm really hungry, so I figured spaghetti and greens would be alright, and I got a couple of bottles of wine." She watched him fill up her counter with all his finds. At the end he pulled out a small pink box, "And one birthday cake, pretty good little store with all the options for our kind." He grabbed the darkest bottle of wine and held it up, "Corkscrew?"
She rummaged through the back of a low drawer and found an old opener, she pulled out some pots, pans and a cutting board for him.

"I don't have any wine glasses, just mason jars." She said.

"They hold liquid, they'll work." Olivia sat on the other side of the counter while he cooked.

"Did you find a place in New York?"

He nodded "One bedroom loft by the river, it's nice." He pulled out his phone and showed her some pictures of the outside, then the inside with no furniture or furnishings. "My sisters say that they need to come decorate it properly." He rolled his eyes and popped a piece of bell pepper in his mouth, she had missed him.