The month of September was mellow, Olivia kept busy with project after project, she ended up painting the office and building shelves and racks for PureSide products from reclaimed wood, she had watched Crawford in his surfing competition, he'd placed first in his division. He had called her a week later from Chile of all places, he'd gotten a photo gig he couldn't pass up, some huge local celebration. There was no word from Benny, but it was a small neighborhood so they passed each other often, across the street, different aisles of the store. She had developed a routine; wake up, box and spar, work, train, paperwork, clean and then bed. Everyday. She was tired, only getting what little sleep she could in the closet with her terrors haunting her every night. She went to Wednesday night mass instead of Sundays, to avoid Benny. The cold was was quickly moving back into Boston with a vengeance and the beginning of October brought horribly nasty storms with it. She had put up a couple of space heaters in parts of the gym and in her apartment, the building had no heating system. If her routine was thrown off, she went downhill fast, but when she was on she felt good, capable, strong and even a little positive some days. She most looked forward to when she got to see the kids at the Foster House. They had loved her trinkets from New York and she had loved telling them stories of the big city. Her body was changing. Since she was focused less on powerlifting and more on fighting, she was losing a little bit of muscle mass, but tightening up all over.
She was nervous tonight. Tuesday night the weather reports were calling for severe thunder and lightning, the noise terrified her almost as much as her dreams, there was a flood advisory put out too. As she locked the gym door, the first bolt of lighting struck down and she ran upstairs, locking the door behind her, like it would keep the noise away. She frantically looked around the little apartment and grabbed her headphones to blast her music. Olivia decided to open one of the bottles of wine Crawford had left, she sipped greedily at it while humming along to the music. Then picked up her old laptop and stared at the blank screen of the word processing program.
She wanted to do a duel fundraiser for the foster home and the animal shelter across the street, and also have it be a way to showcase veganism. She had e-mailed her idea to Andrew, he said he only liked it because it would be good publicity, another round of thunder and lighting hit so hard, she jumped and spilled her wine on the couch, then the lights flickered, a huge gust of wind and sleet hit and they then went out completely.
"Okay, okay, okay, candles, find the candles..." she repeated it over and over and found a half burnt Saint Patrick candle, and put it on the coffee table, she looked through all the drawers for a lighter or matches, but couldn't find any. She was going to try and use a burner on the stove, but it was electric, there could be one downstairs but she wasn't going to go down there. She then wondered if this was punishment as the storm mercilessly pounded overhead. She could feel the panic rising rapidly and she ran to cocoon herself in the closet, covering her ears.
She waited for it to weaken or stop, but it just boomed and shook, she was pretty sure she heard glass break somewhere. Olivia started screaming every time there was a flash or thunder or wind, somehow it helped her feel in control. It was such a long time. She heard another boom and then pounding and then the closet door slid open with a bang, she screamed again into the blackness.
"Livvy? Livvy it's me." Benny shined a flashlight on his dripping wet face.
"Benny?" She was so confused to see him in the apartment. He picked her up, blanket and all and lay her on the couch. He pulled off his wet jacket and lay next to her, on the outside of the couch to protect her. He held her against him with one arm and placed his other hand over her other ear. She was shaking against him, but soon that stopped, soon she relaxed against the heat of his body, against the mass of it. He kissed the top of her head. "It's just a storm, it'll go away, it's just a storm." He whispered over and over, just like he'd always done for her in the years past.
YOU ARE READING
I choose me.
General Fiction"I choose me" follows the story of Olivia Granger , her life from an orphan, to an athlete and business owner, to a woman whose life turns in a direction she never ever thought it would go, a direction she never even knew could exist. It is a hear...
