17 Keeping a good attitude

It’s almost Sunday afternoon and I haven’t seen my mom yet. She didn’t join us for breakfast and she hasn’t come out of her room all day. I hear her walking upstairs, but that’s it. I haven’t really spoken to her after she snapped at Stefan and I was hoping we could talk about what happened, but she’s clearly not interested in spending time with her daughter. It’s like I’m all alone at home. My dad went out, I bumped into him early in the morning when I was going out for a run, he was leaving with some intruders, Stefan included, so I assume they are doing something work-related. They haven’t come back yet. 

I call Miranda to see if she wants to hang out, but she’s going to Erick’s grandmother’s funeral. I wish I could go too and tell him how sorry I am, but after what happened the last time I saw him, it’s better for me to stay put. Miranda promises me to call me afterward. I’m left alone with not much to do. I go to the living room and turn the TV on. 

The front door opens, I get up to go to the hall to greet my dad and find him coming in followed by Stefan.

“Where is your mom?” My dad asks in a cranky mood. 

“Upstairs in her room,” I reply.

“Tell her to get dinner ready. Stefan is joining us tonight,” he says before heading straight to his office. 

Stefan takes a stride to get to me and pecks me on the lips before he follows my dad into his office. 

“See you in a while, doll,” he whispers as he walks away. 

I go upstairs and knock on my mom’s door. It takes her a few minutes to open the door.

“What do you want?” She asks me with a froggy voice, she looks gaunt. 

“My dad sent me to ask you to get dinner ready and also to let you know Stefan is joining us tonight,” I inform her. 

I fear she’s going to snap at me, but instead she slams the door in my face without uttering a word. I groan exasperated, what a childish behavior! Not only was she rude to Stefan, but now she’s also being rude to me. I walk to my room infuriated, but then I recall I promised myself to be more cheerful regardless of the situation at home. I take a deep breath. I have to maintain a good attitude, otherwise, this dinner is going to become another unbearable evening. 

When it’s time to go downstairs I put on my best smile and try to charge up with patience. I hope my mom behaves better tonight. I find her setting the table, my dad and Stefan are not here yet. I help her with the silverware, while she places the napkins, we each do our tasks in silence. She doesn’t even look at me. Suddenly, she clasps my arm and pulls me towards her.

“Olivia, if you play with fire, you get burned,” she whispers right before my dad and Stefan walk in. 

I look at her perplexed. What is she talking about? Couldn’t she have said it before or after or literary ANY other time? She’s been in her room all day and she chooses this exact moment to blab a random saying just to mess with me. 

“Oh, good, salmon!” Exclaims my dad as he takes his seat. 

We start to eat in complete silence, the only noises come from the silverware and glasses, but instead of feeling uncomfortable, I feel relieved. There can be no fighting if we all keep quiet. 

“What was the name of that French restaurant you went to?” Asks my dad breaking the silence. 

“La Casserole. It’s really good,” Stefan replies without looking up his plate. 

I flinch. Stefan told my dad about our date? I don’t ever tell my parents about my dates! 

“Olivia hates French cuisine,” my mom states with an unfriendly face. 

I look at her with begging eyes, please go back to being quiet. 

Stefan lifts his face and turns toward me with surprise. 

“It would have been nice for you to tell me,” he says in a frisky tone. 

“It’s no big deal... I don’t hate it for real,” I reply feeling exposed. 

“Lucky for you, my daughter is an easygoing person, she adapts quickly to new situations, unlike her mother who is a nightmare.” My dad says.

Please don’t bicker again, not in front of Stefan.

“Oh! I’m a nightmare?” My mom exclaims.

“Change of subject!” I shout, someone has to stop them before this gets nasty.

My dad nods, he looks too tired to fight. My mom rolls her eyes back and then she shrugs. 

“Fine, let’s talk about why you didn’t go to Mrs. Cooper’s funeral? I thought you were friends with her grandson, Erick. It was really rude of you not to go,” she expresses. 

“I find funerals super depressing,” I lie. How can I explain to them that Erick doesn’t want me anywhere near him or his family after what my dad did?

“You could have done an effort, you’re an adult, Olivia, act like one. At least you could have told us so we would send them a flower arrangement. What happened to them was a real tragedy,” my mother looks at me with disapproval. 

“Bad things happen to bad people,” Stefan whispers as he grabs a slice of bread from the center of the table. 

“How dare you! She was an elderly woman! What is wrong with you?” My mom yells furious. 

“I wasn’t talking about her, but about her grandson, who was a real jerk to your daughter. Which you would know if you paid attention to her once in a while,” he responds with his usual confidence. 

“What has he done to you?!” My dad asks as he hits his fist on the table. “Did he make a pass at you?”

“No! None of that. It was just a misunderstanding. Relax, dad,” I say making an effort to sound calm.

“What was it then? I won’t let anyone disrespect my daughter,” he exclaims angrily. 

“Don’t worry, no one will as long as I’m here,” Stefan says. 

“We have lived for years without you and we’ve been doing just fine, we don’t need you.” My mom states. 

“I’m just here to help.” Stefan gives my mom his kindest smile. I know he’s just doing it to piss her off and it works, my mom’s face turns red. She really loathes Stefan. 

I hate this situation. I’ve never felt this way for a man before, Stefan is like a dream to me and my mom can’t even stand to be in the same room with him for half an hour without assailing him. And why? Because our dads used to be business rivals? It’s so absurd. They made peace and are now working together, why can’t she catch up? 

“Help? You? Give me a break!” My mom exclaims. 

I look at my dad and whisper to him “Do something.” 

He sighs, but agrees, he clears his throat to speak.

“Olivia, where is your bike? Yesterday I was looking for batteries in the garage and I noticed your bike is not there. What happened to it?”

I immediately regret asking him to intervene.   

“I’ve never seen you ride a bike,” Stefan says taking his attention from my mom to me.

“I usually just ride on Sundays,” I explain.

“It’s a really nice bike. Yellow and pink, her favorite colors since she was a child. We could show it to you, but it’s not here.” My dad says. 

“Yes, it’s not here... Miranda has it,” I lie. “Hers was stolen and she needed one to get to class. I don’t use mine that much so I let her borrow it for a while.” It’s scary how good I’m getting at lying. 

“Once she gives it back to you, maybe we can go ride together,” Stefan suggests. 

“Yes! I would love that.” 

Too bad Miranda is losing my bike in a couple of days. 

For obvious reasons, there’s no after-dinner conversation. Stefan goes back to his apartment and I stay in my room relieved to have survived another nightmarish dinner with my family. 

————

I haven’t gotten totally used to the hectic work mornings, everyone coming and going, death lines to meet, people chatting about their weekends by the water cooler, phones incessantly ringing... It’s only 11:20 am and I already want to go home. 

Nancy, the receptionist, takes me by surprise when she approaches my desk, maybe she has finally forgiven me for my prior rudeness. Her eyes are sparkling with malice, she has a juicy gossip. 

“Did you hear about what happened to Laura’s boyfriend?” She says as she sits on the edge of my desk. She shouldn’t do that, her skirt is too short and I can see she’s not the kind of woman that shaves her upper legs. 

“Are you talking about the fire?” I ask without taking my eyes off my monitor. Ugh, isn’t there another topic besides Erick? 

“The arson, you mean,” she corrects me. 

“Are they sure it was arson?”

“That’s what Laura posted online last night. She was asking for anyone with information to go to the police. Didn’t you saw?” 

“I’m off social media, I’m doing an experiment to see how long I can hold without logging in,” I explain. “But it seems so strange that someone would want to hurt the Coopers. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to do harm to them, they are really nice people.”

“Well, just because they look like nice people on the outside, doesn’t mean they are... you never know.” 

Nancy has no idea how much her comment rubs me the wrong way. The fact that a person feels entitled to judge others and give opinions with almost no facts just because some random online post it’s nefarious. As a victim myself of such lightness of judgment, I won’t participate in that against someone else. Luckily, David asks me to his office, so I have an excuse to cut this annoying conversation off.

When I go back to my desk, I see Nancy already chatting with a girl from accounting a few cubicles from mine. I take my phone out of my purse. I have two new messages from the only two people who have my number. 

        MIRANDA GLEASON: Sorry for not calling you after the funeral! Barney took me to dinner and I forgot! I’m the worst!

          STEFAN CORVINO: How’s your morning going, doll?

I type a quick response for Miranda and then I give Stefan my full attention.

          OLIVIA RICCI: Very busy, but I’ll survive. How about yours?

          STEFAN CORVINO: I can’t concentrate. I keep thinking about you.

I blush and smile at my screen like a fool. 

          OLIVIA RICCI: I think a lot about you, too.

     STEFAN CORVINO: Don’t make any plans for the weekend. I want you all for myself.

The excitement runs thru my body. I can’t wait for the weekend.