1: Lost Dream

Only darkness was flashed for hours as usual until the sound of the alarm slowly awakened her consciousness. For the past years, it became rare for Olivia to experience a dream in her slumber. At that point, she would most likely feel like she was new to the world if ever she had dreams again.

Wanting the ringing sound that was piercing her ears to dissipate, the blonde reached for the alarm clock on the bedside table from her left without opening her eyes. Even after moving in to a new house, her alarm clock would always be on a bedside table from her left.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as soon as she successfully turned the alarm off. Her eyes finally opened after a few seconds as she did not even flinch when her eyes were immediately met with a pair of hazel eyes from a short distance.

“Good morning, Liv.” A warm smile spread across the flawless face of the man across her.

“Good morning, Theo,” Olivia softly replied as she sat up on her bed and rubbed her eyes. Her eyes scanned the tall man from head to toe when she noticed that he was not in his sleepwear. “You’re going somewhere this early?”

“Yeah. The board suddenly called in for an early meeting so I’m gonna have to head out first before you,” Theodore responded as he fixed his necktie in front of the floor mirror. He looked at the latter through the mirror. “Would you rather for me to stay?”

The blonde let out a chuckle. “Sure, but no. The meeting’s more important, Theo.”

“I can just tell them to start without me. Home emergency.” The brunet flashed a cheeky grin on his face as he fixed his hair with his fingers without taking his eyes off the woman through the mirror.

“Theodore, no.” Olivia shook her head as she got up from the bed and stretch her arms upward. “I wouldn’t lie if they ask me later why you didn’t attend the meeting.”

“Sometimes, I feel like you still don’t love me.”

Olivia stopped from her tracks when she heard what the latter said as the smile on her face dropped. She slowly turned to face him with a bit of nervousness.

“W-what do you mean? I do love you,” the blonde responded with a forced smile on her face.

Theodore stared at her for a few seconds before the corners of her lips raised to form a smile as he walked toward her and gently took both of her hands, intertwining their fingers. He gazed at her bare face as he felt like a huge weight disappeared from his shoulders—one gaze on Olivia’s face made him feel completely relaxed that he felt like he did not have to worry about the past or future. Starting at her face that looked like the most beautiful to him was the only thing that he wished he could just do for the rest of his life.

“Feels hella nice to hear that first thing in the morning,” Theodore spoke as he let out a chuckle after before leaning in to plant a soft kiss on her lips. “I love you too.”

Olivia did not reply as she just flashed a smile.

Noticing the time on his wristwatch, Theodore then decided to leave already, knowing that it would be unprofessional of him to be tardy to a board meeting. Feeling the solid metal around the ring finger of Olivia and hearing his favorite sentence from her in the morning were enough to make him motivated enough to work hard for the day.

Around half an hour passed until Olivia was done preparing herself to leave for work. The blonde walked down the stairs with her pastel pink handbag on her arm as she wore her thin gold wristwatch on the way as well. Waking up to prepare herself and head to the hospital after had become a routine for her ever since she received her medical license. It was different from how she was more than a decade ago in which she actually had freedom.

“Take care, Ms. Jean,” one of the housemates energetically said with a kind smile on her face when she saw the blonde walking toward the front door.

“Thanks—” The smile on the blonde’s face dropped when her eyes stopped on the necklace that the housemaid was wearing.

The gold necklace had small wings as the front design, which reminded Olivia of a certain someone from ten years ago that she was supposed to have forgotten about already by now.

The blonde swallowed a lump in her throat as she bitterly shook her head before continuing to head out of the house, forcing herself to stop thinking about that person.

“That’s right. All of this happened for a good reason. I’m living a content life now,” Olivia mumbled to herself as she heaved out a heavy sigh.

The blonde then got in her car and left the bitter thoughts out.

***

The weather was beautiful with the sky being bright blue and the temperature neither being too hot nor too cold. It was the ideal weather for most of the people. A brief smile stayed on the face of the blonde as she gazed at the sky before the traffic light finally turned green.

A tall hospital stood out the most in the streets because of its classy exterior design unlike the other stores near the hospital. Olivia could see it already from afar as she was about to drive straight to it when her eyes stopped on a small café by the sidewalk. Just by seeing the prettily simple exterior design of it, the blonde suddenly had a craving for a hot cappuccino.

The blonde turned the wheel to park on the sidewalk in front of the café after making sure that she was still 15 minutes early. It takes at least three minutes to make a cup of hot cappuccino, and the hospital was near the café anyway so it would not hurt to stop by for some coffee.

As soon as Olivia stepped in the small café, the pleasant smell of coffee entered her nostrils as she let out a soft sigh in relief. The blonde did not bother looking around the whole place as she was just there to buy a cup of cappuccino anyway.

“Good morning! What would you like to have?” the man behind the counter greeted in a bubbly manner as soon as the blonde stood in front of the counter.

“I would like a medium-sized cup of hot cappuccino to go, please,” Olivia politely said as she took her credit card out of her mint green wallet after looking for it in her handbag.

“Is that all, miss? Our vegetarian sandwich is our best-selling menu for breakfast.”

“Yes, that is all,” the blonde replied without caring about the rest of what he said.

The barista nodded without saying anything more as he quickly went to prepare her cappuccino.

Olivia did not bother looking for a table to sit as she stayed by the counter while looking out the street through the glass wall. The blonde was impressed at how the wall looked completely transparent because of how clean it was as she could already imagine plenty of people accidentally hitting themselves on the glass. The thought made her let out a silent chuckle though the smile on her face slowly disappeared when a memory related to it appeared in her head. It was that person again.

Olivia clenched her jaw as she slightly furrowed her eyebrows and looked away from the glass, putting her attention on the barista who was making her cappuccino instead. The fact that she just thought about the same person twice already on the seventh day since she came back to the city was making her annoyed. One of the reasons why she agreed to leave Flyve City with Theodore ten years ago was to completely forget all about that certain person, but then all of her efforts to move on only vanished into dust as soon as she came back to her hometown.

The blonde looked down to her hands as she stared at the diamond ring around her left ring finger. It was the only ring that she was wearing, which was making her feel a bit sad. Ever since the incident from a decade ago happened, she could barely feel happy anymore. She was not even allowed to do the things that she used to enjoy doing back then because of the current circumstances.

Olivia ran her fingers on the metal around her finger as she could not even feel any butterflies in her stomach. The blonde had seen films in which the characters would feel happy whenever they see their engagement ring as she could only just be silently bitter about it, knowing that she would never have that kind of happiness from those movies.

“Here is your freshly made hot cappuccino, miss.”

The blonde raised her head when she heard the lively voice of the barista as she flashed a brief smile while reaching to take the cup from him. The latter took her credit card as she patiently waited for the receipt to be given. Since she had been craving for it, Olivia did not wait to go back to her car as she took a sip on the hot coffee. Instead of feeling a sense of relief for drinking her favorite kind of coffee, she felt confused at the slightly different taste of it.

The barista handed the receipt to her with a wide grin on her face as if he was so proud of his creation. That was when she realized that the barista made her a latte instead of a cappuccino.

Olivia stared at him for a while before taking it from him without saying anything except for, “Thank you.”

Worried to be late for work, she quickly turned around and was about to head toward the exit when her eyes happened to meet with the amber eyes of the person standing right across her.

The blonde then froze on her spot as she could not believe that the person whom she was just thinking of earlier was standing across her right at that moment.

Dakota.