Eve's Time: Olivia's Introduction

    “You know you can’t lay in bed forever, Love, it’s time to get up.” Olivia could hear her husband, Jackson, speaking to her as she lay lifeless in their king-sized bed. The sun was invading the privacy of their bedroom and the privacy of her sleep. The sun’s rays rested relentlessly on her face as she kept her eyes closed and pretended that she was still asleep. 
Olivia opened her eyes, bracing herself for the sun’s brightness.  She looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand on her husband’s side of the bed –  it was 12:49 PM. Now why is the sun so bright this afternoon? She knew Jackson was right – she needed to get up and get some things together before the kids came home. They were at her mother’s and would be home later. Their family consisted of two children: Joy, who was Olivia’s 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, and Jackson, Jr., their 5-year-old son.

        Olivia sat up on the edge of the bed and hesitated. “Liv, sweetie,” she could hear her husband say with warmth and concern. “Okay, okay, I’m up, J,” she replied in a low tone that she could barely even hear herself. Olivia stood to her feet. She immediately felt weak but pressed on. She walked into the master bath, and began to run the shower. She looked in the mirror at herself as the steam from the shower started to fog her image. She looked terrible.  Her light caramel skin looked pale, her long light brown mane was all over her head, and her eyes were puffy. She was exhausted. It wasn’t too long ago that she had fallen asleep.  “He knows I haven’t gotten any sleep, why is he messing with me?” she mumbled to herself. Olivia slipped out of her gown and stepped into the steaming hot shower. Just as the water was starting to feel like a familiar friend, she could hear Jackson’s voice underneath the rushing water – it sounded as if he were right in the bathroom with her. “You should go by the church today, Love, you know God’s waiting to hear from you. You can’t go on like this.” Olivia acted like she didn’t hear him and buried her face under the cascading hot water. If he believed all the mumbo jumbo that he heard in church, why did he marry someone who lacked so much faith? Shouldn’t he have married someone who was just as much into church as he was?  Olivia instantly felt bad for thinking that way. She adored her husband. She loved him so much and couldn’t imagine her life without him. She couldn’t help but give an unexpected smile as she thought about how they met.

She was grocery shopping at her local supermarket, walking towards the dairy section looking for the cream cheese she needed to bake her famous red velvet cheesecake for her family’s upcoming Christmas dinner … when she spotted him.  He was tall and slim with a mahogany skin tone, low cut fade, thick eye brows, thin mustache, and full lips. He looked so reserved and mature, standing there scanning the labels of the merchandise so that he could place more orders. She didn’t know if he was someone of authority in the market, but the way that he carried himself hinted that he was. She studied him from a 10-ft distance and was actually debating with herself if she liked him. Hmmm, he wasn’t her usual type, for one thing, he clearly has a job, but for some odd reason she was drawn to him. “Excuse me, can you tell me where you keep the cream cheese?” she asked the tall, dark and handsome man. As he turned around to face her, she saw that his name tag said Cliff.  What a terrible name she thought to herself. “Umm, sure it’s straight down this aisle towards the end to your left,” he responded. She replied, “Thanks.” As she walked away she had already made up her mind that she liked him. The only problem was she was not the type to be direct with a guy – he would have to ask her out. So her plan went into motion – she made a mental note that the date was Monday, December 19th, and the time was 3:24 PM. She figured she’d come back into the market next Monday around the same time.

True to her determination, Olivia walked around the market the following Monday around 3:15 PM hoping to catch Cliff’s eye. She felt kind of silly walking around the market in 5 inch heeled boots, especially with it being at least a foot and a half of snow outside. Sure enough, she spotted him once again in the produce section of the market. She observed him again from afar and then walked pass him twice. Nothing. Not a single look. Not even a “Can I help you find something?”  Nothing!  She stuck around for another unsuccessful 15 minutes with fresh peas, steak, and a baguette in her cart before deciding to leave.  What a waste of time, she figured that he must be gay.  Her jeans hugged her in all the right places and she knew her walk was killer.  Perhaps he was just really into his work she convinced herself.  She made three more trips to his store unnoticed before she decided to just give up. She had never worked so hard in her life for a guy’s attention, and stalking was never her style. Why would a guy like him be interested in her anyway?  She seemed to only attract losers anyway.  She didn’t know why she liked him in the first place.

“Hello.” Olivia answered her phone, congested.

“Oh, you sound terrible, child. Are you taking care of yourself?” her mother asked with concern. She knew her mother meant well but sometimes Olivia felt as though her mom thought she was completely incapable of taking care of herself. She would even call to make sure she locked all her doors before going to bed.

“Yes, as much as I can.” Olivia answered placing her hand on her forehead in regret. She knew that her mother would go off on her for still being as sick (it was going into week two now and she wasn’t feeling any better).

“Well, what do you have over there for reinforcements?” her mother asked.

“I’ve got soup and tea.” Olivia replied with uncertainty.

“Liv, sweetie, if you’ve been sick this long then you need to carry yo’ butt to a doctor, or at least go get yourself some meds!” her mother insisted. Olivia rolled eyes and replied “Hey, papa always said that you all didn’t have all these new aged meds and diets back in the day and he turned out just fine.” 

“Girl, don’t tell me nothing about yo’ papa, who you think took care of him while he was sick? His mama then me, he don’t know what we gave him.  I’m gone stop by later when I get off work and bring you something to knock all that out tonight. The way you’re going about it is only making you suffer longer. Aren’t you tired of being sick?” her mother scolded her. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. You don’t have to worry about stopping by, though, I’m about to go out to the market anyway. I’ve run out of soup.” Olivia knew that if her mother stopped by she would make her feel worse by cleaning and lecturing her about how she needed to take better care of her health. 

“Okay now, just let me know if you need anything,” her mother replied.

“I will, Ma.” Olivia assured her as they hung up the phone.

Olivia waited a while to go to the market. Although it wasn’t Monday, she wanted to wait until it was almost closing time so she wouldn’t risk seeing Cliff. She looked a mess and felt even worse. As she knelt down in the pharmacy section by the flu medications, she felt someone stand right behind her. If somebody thought they were going to pick pocket her, they had another thing coming.

“You know, you should really make a list,” the person behind her was clearly speaking to her since there was no one else in the aisle. 

“Excuse me?” Olivia turned and replied with irritation in her voice. When she realized who had made the comment, she wanted to run and hide. It was tall, dark and handsome, Cliff. Of all the days she had come into the market trying to get his attention, he finally decided to say something when she looked like she stuck her finger in a socket and got electrocuted. What was he doing here at this time of night anyway, she asked herself as if she really knew his schedule.

“Oh, why do you say that?” she finally asked him.

“Because you’re in here like all the time,” he replied with a smirk on his face. She didn’t know if that smirk was meant for flirting or if he just felt sorry for her because she looked like she’d been hit by a train and he was just genuinely trying to help her out. It was a good thing that she wasn’t three shades lighter because if she were he would have seen how embarrassed she was.

“You should try the non-drowsy, that brand will put you in a coma,” he suggested.

“Thanks,” Olivia responded.  She stood up and now that she was much closer to him, realized that he was much taller than she had originally thought. He had to be at least 6 foot 2 inches compared to her 5 foot frame, and though he was slim, he clearly worked out.

“What else are you taking for your cold?” he asked.

Don’t tell me this fool is really a doctor and he works at the market periodically to kill time, she thought to herself. No, that would be too good to be true, she answered her own thought.

“Um, just soup, tea and now this,” she said pointing to the medication she held in her now sweaty palms. “Well, I ran out of soup, so I gotta pick that up too while I’m here,” she replied.

“Okay, well, I’ll walk with you to get the soup, only because you look like you might pass out at any minute and I wouldn’t want that to happen before I can get your number.  My name is Jackson, by the way.” He replied with that same smirk from a moment ago and extended his hand.  She was now certain that the smirk from before was flirtatious which made her feel a little better.

“I appreciate the gesture of a formal handshake, but you know germs spread easily. I wouldn’t want you to catch my cold,” she responded. She couldn’t let him feel her nervous sweaty palms.

“How considerate of you,” he replied with a genuine smile.

“So, are you one of those guys that goes by his last name or do you think you’re like the black James Bond or something because your name tag says Cliff,”  she asked with her right eyebrow raised.

“Oh, that’s short for my middle name, Clifton,” he responded with a hint of embarrassment.

“Well, Jackson my name is Olivia,” she replied with a smile.

“Wow! That’s cold!” Olivia shouted out. Her thoughts of nostalgia were interrupted by the now freezing water running from the shower. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been in the shower that long. Olivia turned off the running water and stepped out of the shower. She looked at the monogrammed white fluffy cotton towels that had hers and Jackson’s initials embroidered with light gray stitching hanging on the towel rack next to the shower. One read OJH for Olivia Josephine Harper and the other read JCH for Jackson Clifton Harper. Olivia grabbed the one with her husband’s initials and wrapped it around herself tightly as if the length of the towel were his arms holding her. She walked back into the bedroom and lay back in the bed. “I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute,” she thought to herself. She closed her eyes as she unconsciously twirled her 1.00 carat paved square step cut engagement ring and wedding band around on her ring finger as she helplessly fell back asleep.