23 Gift From Mom

It was finally the end of Olivia's party and everyone had made their way home. Olivia felt thrilled that things worked out between Marek and Blair but she couldn't help but feel a little lonely. She really wanted to call Blair and talk about the confession but realized it was already close to midnight and she really needed to get into bed for work the next day.

"Olivia... Olivia.... my sweet little Livy bean...happy birthday..." Olivia woke the next morning feeling like she saw a sweet dream. As she sat up and jumped out of her bed, she realized that her favorite pillow was wet. Olivia brought her hand to the towards her eyes and felt her tears running down the side of her face. "Odd" she thought she wasn't feeling sad but felt that she had a rather good dream.

As she was getting herself ready for the day, Olivia tried to remember the sweet dream she had. Though she could not remember the images, she could still remember the warmth and happiness brought on by the dream and for now that was good enough. With a quick shake of her head, Olivia pumped her fist in the air she exclaimed "Today will be a good day!".

....

After spending the day scrubbing bathrooms and offices clean, Olivia dragged herself to bed. She was drained! Where did all the energy she had yesterday go? It was a nightmare of a shift, she wasn't sure but made an internal bet that someone had an office party of sorts and trashed the one floor and bathroom of the office.

How could they get 'that' on the walls, the side of the sink and even the ceiling. Someone or people she wasn't sure what and didn't really want to know, had too much 'fun' when the big cats were away. Thank goodness the manager was kind enough to take on the more 'above the call of duty' tasks and shooed her away from the rooms.

There was a knock on her bedroom door "Sweet pea are you busy?" Avery asked. "Nope, come on in!" Avery walked in awkwardly and sat on the edge of her bed. He looked nervous and started to fiddle with a small, black box that was in his right hand and grasped a slightly larger box in the other.

Olivia was intrigued by the boxes and watched her father try to form words but failed every time. Olivia scooted her butt closer to her father until she sat directly beside him, she hooked one of her arms under his and laid her head against his shoulder.

Olivia and her father sat quietly for some time before he decided to hand her the larger box first. Olivia straightened herself out and slowly lifted the lid of the black box. She looked at her father in awe and back top the box.

Inside there was a beautiful necklace that once belonged to her mother. It had a gold, heart shaped pendant. The left side of the heart was decorated with alternating small, white and pink diamonds while the right had 5 tiny cherry blossoms. Each fully, bloomed blossom was aligned with the shape of the heart. Each flower was made of pink, mother of pearl making each blossom shimmer streaks of white and pink hues.

Starting from the right center, one crystal jade pearl was placed beside the cherry blossom and another was placed on the outside, in between the first two blossoms. The pattern repeated with the remaining three crystal jade pearls, till three pearls were in the inside of the heart while two were outside. It created the illusion that each blossom having it's own petal.

Olivia looked at the pendant while tears started to plop into the box. Avery gently removed the box from her hands and took out the necklace. He unclasped the hook on the Singapore chain and re-clasped it again around Olivia's neck.

Olivia looked her dad in the eyes, with trembling lips she touched the pendant that laid delicately on her chest. Avery with a shaky voice said "You're mom wanted you to have this for your 17th birthday. Something to keep close to your heart for the last year of your 'childhood' so you would remember that no matter how old you got you were always going to be our little girl."

Olivia gave her dad a forced smile but couldn't stop her tears from rolling down her face. Avery brought Olivia in for a hug and gently rubbed the back of her head, Olivia rubbed her face into his chest knowing that this act was not to comfort her but to hide the tears her dad was shedding.

Finally Avery pulled Olivia out of their embrace, his eyes were puffy and pink. He handed her the small box hesitantly. He tried to look calm and collected but his eyes gave him away as they showed how truly afraid he was over the next gift.

Olivia took the small box and popped open the lid. With a small gasp she laid her eyes on her mother's engagement ring. It was a stunning, gold ring that had golden foliage intertwined between two thin bands of gold. Each leaf was decorated with tiny diamonds while the center of the ring was a golden rose. It was in full bloom and in the center of the rose laid a round, white diamond.

Olivia was too scared to take the ring out of its box and anxiously looked at her father "Dad... this is mom's..." Avery gave a small, wary smile and quickly interrupted her sentence "Yes it is. Your mom also wanted you to have this but I'm supposed to give it to someone else, so that they in turn can give this to you." Olivia took one more look at the ring before closing the lid and bringing the box to her lips.

She couldn't look at her father but she needed to ask him 'Why' but the word were stuck in her throat. Avery gave a big sigh and gently took the box away from her. "You see I wanted to let you know that this ring rightful belongs to you... and only you. I will be putting this in a safe place till the right person comes along and asks for your hand in marriage...."

Avery stole one more look at Olivia before he continued "You see I am thinking of proposing to Agni and I don't want you to think the ring will become hers or belong to anyone else." Olivia paled over his words and she finally found her voice "When?"

"I am not going to rush in to it, so not tomorrow or next week maybe not even for a few more months, but I do find myself unable to stop loving her and evryday that passes that love becomes stronger... and there is another reason but I'm not ready to tell you yet." He gently wrapped his one around Olivia and brought her close. He placed a kiss on the top of her head.

They sat in silence until it late into the night. Avery insisted that he would tuck Olivia into bed and wouldn't leave until he did. Once Olivia was snuggled in for the night he gave her one more kiss on her forehead and whispered "I love you my sweet angel."

Olivia looked at her father and with a small smile she responded "I love you too dad."