Chapter Thirty-Five: Olivia

"Hello? Hello? Aiden?" I was practically yelling into my phone.

The line was still scrambled and I could barely hear him, eventually the call ended leaving me with only a repetitive and annoying beeping sound.

My phone battery read 1% and I looked around, there was nobody inside for at least the next 500 m. It was a lonely dark street.

I decided to try Liam's number again to see if it would go but his phone only rang with no reply. Maybe I should just text Aiden instead, after all he had just picked my call, which meant that he was probably available.

After typing out my location, I sent it to Aiden. The message was loading and taking time to deliver so I had to start moving around, stretching out my arms so my phone could be higher and probably get a better signal.

"Yes!" I said under my breath when the text was sent. However, my phone screen went blank immediately after that, my battery was dead.

I let out a sigh. My car randomly broke down on my way back home, and to make things worse, I had a low battery.

"What were you thinking following this lonely road?" I complained to myself, running my fingers through my hair.

The sun had long dipped below the horizon and night fall was quickly approaching. Eventually a bright light cast against me and I turned towards the source.

It was a car. I tried to wave it down but the driver ignored and just drove past. "Asshole!" I grumbled.

Maybe he ignored me because it seemed a little suspicious that I was just standing here in the middle of nowhere in a lonely street, who knows.

I decided to settle with the fact that he was simply just a jerk, it made me feel better for insulting him. After several minutes of pacing around I peeped at my wrist watch.

My phone was dead and I had no means of reaching anybody, Aiden was the last person I sent a text message to before it went off. If Aiden wasn't coming, I had to leave this place regardless.

As if to make matters worse, cool wind began blowing and I could tell that it was soon going to rain. Bubbling with frustration, I got back into my car and tried to kickstart the engines.

The engines sputtered for some seconds and then quenched. "Okay that's it, I'm going to walk if I have to."

I got my handbag and got down from the car, luckily the central lock was still working so I simply locked the car and began to walk.

The wind intensified and began to scatter my well arranged hair, I tried to block it out with my arms extended, my dress bellowing freely.

My hypothesis was that if I could walk fast enough and get towards the busy area, I'll probably be able to find a taxi and head home then come back with my car tomorrow.

It felt like a force was trying to pull me back due to the strong winds but I kept pushing. Finally the harsh bright light of a car illuminated the street.

I turned around. "Aiden! Phew thank God." The car came to a stop just beside me and he gestured with his hand for me to enter.

"You got me worried sick, I saw your car in the back but you were in there, I thought something happened to you,"he said, his voice laced with a familiar concern.

The rain was probably waiting for me to get some form of cover because the next thing I knew, it began to shower heavily.

"Yeah, I decided to start walking when nobody came, I thought I could get to a busy area before the rain started."

Aiden quickly turned on the wipers but the downpour was too dense for him to see anything in his front. There was no way he could drive so he had to bring the car to a stop.

"The rain is really heavy," he pointed out, trying to clean off the mist that was forming on the windscreen inside with his hands.

I started to rub my elbows because the air conditioning was chilling. He noticed this from the corner of his eyes and adjusted the temperature, turning the knob towards the heater.

"Thank you," I muttered.

"Don't mention it."

The tension between us was palpable and the awkward silence seemed to stretch out for eternity. I cleared my throat. "Do you have a car phone charger?" I asked, holding up my dead device.

He leaned towards me in an attempt to reach for his glove box. The scent of his perfume wafted into my nostrils and his body pressed against mine lightly.

I noticed a little struggle because he was trying to use only one arm to open it but he eventually retrieved the charger.

"How's your arm?" I randomly asked, feeling concerned.

He plugged the charger into the port. "It still hurts but I think it's getting better."

A small smile formed on my face as I plugged in my phone. "What? What's funny?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how awkward this moment is. I mean you still came to check up on me despite everything."

He rested his back against the seat. "I will always be here for you when you need me, always," he whispered, looking me in the eyes.

A lump formed in the back of my throat and I swallowed it down, tearing my eyes away from his. I tried to distract myself by looking around but the mist made it impossible to see anything.

"How long do you think the storm would last?"

He wiped his windows and looked out, "from the looks of it I'll say give or take at least the next 30 minutes."

I exhaled and my shoulders loosened, looks like it's going to be a long wait. "Do you still like soul music?"

His question took me off guard and I blinked a few times. "What?"

"Soul music, do you still like soul music?"

"Sure, why not."

He immediately paired his phone with his car speaker and then opened his music streaming app. "I have a playlist," he explained.

When the songs began to play I felt a little at ease. Sometimes when I'm at home I listen to music with my headphones but it's been a while since I got the chance to just blast them out loud.

The song that was playing was one that I knew so I immediately began to move my body to the slow rhythm.

I slowly began to lip sync. It didn't take long before I realized that the songs that were on shuffle were my favorites.

"Your playlist is awesome, all my favorite songs are in it."

The small smile on his face flattered. "Yeah, it's not my playlist."

All movement ceased when it finally hit me, this was my playlist. These were the songs I used to play whenever he and I would go out together.

"You never deleted it?"

He shook his head slowly. "Months after you died, at least when I thought you died, I kept on playing it on repeat every time. It somehow made me feel like I was closer to you."

I could feel the strain on my lips as I forced myself to maintain a weak smile. "But I thought you said soul music bores you?"

My mind took me back to a moment from 6 years ago. We were in the car driving, the sound of our laughter filling the air.

"It's too slow, put something more interesting like hip hop," he said.

"No, soul music is for the soul, it's supposed to be slow."

The sound of his voice brought me back to reality. "Well it doesn't anymore," he whispered.

Lightning sliced through the air followed by the reverberation of thunder. It was like the rain took this as a cue to intensify.

"Olivia, or Bianca as you prefer, there was never a time that went by that I didn't stop missing you."

His words were acting like balm, soothing the emotional scars that I was still carrying around.

"Then why did you… why did you marry my sister?"

"I admit, that was a messed up thing to do. But she was always around, she was the only one there. While I was trying to process your death it was like she was the only one who understood me. I was vulnerable, confused and in pain and I guess I was craving some sense of familiarity. Light at the end of the tunnel."

Our eyes locked and it felt as though there was a force pulling us together. His warm breath bounced off my skin with our lips mere inches apart.

We were about to kiss when I moved away. "Let's not-"

"Olivia-"

"Who did you cheat on me with that night?" I looked him straight in the eye. I wanted answers, answers to a question that had plagued me all these years.