More than Anyone

It was amazing what a normally very stubborn person would agree to when a dream they had was finally within their reach. Ben arranged everything so he could get her to England but the only way she accepted was by promising him that she would pay him back. Eventually. He hadn’t cared about that and tried to shake it off but she stubbornly refused and insisted he kept a total of everything so she knew what the proper amount was. She said that she did not want to be indebted to Ben Norfolk for the rest of her life. He had wearily agreed but decided almost immediately that he would lie to her about the true cost of things. He was already lying to her about so much already. He didn’t see the harm in telling a few more.

She had taken him out to lunch at a small corner restaurant a few blocks from her apartment, wanting to sort out the details of the trip but it seemed as if she was already trying to repay him. She told him that he could get whatever it was that he wanted though when he noticed that she had only gotten herself a cup of the chicken noodle soup, he had downplayed his order to just a basket of fries and a Coke. If Olivia noticed what he had done, she surely would have snapped his head off but she remained silent as she twisted her fork in her hands, a slight frown upon her face. Ben didn’t try to talk though. She seemed to be too deep in thought and he was trying to catch up as well. He couldn’t believe that he had offered to get her to London and that she had actually accepted, though he practically had to twist her arm. Lord, the woman was stubborn! She wouldn’t even receive aid in helping her get the one thing she clearly wanted more than anything at that moment.

He looked at the woman across from him with curious eyes. Jamie had always been a romantic and he was the only one to know that Ben was the same. The instant Jamie had seen Violet, he loved her and she him though neither could admit it for the longest time. Ben was firm believer in love at first sight. He had kept his eyes open for many years and yet, no woman had ever caught his eye. He found most of the women he encountered to be shallow, money-hungry creatures who would be more than happy to spend his money, buying clothes and jewels and injecting themselves with Botox. So it was because of them, and the lack of a soul mate, that Ben kept his life private. No one knew of him for he did not live like a Norfolk. No one dared to make the connection. He was wealthy though even that seemed to be a word that didn’t seem to quite even cover the amount of money he had.

But no one was to know. Each time a list of the richest people in the country was printed in one of the countless business magazines, Ben had held his breath, waiting for his identity to be revealed but it never happened. Christopher Dean, the CEO of the North Star Hotel Chain, was always pictured. The owner, B. Norfolk, was rumored to be a recluse and in a way, it was true. Growing up, he had gone to the finest schools, wore the best clothes, ate the most delectable meals and lived in the nicest houses. But as he grew older, it began to lose its appeal. He began to wonder of things out there he had yet to experience and though his father had not understood, he had allowed his only child to leave and try to live the way he wanted. Patrick Norfolk had only prayed that one day, Ben would realize that his rightful place was among his family.

“There is no shame in having money,” Patrick used to tell him, slapping a hand on his shoulder as they walked the grounds of their home in Kauai, Hawaii.

The Norfolk family owned homes in ten cities, they traveling constantly to and from between the houses so Patrick could check on the business of his luxurious hotels personally. Oddly though, of all of the places he had lived, besides Scotland, Ben preferred his one bedroom apartment in Chicago. He was still searching for a woman he had a connection with, who he could look at and know that no one else but her in his future would do. He wanted to meet a girl who could smile and laugh and be with him even after finding out who he was and what he could give her.

He looked at Olivia and wondered what her other dreams were. He had never had an actual conversation with her that didn’t involve throwing as many insults as possible within a certain amount of minutes. No. They had never had what Jamie and Violet had. They had never shared an instant connection. The only thing they had in common was their unwavering dislike for one another, which in all honesty, Ben was getting tired of. And as he looked at her, he tried to remember why he had ever started the game of insults. Just because she hadn’t fallen for his lines, that didn’t make her a lesbian. She had been in love with Toby for years, according to Harry and Violet. Just because he couldn’t put a name or face to the girl he wanted to settle down with didn’t mean he didn’t understand the desire to want someone and be with someone.

Olivia shifted underneath his stare. “What?” She finally asked.

Ben shook his head slightly. “Sorry.” He dropped his eyes to the checkered table cloth.

She leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs underneath the table and for a moment, her foot brushed against his shin before she quickly drew it away. “It’s so weird. You can just turn your accent on and off?”

He smiled. “Like a light switch. I lived in Scotland until I was twelve and then I began following my dad all over when I didn’t have to be in school.”

“Where was school?” She asked, placing her fork down when their drinks arrived and she took a sip from her water.

He hesitated. All he had to do was say he went to school in Paris and there would be a hundred more questions to follow. He cleared his throat. “I was home-schooled and my dad was a businessman that traveled all over.” He paused. “He wanted me to see the world with him.”

“Where’d you go?” She asked and looking at her, he could tell that she was genuinely curious. Olivia had never been outside of the country and had always envied those that could just hop a plane whenever they had the time to.

“London, Paris, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Florence, Venice...”

“Rome?” She asked, almost hopeful. He nodded his head and she sighed. “I have always wanted to go to Rome- probably even more than I want to go to England.” She took another sip from her water. “My family are very devout Catholics, my grandmother especially. When the Pope died, she and my grandfather actually went over there for his funeral and...” she hesitated then shrugged. “It would seem like a shame to not see a city that beautiful before I die.” She smiled then. “Sammy promised that he would take me one day.”

Ben smiled, ripping the paper from off the straw and dunking it into his Coke. “Sammy seems like a cool little brother.”

“He is,” Olivia smiled that real smile she had only given him a handful of times so far.

“And he isn’t yours?”

She blinked at him. “No. He’s my brother. Why are you convinced that he’s my son?”

He shrugged. “Maybe it takes an outsider’s perspective but you two are a hell of a lot closer than he is to Sophia.” Olivia visibly tensed at the mention of her sister and Ben silently chastised himself. “I’m not dating her,” he said quickly and she gave him a look of surprise. “I don’t know if that was what she told you or... I mean, after you and Sammy left, we talked a bit more but then I left. Without her phone number.”

“I can give it to you,” she said quietly and Ben took a deep breath to control his anger. He never would have expected that there would be two completely different sides to her. One was the passionate side, the one with a backbone who spat fire and whose eyes blazed with anger whenever he had brought her into an argument. And then there was the other one, the completely submissive one who took insults left and right and who seemed to have no use of her tongue. He liked the first side better and not only because it was the one he saw the most. When he saw that first side of hers, he had never seen a person more alive. She shifted once again under his gaze. “I’m not a lesbian,” she suddenly said.

Ben stared at her for a moment then shook his head. “I never thought you were.”

She rolled her eyes as if she didn’t believe him, which she didn’t. She opened her mouth to speak but their food arrived at the moment and she occupied herself by sprinkling pepper over her soup. She sighed softly. “Sophia started calling me that because I didn’t date in college and my parents were worried about me.” She paused, looking at him. “I’m Catholic. We’re supposed to get married and have more Catholic babies.”

“Is that what you actually want?” He asked, still trying to figure her out.

Olivia nodded her head. “It is,” she said quietly. “I’ve always wanted a family of my own. But in college, I just... there was never anyone I wanted...”

“Except Toby?” Ben filled in, pouring ketchup over his French fries. She paused, her spoon in midair but then she nodded her head ever so slightly. “Sorry,” he apologized for prying but she shook her head mutely, sipping at her soup gingerly.

“It’s my fault actually,” Olivia admitted. “I’m a firm believer in soul mates and I feel now that maybe, because I was so convinced that Toby was mine, I missed my real one.”

Ben shook his head. “Impossible. Soul mates are meant to be. If you missed him once again, you’ll find him again.” Olivia looked at him with an amused smile tugging at her lips and he laughed. “What? Guys are allowed to be romantics, too, you know.”

She smiled. “There’s that accent again. When we’re in England, is that how you’ll talk the entire time?”

He grinned. “Probably. Once I’m back amongst my people, they’ll call me Americanized if I talk without it.”

Olivia almost laughed. “Your people? I think you’ve seen ‘Braveheart’ one too many times, Ben.”

“Oi!” He exclaimed. “William Wallace is a saint!” She did laugh at that and Ben beamed. He had made her laugh. He had made Olivia Grange laugh and for the first time in the year that he had known her, he felt as if he finally had just taken a step forward with her.

Quieting down but still smiling, she took another sip of her soup. “So, what do you do, Ben? You seem to always have the amount of free time I can only dream of having.”

And there it was. The question he always dreaded the most but it always was brought up and asked eventually. He sighed then took an exceptionally long drain of his Coke. “At the moment, I actually don’t do anything.” She stared at him and he nodded his head. “My dad was very successful in business and when he died, he left it all to me so as of right now, I can afford to just kind of float around.”

Olivia didn’t speak right away which made him nervous. She always had something to say. “Oh,” she finally said then concentrated on her soup for a moment. “So, how much money do you have?”

That was one question he was not going to answer. “Enough,” he answered simply, slightly on the cryptic side but Olivia, thankfully, did not interrogate him further on that subject, which was his least favorite. It always made him break out into a sweat. “This place is good.”

She nodded her head. “Yeah. When we all went to DePaul, me, Toby, Harry, and Violet discovered this place one night and we haven’t been able to stay away since.”

“I haven’t seen you in Humpy’s lately,” Ben observed. “Do you not go there anymore?”

“Well, I really don’t go out to get drunk anymore. Violet’s obviously away. Harry has a new baby to worry about and Toby...” she trailed off. “He’s getting married so he’s kind of too busy to go out all of the time anymore.”

So that was it. That was why she had been crying her eyes out when he had seen her. Toby had been too big of an idiot to see her and instead was marrying someone else. Ben was shocked to notice that he seemed almost pleased with the development. With Toby out of the picture, maybe Olivia would start to look around her and actually smile more when she realized that more than enough guys would love to pay attention to her. Maybe making Toby unavailable for good was Fate’s way of pushing Olivia towards happiness. He bit back a smile. “Oh,” he managed to say.

Olivia’s head snapped up to glower at him. “You don’t have to look so pleased about it,” she snapped and he realized that his eyes were more than likely dancing with the prospect of her going out and finding someone who actually saw her.

He instantly sobered. “I’m sorry,” he quickly apologized but then stared at her. “But I think this is a good thing.” Olivia stared at him, almost in shock. “I do because then you’ll have no choice but to move on and you’ll be happier.”

She continued to stare at him, almost making him nervous. “You’ve never been in love before, have you Ben?” She asked.

“Love?” He repeated. “No. I’m still looking.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out ten dollars, slapping it on the table. “Then you have no idea what you’re talking about and you have no right to presume what would make me happy!” She said sharply then before he could even open his mouth to retaliate, she was out of her seat and storming from the restaurant.

“Shit,” he mumbled then waiting just one second more, he took off after her. She was stopped on the corner, waiting for the pedestrian signal to switch to walk and he caught up with her easily. “Liv...”

“Don’t call me that,” she said coldly, staring straight ahead and clenching her jaw tightly.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The Queen of Stubbornness had returned. “Fine. Olivia, I’m sorry.”

She snorted then finally turned on him, her eyes the shade of anger that he found himself beginning to become grudgingly attracted to. “Has it never occurred to you, or to anyone else for that matter, that maybe I liked being in love with Toby? Why is it so hard to believe that me being in love with Toby was actually one of the few nice things in my life?” She demanded.

He stared at her, fighting the urge to draw her close in his arms and hold her until she was smiling again. “I find it hard to believe that it was nice when it made you cry all the time,” he dared to say.

“You know nothing about me so don’t even dare to begin to pretend that you do,” she ordered him. “And as far as me being in love with Toby, you’ve never been in love before Ben. Yeah, sometimes, it hurts and it’s miserable but other times, most of the time, being in love gives you a reason to get out of bed just so you can see that person. You feel oddly whole when they’re near and horribly empty when they’re not. Your thoughts most of the time are of nothing but them. You daydream about your wedding and the house you’ll live in and what your kids will look like. You want all of those things and when you’re with that person, you can’t imagine having any of it without that person.” Tears started to stream down her cheeks and he desperately wanted to brush them away. He seriously couldn’t take any more crying from her. “You won’t understand it until you experience it, Ben, so you have no right to tell me that I’ll be happy and better off because right now, I feel completely dead and empty inside.”

Ben swallowed the dry lump in his throat. “You’re right,” he said softly, nodding his head. “I’ve never been in love so I don’t know what it’s like. But I know that love is supposed to make you feel like you’re on top of the world the whole time.”

Olivia smirked, almost bitterly. “There is such a common misconception of love. It isn’t all smiles and kisses and surprise bouquets of roses. It’s hard and rough and sometimes, it’ll make you want to kill yourself because how could something that’s supposed to be so wonderful put you in so much pain? But that’s the thing, Ben. If love was the easiest of all human emotions, no one would want anything to do with it. It’s the challenges and the fights that make people wanting more. It’s the passion and the heat that keep people addicted to the idea of finding that one person made just for them.” She paused, wiping at her cheeks. “Don’t you see?”

He stared at her then shook his head. “I think you’re far too young to be such a cynic.”

She shrugged miserably then without saying another word turned and began walking across the street, leaving Ben behind. He watched her walk away, wanting nothing more than to follow her but knowing that she would only push him away. He wondered how long it would take before she did something besides shoving him and keeping him from her.

“Olivia!” He shouted after her. She stopped but did not turn around. “I’ll be by next Thursday to take you to the airport!” She didn’t move or speak. He almost ran after her but he didn’t and continued shouting across the street. “You will see London, Olivia! It would seem like a shame to not see a city that beautiful before you die!”

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Thank you so much for the reviews, once again. I love all of you guys that take the time and let me know what you think. A general announcement: My other story "Hands Down" is on hiatus. I'm really busy and can only write one story at a time so please. Just expect this one until it's finished. I can only write so fast so you'll also have to have patience with me. Sorry. To respond to a few reviews:

Anon: dyke=lesbian

As Seen on TV: all questions will eventually be revealed. I promise. Just have patience.

The reviewers: I'm sorry you don't think their relationship is a believable one. I tried to explain it in this chapter. Violet and Jamie had an instant connection and Ben and Olivia will move much slower than their friends will in their relationship.

Joee: Whoa! One story at a time. And no. I won't be writing anymore about that group of friends or their children. I think everything was resolved. But if I do, it would be a short one-shot of Nikki and Lawson, if I even do something like that.

LKN: Man. I feel awful now that I turned you off of Ben. Oh well. At least you like Olivia.

Shanna: I'm glad you can't predict it. But keep trying!

Jason: Your review was insane and I officially love you.

Thank you for the reviews and please. Keep doing so! I love to hear what you all think about this chapter! Feedback is the reason I write!