I was on my way out of The Mug when I realised why I recognized the car outside. It was the worst timing but he had already seen me. He stood up leaving a couple of friends at the table. “Hi Bailey” he said. I hadn’t seen him since the day of the arrest. “Hello Oscar. How’ve you been?” I said politely, but I was not interested. I had nothing to tell him. Oscar was looking at me with shame and innocence, innocence that he did not have. He was talking about himself, how he was. I, on the other hand, was looking at his table. There was a lady and gentleman. I was trying to figure out who they were to Oscar.
“How is Olivia?” his question caught me off guard, yet, I knew it was coming. “Fine. I haven’t seen her since she came back. I must get going. Don’t want to keep people waiting.” I said lifting my bag with the chocolate croissant. His face said that he wanted more information about Olivia, but I wasn’t going to give him any. He had lost his chances. “Have a good day.” I said on my way out. “Wait! Do tell her I miss her. Please.” Oscar meant it. He truly missed her.
Oscar and Olivia were in love. You could see it in the way they looked at each other, their conversations. Then things began to change. The phone calls became less frequent, his days became busy and then there were weekend trips. The signs were there, Olivia just didn’t want to believe them. We called them the double O’s. They spent all their time together, but it began to change. Before we knew it, Olivia was being pushed around. That is all she would say, but I knew better. The marks on her back and occasionally on her face, I knew things were getting worse. I tried to convince her to report it to the police. She would have none of it. “He’s just going through a rough patch. He’ll stop. I know it.” Olivia would say. I was never convinced.
I was glad to see Olivia. I had missed her so much. We began catching up from the door. Talking about what e-mail couldn’t properly say. It was like old times. It was about an hour later when I told her of my encounter with Oscar. Yet, it was her reaction that I loved the most. Disgust was all over her face. The sheer mention of his name did that to her face. Oscar had stopped going to her house unannounced and sending flowers. Recently he had been sending an occasional text message. Olivia had since moved on. She was engaged and had a baby on the way.
“How are things with you and Ian?” I asked with a grin on my face as a sipped my juice. “Amazing. He treats me like a queen every day. I love him so much.” Her voice was dreamy. I wanted what she had, but not just yet. I was on a mission first.
