Over the Moon: Cherished Olivia

Someone named Marcia Baldwin signed this pic. I found it online and it´s amazing and perfect for what I imagine Dani´s wolf form to be and the look in his eyes as well and I think the way this pix was made is perfect for this post.

Cherished Olivia,

                I am thinking of you, trying to imagine what you might be doing now. Probably resting, I really hope so, maybe soon you´ll be reading this letter. I am sorry to inconvenience you with it but I couldn’t find another way to reach you.

                Lately I´ve been thinking of regrets, I think I’m probably too young or too careless to have many regrets but one thing that I deeply regret is having hurt you that first time I met you, well, second time, do you remember the first time we ever saw each other? At this very moment I can see your smile in my mind. I can only hope that you let me explain one day why I did it. If you can believe in my word, I promise you that I´ll do whatever necessary to make it up to you, even if it take ´till the end of my life.

                Oli, you are a great cook. I´ve enjoyed every single meal I´ve had at your place; your left-over burritos are brilliant, I´d pay to eat those any day. I have to say though that your singing isn’t that good though. Forgive my honesty. I´ve been trying to find the songs you sung the other day, despite what I said before, they sounded calmed and nice but I don’t seem to find them anywhere, that´s most likely because I didn’t really understood a word of them.

                Olivia, you have a beautiful name, it´s nice to say it, it sounds green, the kind of green of the orange tree that we planted. I bet it´ll be awesome when the tree blossoms, it´s a great smell… I keep thinking of you.

                                                                              Yours always,

                         Daniel Covin.

Olivia had ignored the letter for three days before even attempting to look at it, then she opened the envelope but didn’t read it, it been in her mind through the day, showing itself in the unoccupied times of her day so on the fifth night, Olivia took the letter to her bedroom, closed the door as if she wanted to keep it a secret from the rest of the empty house that she was reading the man´s letter.

Once she opened it, she closed her eyes tight for a couple of seconds and then read. She frowned at the greeting but kept reading. The part about her cooking and singing had made her laugh, albeit reluctant but still real. She disliked the part about the orange blossoms, he´d mentioned he had one and apparently he liked that smell, she didn’t want to have anything in common with the man even if it was something so inconsequential. The way he signed troubled her majorly.  She didn’t want him and he was saying he was hers and in some weird way it was like she could tell he meant it, it hadn’t been for show or to flatter her, it was a fact for him. Olivia rolled her eyes at her thoughts.

Olivia was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood when she got to the end of the small letter all written in capital squared letters. She stood up and sat down, scratched her ear, put the letter away and pick it up again. No one had ever taken the time to write her anything for the sake of communicating thoughts related to her in any way. It was the first real letter she´d ever received. “Well, in this day and age writing a letter is antiquated” she said out loud and smiled shaking her head. Silly old fashioned things like that had always been favorite things in the back of her mind. She shook her head again as if sending the thoughts back to the back of her head and then tossed the letter and the envelope in a drawer, under random papers with the intention to forget all about it.

A week passed went by. What Daniel knew happened: there was no response to the letter he´d sent Olivia and though he hadn’t been expecting one he still felt some disappointment about it. He didn’t write another letter. The day Daniel showed to Olivia's door on the day prior to the full moon he didn’t see a sign of the letter; Olivia didn’t say anything about it either.

"Hello, Olivia" he greeted her with the idiotic grin he always got when he saw her, she looked beautiful in that black dress with sunflowers pattern

"Hi" she moved away opening the door for him, he'd arrived at around 3 in the afternoon again. He placed the bags of food and ingredients on the kitchen and his bag on the floor, near the bathroom door.

"Did you get the paint for the doors? -he asked not wanting to be doing nothing- I can start with the front door today" last time when he´d checked all the house for the repairs they´d agreed that she could start with the smaller and urgent. The most urgent was the roof but it was also the most expensive so she needed to start saving but in the meantime the smaller ones would be done. One of the smaller ones was fixing the doors; some that didn’t close properly, most creaked. The walls needed painting but the plaster needed to be fixed first, parts of it removed and reapplied.

"You really don’t have to do these things" Olivia looked troubled

"I don’t mind at all, I should do something since you let me stay and cook for me" he gave her reasons

"I guess..." She said but she still felt like she was taking advantage of him "ok" she said finally after some thought. This was the guy that had kidnapped her, he should be useful, make it up for what he´d done in some way. It didn’t feel entirely right but she needed help and he could do it and he was offering it, so why not? She told herself.

Daniel changed to his work clothes and started with the front door, he had to fix the creaking and clean it before painting it, still he managed to work on the kitchen door, the one that opened to the backyard and started on the folding ones that divided the kitchen from the dining room before the early dinner that they always had when he came. Olivia had made crepes, both salty and sweet. So he’d been given two different plates.  He'd brought vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and strawberries and those were the sweet crepes filling ingredients and the meat was part of the filling of the salty ones.

"You are not eating sweet crepes?" Dani asked once she came back to the kitchen to serve the other dish, she´d only taken a bowl of vanilla ice cream and had poured coke on it

"I’m allergic to strawberries" she explained

"Aw! I’m sorry. I didn’t know"

"It´s fine" she shook her head a bit as she went out of the kitchen.

When Daniel went up to the attic for the night, he noticed that once again she'd placed a clean blanket and a bowl of water; he smiled despite the pain of the first spasms that signaled the change was happening. He quickly got rid of his clothes and soon after his body started the process of shifting from human form to a wolf. Olivia didn’t shout to him to shut up that night even if he couldn’t help but sniff and scratch at the door and floor. He could smell the negative feelings towards him on her which only cause little whining noises and barking escape his control. She turned on her music and after that she fell asleep pretty quick and that was soothing to the werewolf because the smell of aggression and dislike was no longer there but the scent of his mate dreaming. He knew they were good dreams when her scent laced with happiness and peace. It lolled him to sleep.

Olivia opened the door of her attic at around seven thirty in the morning. She didn’t understand why the man didn’t use the couch to sleep but instead chose to sleep on the floor; on top of the blanket she'd left for him instead of using it to cover his naked body. She didn’t paused before opening, she shouldn´t have to, she´d excused herself but she still wished she had knock on the door before opening because even if it had been only a glance before she turned her face away with hot cheeks se still couldn’t help but notice the way the man´s skin stretched over his back muscles and how his spine marked the planes of his back. She couldn’t help but think that he had the body of someone that despite being lean could lift heavy things; someone that was active maybe that's was why... Oli groaned; cursing herself for even letting herself glance at the man's form, at this said man stirred.

"Good morning" Daniel said with a breathy deep voice that complimented nicely the beautiful smile he had. His long black hair cascaded over his shoulders as he stood up

"'G'morning" she mumbled and sighed with annoyance at herself and at the situation and decided to just walk away to the kitchen. It was unlikely that he´d be waiting to attack her since he had had many opportunities already.

"Don’t like oatmeal?" Oli raised both eyebrows when she saw Daniel's disappointed face; she'd made it as he took a shower.

"Ah..." Dani didn’t know what to say, he didn’t want to upset her, she laughed quietly

"It's good for your belly -she had a laugh in her voice and amusement laced in her scent- and –she stared at him with a serious face but the amusement didn’t leave her -it's all that there is for breakfast"

"Ok" he looked appalled

"There are still some strawberries and bananas in the fridge, you could eat that, make a milkshake if you really don’t like oatmeal" Oli suggested.  She hated to be forced to eat things she didn’t want when she was little so she didn’t want to do that to people. If you didn’t like something, you didn’t like it.

"I'll try this" Dani half smiled, not wanting to waste what Oli had made.

"Ok" she exited the kitchen. He ate the oatmeal; it was not that he didn’t like the taste but the texture and look of it, no matter who made it, wasn´t appealing to him.

That day Daniel fixed most of the doors and painted most of them. The one that he didn’t touch was the one in Oli's room, she'd said she'd do it herself. "It looks pretty good" Oli complimented with a smile and the sweet smell of gratitude all around her

"Good" he said. That afternoon she made cookies, peanut cookies, really good ones. He loved them

"You are a great cook!" He complimented her when he tasted them

"Thank you" she said with a tiny smile

Cherished Olivia,

Tonight I’m thinking of you again. Will you read this letter? I don’t know if you read the last one. I thought I wouldn’t want to write any more but it feels like a good way to reach you even if it doesn’t do it in the end.

                Are you cold, Oli? Joel, my brother, well, he´s actually my cousin but we´ve always been more like brothers, anyway, we talked earlier and he told me it’s windy at Woodhills tonight. I know it can get cold pretty quick in the woods. I hope you are warm, under many blankets. The temperature has dropped a little out here too, in the city, I mean, where I live or sort of live, I still consider Woodhills my home even if I spend most of my time over here because of school.

                I´m using your ribbon now, my rubber band broke, I´ll give it back next time I see you. I might get a haircut, maybe it´s time; most of the people whose opinion matter to me dislike it. I think you might be one of those who dislike it as well. I guess that makes sense, yours is really short after all, it suits you. You mentioned my dyed hair again, the truth is that I never really liked it blond, it´s silly but the guys in my family have dark hair, my two sisters do have it light, so yeah, can you see why I get it black?

                I’m procrastinating with this letter. I need to go back to my paper soon. What’s your favorite hot beverage? Random, I know, I don’t really remember what´s the proper way to write a letter. I bet I´m screwing many writing rules. Have a great week Olivia.

                                                Yours always,

                                                                      Daniel Covin

"No, I don’t dislike your hair -Oli thought as she rolled her eyes when she read Dani's letter- in fact..." She grumbled to herself and threw the paper away in the drawer. She didn´t want to admit that she liked it, it suit him. Absentmindedly she started to picture him in his natural hair color and she laughed. His dog-self had light brown fur, golden with just some sprinkles of black on top. Was that the dye?  

She had not been expecting another letter. It had been a coincidence to find it, she´d check the mailbox because it was around the time that the electricity and water bills came. The letter had been there for a few days; it´d been slightly damp and stained with the rust of the mailbox. She’d considered letting it there and pretend she´d never seen it but after a minute she’d decided to take it and get rid of it properly. She hadn’t been able to throw it away though; it had felt rude not to at least open it before but “that´s like doing what he wants” she´d thought with annoyance. For a while she´d let it on the coffee table and then moved it to the kitchen because it taunted her but then in its new location it did too. After a day or two of avoiding it, she´d taken it to her room and opened it after closing the door.

Oli lay on her bed watching the ceiling, it was old with flower patterns carved in wood painted white that now looked gray, all of it surrounded by molding with similar patterns. The words of the letter seemed to be written on her mind. It felt like the wolf-man had wanted to make each word to say so much more than it could say. “Maybe that´s just my imagination” Olivia sighed. After a few minutes she took the letter again and read it again, skimmed it, stopping for a second on the paragraph before the last, not reading the words but just seeing the strokes of ink.  He´d said before that black hair had more personality, he´d mentioned the difference between his sibling´s hair color, he´d said his brother was not his brother but his cousin, he called chief Covin, dad but Ale had said it was his uncle… it was like a puzzle. She could ask Alejandro about it, he probably knew but that might be some family business and it would be disrespectful to ask anyway and if she asked the wolf-man he might get the idea that she wanted to get to know him which she didn’t think she want. He seemed and felt harmless but you never knew with strangers but then if he stopped being a stranger and still turned out to be a bad man… that´d be something she wouldn’t forgive herself for, being too naïve. She had to be careful, she was all alone in the world, there was no one looking after her.

Olivia felt a lot like she was now a werewolf too, in the most annoying ways, although for what she´d experienced there was nothing pleasant about the whole thing, it was not that she´d been bitten and had suddenly transform into an animal; everybody –Daniel, Covin and Alejandro- had assured her that she was not in danger of being turned but she couldn’t keep that worry away, for all she knew it might be their plan. It was more than a little worrisome but worries apart, it was more annoying to be reminded that she was in the middle of a myth town where myths were true and there was nothing romantic or fairy tale-like about it. She had to live for a few days with a werewolf that kept her awake at night and that she had to feed during the day and keep occupied because he didn’t seem to like to just sit around and contemplate life. She couldn’t really complain about what he occupied himself with, it was beneficial for her and truth to be told, she didn’t mind cooking and he brought his own food, more than necessary even but that she had to do it without having agreed to it bothered her, sure she´d agreed to him staying there but only because there was the possibility of him harming someone else, she´d been under pressure and the pressure of her decision became more apparent as the moon grew. Olivia didn’t really know how it worked but what before had been a beautiful night wonder was now the bringer of a myth, an overgrown wolf with the ways of a puppy that she couldn’t trust because he was a man, some kind of human and human can show many faces but she did her best to live her life without the influence of what the moon now meant for her but the letters… those had added something… something that she couldn’t name. She hated them, she liked them, she didn’t want them, she got curious about them… Only one thing was certain, she wouldn’t respond them.

A week before the full moon another letter arrived, the two prior had arrived after the full moon, after the man had been in her place, this was one was more unexpected than the other and she´d only known it had arrived because she saw the mailman putting it in the mailbox, she´d been out, in front of the house cleaning the windows. The mailman had come to her, greeted her politely and made small talk, he was middle aged, he´d jokingly complained about the long walk he´d had to make to deliver one single letter; maybe he hadn’t been joking at all, he´d said he was glad she was there, for a second he´d thought she was one of the Belcourt ghosts and had laughed as if making a joke that only he understood. She´d taken the letter, she recognized the letter but even without that she knew who had sent it, no one else wrote her, no one ever wrote letters anymore, that part she liked, at that she was tempted to crumple the letter before opening it but curiosity won and she took it inside, went to her room as if carrying something that needed to be hidden from curious eyes that were nowhere in sight.

Cherished Olivia,

                I’m thinking of you. You´re not here yet you are a constant presence in my space. It´s almost as if you keep me company while your remind me that I am alone. Despite what does to me I wouldn’t change this feeling because that would mean not getting to meet you. I know the timing, the circumstances and my actions were all wrong. I cannot change the timing or the circumstances but I´d do anything to change my actions back then. At this point, though, that is something impossible so I can only try to make it up to you.

                I saw you yesterday. You were going out of work. I was on my way there, to the restaurant. I was on the other side of the street just turning the corner. It was lucky, to at least get to see you. I hadn’t been sent to pick up our food there for a while. Leah, my aunt, was in charge of preparing the food for our family dinner that night. She´d called home and I was the only one available. I’m sure you helped with the food we had last night, the sauce had your taste; it was great as I knew it´d be. I don’t think you see me. All I wanted was to hurry up and catch up to you but thought better of it. You wouldn’t have liked it.

                 Thank you. Thank you for everything you do for me, even if you don’t intend to do things for me I am still grateful. You’re a good person, more than that. I am certain. I only wish, if I can ask that of you, that one day you let me explain my actions and what I´ve brought to your life without your wanting part of it. Even if that day doesn’t come I am still grateful that I met you, still grateful to you.

                Oli, I hope you are resting now. In my mind it’s night time when you´ll be reading this letter, of course, in my mind you read my letters. If it´s night time as I imagine, I hope you´re having sweet and peaceful dreams. Have a greet week.

                                                                Yours always,

                                                                                Daniel Covin.

"How can he say ‘yours’ if we don’t know each other!" Oli grumbled throwing the letter in the drawer along with the other two. It was unsettling that it was night time like he´d imagined and that she had read the letters at night time. It made her feel paranoiac, that and the knowledge that he´d seen her without her seeing him but that made sense. Leah, her boss was his aunt so it was perfectly normal that he went there. Paranoia, however, was a something that ambushed her since she´d met him, she was glad that she hadn’t seen any other person of Woodhills go wolf but she often wondered who else was like that, maybe the whole town was made of people that turned to wolves but then at night, even in the full moon, she hadn’t heard that much wolf howling

The letter had felt different, urgent, it felt like it had more of him in it than the others, it felt less light and it also made her feel like he saw her like some kind of ideal person. “For all you know, wolf, I could be the hunter and not little red riding hood” she shook her head and closed the drawer clearing her mind of thoughts of moon light and wolves and long haired men with amber eyes. 

****

Another post!!!! well, it´s a special week, in my country there´s some mmm celebration, a holiday, so it feels right to post a bit more hahaha

On the scale of 1 to 10, 1 being my poor attempt at re-reading and doing the Word spell check thing as some awful proof-reading/editing and 10, the impossible, which would be actually editing, I´d say this is a 3 which in this case is a lot! I´m sure there´s a lot of mistakes, as much or more than when I got for a 1 but it´s not that that changed but the order of things, there´s stuff that was added that was not in the first draft and some that wasnt to be there until later and there was a gap that was filled so I´m pleased with myself even if it´s as bad writing as it´s always been lol 

The pix for this one, though... atm (now that I´m writing this) I havent added it bc I have two or  three pix for it but I cant decide which one to use... I´ll add the other two below this A/N, I think. 

The tittle´s something that I´m not sure about, in Word it´s "Letters" but I think it´s too simple...