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When it came to leaving her phone in the hands of another, Teddy should have known better. Especially when the party in charge of her device had been none other than a tequila-fuelled mechanic who often acted a lot younger than she actually was.
It was easy to realise that it was something she needed to try and mend; she wanted to apologise because she was sure she needed to. She also knew it wasn't something to do at work. It was, after all, a personal incident in the first place.
So she went to Olivia's place that morning unannounced, leaving a day's grace between the incident and now. Standing on the other side of an unfamiliar door, Teddy took a slow breath as she squared her shoulders, looking like her usual stint of perfection. Without another second of delay, she reached up and knocked on the door, presenting herself with a smile the moment it was answered.
After that confusing and ridiculously embarrassing conversation with Emmett where she basically told the blonde that she had feelings for her boss, Olivia tried to think of damage control. She wanted to call the number back but she wouldn't know how to respond if Teddy picked up instead of Emmett.
She had to wonder if the mechanic would actually tell Teddy about the conversation. God, if Teddy knew, and didn't reciprocate, would it be worst if she confronted her about it or kept quiet?
Olivia was not ready for anyone to know how she felt about women let alone one specific one. She still wasn't even sure if it was anything more than a professional admiration. So what if she was attracted to Teddy? Anyone with eyes would be.
The fact that Emmett thought that it was disrespectful and dishonest that she wouldn't let Teddy know was screwing up with Olivia's mind. She knew she was overthinking it but was that so bad? Teddy was her boss! It didn't bode well for Olivia to feel anything untowards for her.
She loved her job. She loved working for Teddy. These little feelings she had, it was probably nothing.
She thought all that in between the time the call ended and when she went to sleep. It only picked up more when she woke up the next day and contemplated on calling Teddy to clear things up. And a whole day went by with just her staring at the phone, picking it up, looking at the unsaved number, wondering whether she should just delete it or save it. She already committed it to memory so neither were necessary options now.
She went to sleep feeling completely unsatisfied and the next morning, she woke up hoping against all odds that she would just forget it. But as she started making breakfast, still in her sleepwear with her mess of curly hair made messier after climbing out of bed, she was still mulling it over, wondering how she was going to conduct herself come Monday morning when she would be forced to interact with Teddy.
She had half a mind to call Cameron to ask for his advice or even Casey but it was too early and this was so banal. She was thirty years old and she was worried about feelings. Where was this when she was a teenager?
Half way through plating her breakfast, there was a knock on the door. Eyebrows furrowed, she pulled her hoodie close around her body as she moved to the door, opening it and freezing the moment she saw the smiling face of the woman she had been agonising over the past thirty hours.
"Teddy." She managed to squeeze out. It took everything in her not to just slam the door and be done with it. "W-what are you doing here?"
When the door opened and Teddy smiled, she also glanced at what she was wearing. Given the time they'd spent together out of state, she should have known that she wouldn't bother to get ready at a usual time on her day off. Immediately, she considered that she should have called, but she knew the likelihood of landing any kind of interaction with a plan behind it would be low. Teddy had to assume the worst in that little call, and she had to act based on assumed repercussions.
"I don't mean to barge in on you like this." She offered immediately, her smile growing a little weary. It wasn't often that she showed anything other than fortified confidence, but this wasn't work, and the tactics had to change. "If you're busy, or you'd like me to come back later, that's okay."
She glanced away and to the side, considering how it looked if she said all she needed to say on the cusp of a stranger's home. "I just wanted to talk to you, that's all." Nothing too serious. At least, she hoped her tone of voice conveyed as such.
When Teddy's smile dropped slightly, Olivia's anxieties were proven true. She knew. And now she wants to put an end to it. Ever the strategist, Teddy had chosen to come to Olivia's home because there was nowhere she could run to. At least, that was what Olivia thought.
And it wasn't like she would turn Teddy away.
"No, no. It's fine. Coffee's brewing right now, I'm guessing you haven't had your breakfast?" She meant it as a question but at the same time, it really wasn't. The time they had spent in New York taught her that Teddy often didn't care for herself in the food department at times.
Even in her anxiety, all Olivia could think of was Teddy's well being. What was her deal, indeed.
Stepping aside and opening the door wider, she gestured for Teddy to come in. "Um...if you don't mind, there are slippers over there if you could remove your shoes?" Olivia pointed to the small shoe rack with a number of fuzzy slippers for Teddy to choose from. She didn't normally have time to clean her house so the less dirt trekking through from the outside, the better for her.
Relief hit Teddy the instant Olivia told her her unannounced visit was fine. More so when she actually invited her in. She glanced briefly at her heels as she was asked to remove them. That was fair, she supposed. House rules and all that. Complying with the request, she lost at least four inches the second she swapped her footwear.
"I ate this morning, but don't let me stop you." She declared, smiling to herself; "And you know I'll never pass on coffee."
It was then that she bothered to look around the space she'd been invited into. Teddy learned long ago that there was a lot to learn from the way someone's home looked. "This is so close to work. You're lucky." Though if she had the same advantage, she'd probably never leave.
A pleasantly surprised look crossed Olivia's face and she smiled. "Oh good." She walked into the kitchen, leaving Teddy to explore her very minimalistic home. She didn't spend much time at home so she got the essentials. The only personal touch the living room had were the four mahogany bookshelves at the corners of the living room filled with books and trinkets.
Even her kitchen was a little impersonal with just the bare necessities but her fridge was covered in pictures of her family. She designated just one part of each room to herself but otherwise minimalistic and clean.
"I know." She chuckled. "I might have surveyed the place a little too meticulously before settling here." She offered as she poured the coffee, just like she did at the office. She walked over to the entrance of the kitchen and gestured for the blue-eyed brunette to come in.
"So...what did you come here to talk to me about?" She asked as she settled into her breakfast nook with her coffee, bacon and waffles. If she was about to be reprimanded for her lack of professionalism, she wanted to do it on a full stomach.
It was striking how similar the lack of personal detail felt. The only thing Teddy's eyes could truly settle on were the bookshelves she had. Even from a distance she could see the spines looked worn from being propped open multiple times. It was at least one new thing she hadn't known about her colleague yesterday.
Following at the gesture, Teddy eased herself into the unfamiliar home to sit opposite her. Bright eyes took the few seconds available to study her expression when she asked that question.
"I wanted to talk to you about the other night." She said then, cleanly. Sure, she carried a bit of guilt over the incident with Emmett, but she didn't need to make that obvious. She wore concern over anything else; "But I'd like it if just for a few minutes, I wasn't your boss while we talk about it."
And then the dread properly set in her stomach. There it was. The reason why the other woman was here. She was going to tell her that she was unprofessional and that whatever happened outside of the office had no place in the office.
She tried to force food down her throat and surprisingly found it easier than she initially thought.
"I don't know what Emmett told you but I swear she had it all wrong." She responded after swallowing her food. She took a sip from her mug and set it down with a slight tremble.
Setting the preface worked incredibly well for Teddy. She didn't get a direct answer to her request, but she assumed the lack of one was enough. Bright eyes hauled their attention to the way her hand shook, but she forced herself to look back to her eyes a second later.
"She actually didn't tell me anything." Teddy admitted. Perhaps that was for the best, but she highly doubted there was innocence to the conversation these two women shared if the mechanic had decided to be so secretive. "I checked the call list and saw your name. I didn't even know you actually spoke to her."
Emmett didn't tell her anything? Well thank God for small miracles. Dumb was never an adjective she would peg on Emmett but chatty was so the fact that she didn't say anything was most definitely a miracle.
But therein too lay the problem. She'd pretty much admitted that they had spoken about something but she couldn't very well tell Teddy what. Why did she always fall for that trap? Cameron and Kenny had that effect on her too, which was ridiculous. She was their aunt!
"I see. Well. Um, problem solved. You don't need to worry about anything. I'm so sorry you had to trouble yourself and come all the way here." She hurried through her speech before chewing on a piece of bacon.
It was a fast way to remove the topic of conversation from the table. Teddy gave herself a few seconds of straight staring before she dared to speak again. "I know I said that I wasn't talking to you as your boss, but I'm still a lawyer." She explained. It meant that lying was off the table, and that she'd pick up on every deflective move in the book.
She took a slow breath in, letting her features soften and her eyes give sympathy to what she was about to request. "What's going on, Olivia?" Teddy asked her, knowing the potential weight of such a big question.
She could feel Teddy's stare on her as she ate and she felt guilty withholding information. But there was no way she could tell Teddy. Not this.
Her softening her features to look more approachable didn't help. It just made things much worst. At this point, denying her feelings for her boss would just be straight up kooky dooks.
Emmett's words came back to haunt her and she tapped her table surface with her closed fist and sigh. "Emmett said that if I liked you it's not honest and respectful if I don't tell you. But if I tell you, I'm afraid you'll reject me and tell me I'm being unprofessional and I will either lose our friendship or my job or both and I can't afford to lose either because you're probably the best thing that's ever happened to me and this job is my calling." She paused and cursed under her breath.
"I'm not gay. I don't know what I am. But being around you every day has gotten me all mixed up and I don't know what to do about it." She covered her face for a brief moment before rubbing her hands over it. "I'm sorry."
Teddy had been convinced that she'd have to fight harder to get the answers she was looking for. But often, the simplest, most direct path was the best to take. She hasn't expected an account for the conversation that happened, but in a way she got it. It seemed so like Emmett to fight for a friend in such a unique way; it wasn't as if Teddy would actually find it offensive that Olivia wanted to keep her feelings to herself.
"Why are you apologising? What are you apologising for?" She had to ask, feeling acutely aware that she was now across from someone at the foot of a potentially trying difficulty. Most people in Teddy's position wanted nothing to do with a little fledgling.
If Emmett hadn't spoken to her, Olivia would probably have just kept mum about it for the rest of her natural life. It just wasn't something she would share with anyone. She's never made the first move in anything, least of all something she was still so new at and unsure of.
She used the lord's name in vain when Teddy asked her question and Olivia finally looked up at her boss, eyes full of fear, curiosity and confusion. "Rambling? For...not fully understanding my situation. For putting all this on you. I don't know. You came out all this way and..." her eyebrows furrowed and she leaned back in her chair.
"You knew, didn't you." It wasn't a question. It usually never was with Teddy. Olivia had come to realise that a lot of things that happened in and around the office was always something Teddy was immediately in the know. It might have been a suspicion but Teddy somehow always knew.
Apologies weren't the easiest things to give, but Teddy knew that wasn't the case for this woman. So when she offered it, she had to know why. There had to be a reason behind it, else she wouldn't have accepted it. What she got was just about what she expected, because there was nothing logical to apologise for. She didn't get a chance to question it further, and that was probably a good thing. Olivia picked up on the tell Teddy had offered for her; a lack of surprise.
"I knew." She admitted, quietly. Olivia deserved that much, and it didn't hurt her in any way to admit that. "But that's not information of mine to share, let alone act on." Because she might have wanted to leave well enough alone, and that was no one else's business.
"I came here to tell you that I'm sorry that she called you at all. Now, I'm apologising for the fact that you feel that discretion was taken away from you." After all, it sounded like the pressure of her friend had caused her to break on the entire ordeal. She didn't like that, so she wore a frown for the fact.
