Chapter 288: Feel Alive

"I was contributing to the joke," Charles responded.

The smirk on his face gives him away, though. Olivia ignores his look, choosing to just sigh instead. With that, they continue to play.

Eventually, he has set the last of his cards down, indicating that he has won their little game.

"That's the fifth time...!" she whined, gathering up all the cards to reshuffle them.

"How are you so good at this?"

"Can we stop playing for now...?" he said and shrugged.

"I'm getting tired. It's probably about time we get serious, too."

"Alright."

Olivia began to pack all the cards into their designated box. Once she was finished, she handed it over to Charles so he could shove it back in his bag.

"I wonder if we should try knocking again?" she suggested, looking over to the door. 

"What's the point?" he sighed. 

"I mean, they may be up for all we know. Just too busy."

"If the President is not answering his phone, then he is still probably asleep. Trust me. I've had my fair share of experiences as his secretary. We should just wait for Ma'am Cassidy to answer our text messages instead. Hopefully, she's already awake."

"Okay. Got it."

Olivia leans back on the handrails, looking out into the front yard. Charles does the same on the wall in front of her while he checks his inbox on his cellphone.

For a moment, both of them fall into their usual silence - with him sorting out the thoughts in his head and her settling in a quiet, tranquil state.

"I'm getting hungry," Olivia then blurted out minutes later.

"You are?" Charles said with a frown, raising a brow and checking the time.

"Well, noon is just around the corner. Do you want to eat somewhere later?"

"Oh! Maybe we can stop by that new dessert place? The one that's a few blocks down your house."

"Desserts? I thought you were hungry for real food."

"Cake is real food, though! Pastries and all sorts of bread, too!"

"If you're planning on getting diabetes, maybe."

"But Charles!"

He takes some time to consider it.

Every once in a while, he finds her just as gluttonous as Cassidy when it comes to sweets. Even Irish has started to show the same interest recently. She has become quite fond of cheesecakes and cookies and cream's for some reason. At this point, however, he and the others are already used to their insatiable craving for sugar, and if anything, he's sure that they all find that trait of theirs endearing. 

"Maybe I'll ask the President and Ma'am Cassidy if we can stay over for lunch. Then, we can go there for dessert. What do you say?" Charles proposed.

"Really?" Olivia beamed in delight.

"I mean, why not?"

"I mean, you'll pay?"

"Sure. No problem."

"Thank you!"

The way she looks right then, bubbling with excitement and bathed in the sunlight, makes his fingers twitch slightly. Smiling, he goes on to comment, "You and Ma'am Cassidy really act the same way sometimes."

"What do you mean?" she asked, turning to look straight at him.

"You both get really eager over sweets."

"Oh! Well, we're sister-in-law's, aren't we? Though I'm really nothing compared to how great she is. I still can't find it in myself to build a bond with her. Or more like I'm still hesitating. She's just so... incredible. I admire her."

Charles regards Olivia in silence.

Even though she had quite a history with Cassidy, he knew right away that she meant what she just said. She and Irish have been trying to get to know her better for the past months - trying to make up for all the time they wasted on doing certain things to her before.

They've changed for the better, and they've shocked the world with that. However, all they really wanted was to be accepted by their sister-in-law again. Along the way, they got to know things about her that they wished they also had from the beginning - her kindness and strength, most of all. 

"But do you know what makes you different?" he added all of the sudden. 

"What?" she asked, a bit surprised.

"Your smile."

Olivia's face turns a little pink, then. Despite her skepticism, a silly grin spreads across her face. At that moment, Charles acts quickly – he won't want to miss this opportunity.

She's taken aback when she sees him take a picture with his cellphone. If he hadn't forgotten to turn the flash off, she wouldn't know what he had just done. He ignores her stunned reaction and focuses on the shot he's got instead.

"You're always taking pictures of me...!" she exclaimed, though a little giddy inside.

"I don't even have a smile as pretty as Cassidy's!"

"A smile isn't meant to be pretty..." he remarked, looking at her intensely.

"It's meant to show happiness. Now, her smile is what keeps me from withering away into nothingness."

Her eyes widen at this. Then, she remembered how similar they were to each other in the past - lost in life, unsure where to head to, yearning for something they could not figure out. Her eyes soften at the reminder. But before she can say anything, he continues, "But yours is what makes me feel hopeful - alive."

If she has only been a little pink before, she is now a brilliant shade of red.

"O-Oh."

Charles doesn't seem to be so affected by his words or her blush. He simply lifts his cellphone and grins at it. Showing Olivia the screen, he then says, "Look." 

She does as he says, though she doesn't quite think her smile is as beautiful as he has described it. But when she looks up to voice this thought aloud, she sees something in his eyes. She's not sure what to call it, but she knows what it is, and instead, she says, "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, bemused.

"Staying alive..." she answered, smiling.

"We all need you in our lives."

"Of course, you do. Most of you are idiots."

He may have said that, but there's a sense of gratefulness in the way he looks at her, and she's glad for it. Humming, she then turns to look out at the front yard again. That's when she found a couple of all-too-familiar faces stepping out of a car that they didn't notice had pulled over nearby. 

Charles also seemed to have noticed this as he stepped closer to Olivia and wondered out loud, "Huh? What's Asher and Ma'am Irish doing here?"