Olivia's POV

  After we finished the show, Esme said, "Wow, looks like we will get to see a lot more of Kaleb and Hope in the next episode." She didn't sound jealous, she sounded enthusiastic and she also started to giggle.

  "I guess so. I wasn't sure what I should do," I said unsure.

  "You know what you are going to do, you're going to take that candy and enjoy your time with Kaleb."

  "You said that it was a waste of time, a fantasy life with a man that doesn't exist."

  "I know. That was harsh. I know you realize this isn't real, but maybe having this fling or whatever you call it with Kaleb may be just what you need to clear your mind and help you make a decision."

  "What if it just makes me more confused and want Kaleb even more?"

  "Well, it will help illustrate how you can take a risk with a man you care about knowing that it couldn't go anywhere."

  "If you put it that way, it sounds just plain stupid," I exclaimed.

  "What I mean is you are willing to open yourself up and share yourself, your feelings knowing that you will very likely get hurt. So I figure if you can do that, you can take the risk of getting together with your friend that you really care about and the risk is a bit lower."

  "Perhaps, that was what Fortia was getting at with this whole thing with Kaleb and me."

  "Yes, I think you are right about that. That Fortia is smarter and craftier than I gave her credit for. I also think you having to act and pretend to be someone else and carrying it off demonstrates that you can be a successful actress."

  "I didn't think of it that way," I said excitedly. "I noticed that you didn't seem upset anymore regarding Kaleb."

  "Well, now that I might have met someone, I don't need Kaleb."

  I just stared at her, trying to figure out what she meant about that.

  "Oh, I didn't mean it that way that you don't have anyone and you need Kaleb. I just mean that I'm excited that I might have met someone who I can start a relationship with and it wasn't necessary for me to get upset over Kaleb. Sorry, am I making any sense?"

  "It's okay. I get what you mean. Thank you for understanding. But, what about you? Are you going to be upset that I'm not really watching the episode with you?"

  "No, this is important, I want you to do this. I'm happy to watch it "myself"."

  "I'm wondering though, when you watch it without me, are you seeing the version I see in the scenes with Hope or Kaleb or is it slightly different. What I'm trying to say is, I'm curious if I'm literally in the soap just as they planned it but it seems real to me or I'm in an alternate universe, where that world in "A Life's Journey" is actually real?" I inquired.

  "Good question. Ask Fortia next time you see her and let me know what she says."

  On that note, we sat down to watch the next episode. I ate a candy and Esme was sitting next to me. As usual, I was with her and we watched the first scene together, but before I know it, I found myself in that hotel bed that I'm starting to get used to and woke up to an alarm. It was time to get myself ready. That was the morning we left for our trip. I was all packed. I just needed to get dressed and get my luggage downstairs and meet Kaleb in the lobby. Based on the alarm I set, I gave myself 45 minutes. It turned out to be less time than I needed, but I didn't want to be rushed. I got there about 10 minutes early and wondered if I should grab a quick snack or just wait for Kaleb. I decided to just sit and look at my phone. A few minutes later, Kaleb walked up and said, "Hello. I see you got here before me."

  "Yeah, I just wanted to make sure I had enough time and wasn't rushed and I got done earlier."

 "Good, I see you are all packed and ready to go. I remembered what you liked last time when I ordered you breakfast and got you some. You can eat it in the car on our car trip." I discovered that our car trip was pretty short, about 2 hours. Leaving at 5:00 am would help us avoid most of the traffic. It was difficult to travel and eat when I was only half awake but Kaleb made it fun. Before we knew it, we arrived in Chicago. I had been in Chicago as a teenager, so it was a while since I had been there. I know Hope though hadn't been there. Since it was a while, it was easy to still take all of it in, as I didn't remember that much from that trip. I took in the views from Lake Michigan, the shops and the park. It looked beautiful. We were lucky to have a nice sunny day in Chicago. We made it to our hotel and since our rooms weren't ready, they agreed to hold our luggage for us. We had time to just walk around and see things. It was too early to go in any shops or boat tours or anything. Kaleb had this idea to walk to Lake Michigan. They had this boardwalk along the lake and it had amazing views. It was a little cold being near the water, but we bundled up and drank some coffee first that warmed us up. I found out the true name of the boardwalk was the Lakefront Trail.

  "I thought this would be a good idea to do first, since the stores are not open. I find it relaxing to walk here when I come to visit. You get some great views of the city and all. And I figure by the time we get close to the zoo, it should be open. Would you like to visit it?"

  "That sounds like fun. Let's do that." So we had a nice casual walk not rushing, but taking in the sights and gave me enough time to take pictures. We found a nice older couple who took a photo of us together with the view of Lake Michigan. It was just after 9 when we got to the zoo. Being that it was a weekday and not late, the zoo was empty, giving us the zoo to ourselves. There was no rush to see everything, no crowds, so it was a real great experience. Although, during the tail end of our visit a school class came in, but it didn't affect us much.

  "I was thinking of walking around Lincoln Park. It's a cute neighborhood and it has some nice shops and I thought we could get some deep dish pizza. It's something you got to experience in Chicago. It's so good."

  "That does sound good and we did work up an appetite for it."

  "Also we may possibly come back here to see a show later."

  "That would be nice too," I said.

  We had a great time walking around Lincoln Park. It really was a charming neighborhood. And we definitely enjoyed our pizza. We went to this famous place called Lou Manati's. I remember having it a while back and I loved it.

  "It's been a great day so far. I'm glad we did this." said Kaleb.

  "Me too. I'm really enjoying our time together."

  "I had this idea that we can go on one of these architectural cruises. You get to see all these famous landmarks." he said.

  "That sounds great and we have a good day for it. It's a little cool, but it's nice and sunny." I hadn't done an architectural cruise the first time I was in Chicago, so I was very much looking forward to this.

  We had just missed the previous boat by a few minutes. It left from Navy Pier, so we walked around there for a bit and it was very nice. Finally our boat came. The boat was great. It was open, so everyone had great views of all the buildings. When we sat down, Kaleb grabbed my hand and smiled at me. "I wish this day would never end."

  "Me too. I'm enjoying everything about it." I said. I took some lovely photos of the buildings and again another couple took a nice photo of us on the boat. At one point Kaleb turned and gave me a kiss. It was so romantic. I grabbed his hand again and we were smiling the rest of the time on the cruise. Finally we docked. We made our way to Michigan Avenue and we had some time to explore the shops. I didn't buy anything but it was fun just to window shop.

  "I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of making us a reservation at a nice steakhouse in this neighborhood?" he asked.

  "I bet it's wonderful. I can't wait." The place was lovely. It was full of windows and gave a lovely view of the Chicago River. The riverfront was all lit up and it was terrific just to look at the view. "Wow! You really know how to pick great places and things to do in Chicago." I said excitedly.

  "I wanted to make sure I didn't disappoint."

  "You definitely didn't do that."

  "How often have you come to Chicago?"

  "I have come a number of times over the years. I also went when I was younger with my family too."

  "Has it changed much?"

  "Certain parts have, but some are pretty similar to when I was a kid."

  "Do you like to travel a lot?" I asked.

  "Yes. I do and you?"

  "Yes. I haven't done as much yet as I would like. How about you, what kind of places did you visit?"

  Kaleb told me about visiting England, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, Japan, Australia and Argentina, among others.

  "So which was your favorite?"

  "I have to say, I really enjoyed Barcelona. It's a great city and it has great beaches too."

  "I'll make it a point to visit there someday."

  "Maybe I'll get to show you."

  I nod, but I think about how I won't be seeing Kaleb much longer. I really only had two candies left, maybe one if I gave one to Esme. I was sad and Kaleb noticed it. "What's wrong?" he asked concerned.

  "Sorry, I'm just thinking how our time together will end soon." I remarked sadly.

  "I know. But you are not leaving for a few more days at least, right?"

  "Yeah, I know."

  "I know that will be sad, but I want you to be happy and enjoy our time together and not think of when it will be over."

  "I understand." I gave a small smile. Shortly after that our food came and I forgot about it. It was so good I couldn't think of anything else. When the restaurant got a little dark and they lit the candles, it seemed romantic, so Kaleb gave me another kiss. This one lasted a little bit longer. I knew for sure if he asked me to stay with him tonight that I wouldn't resist. After a scrumptious dessert, Kaleb revealed that we were indeed going back to Lincoln Park to a comedy club. And we had so much fun. The comedian was hilarious and Kaleb had the cutest laugh. We might have missed the last 15 minutes as we spent that time kissing. We continued kissing when we left and in the cab. I don't think we took a second to stop.

  Finally, we made it back to our hotel. When we were on Michigan Avenue looking at the stores, we had stopped by the hotel to drop off our luggage. However, we didn't get a chance to empty it. Well, that wasn't going to happen either. He asked if I wanted to go back to his room and I nodded vigorously. He mentioned that he had protection, so we were good. I don't remember Kaleb opening the door and either of us getting undressed, we were so into what we were doing, giving in to the passion. He kissed every inch of my body and made slow and passionate love to me. After, we laid in each other's arms and cuddled. We fell asleep in each other's arms and woke up again to make love again. We woke up about 9:30 and Kaleb said that we shouldn't rush back home. He wanted us to have a nice leisurely breakfast and visit the botanical gardens in Lincoln Park. We passed them but didn't get a chance to visit. We had a lovely breakfast and made our way to the gardens. We sat on a bench just staring at each other's eyes. I started to blush thinking about last night. That made Kaleb laugh and in turn I laughed. "I wish this trip would never end."

  "Me too. But all good things must come to an end."

    I frowned and said, "Why do they?"

  "I know, but we will still enjoy the rest of the time we have together. There's more of Clearview, I haven't shown you yet."

  "Ok. I'll take you up on that."

  Kaleb smiled. We walked hand in hand in the gardens and we only stopped briefly for me to take some photos. I was sad thinking that I wouldn't be able to keep this photos as a memory of our trip. Finally, we got back to the hotel and it didn't take us long to pack.

  "What was your favorite part of this trip?" Kaleb asked.

  I blushed and said, "I think you know what it is."

  "The comedy club?" Kaleb joked.

  "Ha ha, you know what I mean." I said.

  "I think I do and I wholeheartedly agree."

  We would have stayed and repeated our favorite moment but we had to check out or we would be penalized extra money towards the cost of the room. When we went to pay, Kaleb gave me a really hard time about paying for my share. I finally gave in and let him pay. When we got in the car and started to travel back, I thought we would sit and talk more. But I was so tired from not sleeping that much last night, I fell asleep on the way home. When I woke up, I was back at home with Esme on our couch.

  Esme looked at me and said smiling, "Did you have as much fun as I saw on tv?"

  I blushed and said, "Um yeah."

  "Looks like you had a wonderful day and an even more amazing night." I blushed even more.

  "Uh yeah."

  "Yeah if it was anything like I saw on tv, then I bet," she said winking.

  I sighed but then I smiled. "It really was, Esme."

  "Then I'm really glad for you," she said.

  "I can't believe it's over." I said.

  "Did you run out of candies?"

  "No, I actually have two left." I said.

  "Great. You can see him two more times at least."

  "No, only once. I'm giving the last one to you." I said.

  "That's so sweet, but I want you to use it."

  "Are you sure?" I said surprised.

  "I'm sure. It means more to you than me, so I want you to have as much time as possible with Kaleb."

  "That means so much to me." I said beaming. I went to give Esme a big hug and she gave me one back. I knew whatever happened next, I had my great friend, Esme with me to help me with my uncertainty.