Time started moving quickly after Christmas. New Year's was spent with Ellis, Buck, Maddie, Chimney and Ollie all squeezed on her living room couch, singing songs loudly despite the neighbors banging on the walls and drinking champagne despite hating the taste. The next day was spent recovering from her hangover and helping Buck clean his temporary bedroom, their faces turning green everytime they got even a whiff of the alcohol from the night before. Spring was there before they knew it, flowers blooming on Ollie's walk to the corner store that she visited every morning for breakfast.

   The longer Ollie spent time at the 118 and with the people from it, the more she felt her heart grow in size. For the longest time, she thought she was undeserving of good, and yet here it was under her nose, so effortlessly and so easily. Every time a text came through from her friends, a smile pulled its way onto her lips even though it had once been so hard to even think of smiling again.

   Slowly, but surely, she was healing.

   And Evan Buckley was one of the main reasons for it.

   She hated inspirational phrases more than the next grumpy, pessimistic person, but she couldn't help agree with the one about distance making the heart grow fonder. While she thought her years away from the man had put a damper on her feelings, they had swung back in full force since he had sauntered back into her life.

   As much as she hated agreeing with anyone, or contradicting anything she said, she was starting to believe that everyone was right when they told her that it was fate that they had ended up in the same place at the same time.

    The ideas weighed on her mind as Ollie mindlessly stirred the ice in her soda around in circles with her straw, eyes glazed over in thought as she watched the carbonation bubble to the top as her drink turned fizzy. She was currently sitting at some cute brunch place, a celebration for Maddie sending her abusive ex-husband divorce papers and asking out Chimney finally, but her mind was traveling all around the city.

    "Olivia." Maddie snapped her fingers in front of her face.

    She shot out of her thoughts, blinking as she focused back on the girl sitting across from her. "Huh? I'm sorry. I was thinking."

    The other woman stared at her for a little bit before shrugging. "Nothing important. What's on your mind?"

    For a while, she just stared at Maddie, biting her lips as she debated her answer. She could just lie, say she was thinking about dinner or how excited she was for Maddie and Chimney to finally be a couple – but Maddie was her best friend. If she could trust her feelings with anyone, it'd be her. "I think I love your brother."

    Maddie's eyes slowly widened as she stared back at her. "Oh. Oh." She was obviously taken back by the sudden confession, but her face quickly brightened once the words finally sat with her. "Well, I could've told you that. Glad you're back on the Buckley train, Ollie." She teased, although she was practically glowing with joy. "Are you gonna tell him?"

    A long groan left her lips, her head falling against the table in front of her. "I don't know. I mean, he's told me how he feels, so I guess it's only right? But how do you even do that? Sit him down in my living room, aka his bedroom, and just tell him 'hey, by the way, I've decided I do love you'?" She rambled, lifting her head to look at Maddie with an anguished expression. "I don't know how to love people."

    She laughed softly, reaching over to place her hand on Ollie's arm reassuringly. "No one does, Liv, but you will learn. Don't stress out too much about it. The right time will come." Her smile didn't fade as she continued looking at her, leaning back in her chair. "Look at us. Two girlies out in the dating world. We deserve a mimosa."

    The final statement was followed with a gasp, her head swiveling as she looked around for their waiter, as if a mimosa for brunch had never crossed her mind until that exact moment. It didn't take long for her to actually locate their waiter, waving him down and ordering two of them.

    "In other news, and yet the same news, do you want to help me get ready for my date with Chimney on Friday?" Maddie asked as their mimosas were placed on the table, immediately taking a sip. "I haven't gotten ready for a date in years, I don't even know how to make myself look pretty."

    Ollie chuckled, sipping her own drink. "I've never been on a date, but I can try my best."

    "You've never been on a date?"

    "Evan and I never went on one when we were teenagers. We couldn't drive." She laughed, shaking her head. "When you're younger, dates aren't a thing. We spent time together, sure, but he was never taking me to dinner. And then there haven't been any dates since then." Her shoulders moved in a shrug, leaning her elbows on the table as she reminisced.

    Maddie took a pause before speaking again. "Huh. Buck's really gotta step up his game." She noted.

    "You're telling me." Ollie responded in amusement, clinking her mimosa against Maddie's.

–

    Despite coming to the halting conclusion that her feelings for Buck had never subsided despite her valiant efforts, Ollie still avoided him like the plague.

   Just until she could figure it out, she reasoned with herself. She deserved the time to go over what she wanted to say, what she wanted to do.

    However, this was extremely hard. Especially since he slept on her couch.

    Most of the day, she tried hiding in her room. Having an en suite bathroom was very beneficial for this reason, making the only reason she had to be in the living spaces to eat, which she tended to perfectly schedule for when Buck went out to visit someone or to go to the gym. It was a funny situation, bringing a hoard of snacks into her bedroom in her own apartment, but it had to make do for now.

    Unfortunately, Buck seemed to catch onto her plan, knocking on her door just as she got settled beneath her blankets to watch a movie. Her eyes raised as her door creaked open, tucking her body further underneath her duvet as if it could save her from a conversation. "Buckley. What can I do for you?"

    "How formal of you." He chuckled softly, stepping into her room. His hand gestured to the end of her bed, sitting down on it once she nodded, his hand finding the top of her leg almost as if he could read her mind. "I just wanted to check on you. Feels like I haven't seen you in forever. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you've been avoiding me."

    The statement came out in a cheeky way, letting Ollie know that she, unfortunately, had been caught.

   Not that she'd admit it.

    Ollie shook her head, sitting up against her pillows. "Me? Avoid you? If I wanted to avoid you, Buck, I'd kick you out of my apartment." She huffed, crossing her arms over her crewneck.

    That brought a laugh out of him, his hand rubbing against her calf naturally as his body shook, sending tingly shocks up her leg and causing her to jerk it out of the way. His eyes narrowed at her accusingly, even as she covered it up by crossing her legs and leaning forward. "You don't need to be in different households to have distance, Olivia."

    "The last time I wanted to distance myself from you, Evan, I moved states away. I think I would know how to get away from you." She deadpanned, although a smile pulled at her lips when he looked at her in disbelief. "Don't look at me like that, you puppy. Come here, you goof. We're watching Tangled."

    Buck stared at her for a second before standing up, kicking off his shoes and moving to slide underneath her blankets with her. Despite her having quite a bit of room on her queen size bed, he still seemed to invade her space, body heat spreading onto her exposed legs and sending goosebumps all the way up to her arms. It didn't help that she didn't scoot over before inviting him to sit down and now she felt too stunned to move away.

    "You still watch Disney movies?" He asked, breaking the silence as his arm stretched out behind her, resting comfortably on her stacks of pillows.

    Ollie turned her head to look at him, raising her eyebrows threateningly. "Do you have a problem with that, Buckley?"

    He just gave her a grin back, the hand behind her head reaching out to twirl a strand of her hair around his finger, giving it a soft tug that somehow turned her mind to mush. "Not at all, Bloom."

    Her eyes rolled, leaning back further into her pillows and, in turn, leaning back into his outstretched arm. She patted around until she found her remote, staying silent as she moved through the multiple apps on her TV.

    While waiting for everything to load up, she could feel Buck's thoughts running through his head again, turning to look at him with a narrowed gaze. "What's going on in that small brain of yours?"

    A goofy grin replaced his subtle smile. "You."

    "Oh, so we're lying to each other now?" She shot back, although her cheeks started burning before she could even stop it.

    Buck chuckled, shaking his head. "Ollie, I will never lie about you."

    Ollie watched his face for a second, stomach tying in a tighter knot when she realized just how serious he was. Sighing, she set her TV remote down, leaning her head back against her pillows. "I'll bite. What were you thinking about me?"

    The man beside her stayed silent for just a few heartbeats before responding. "Kissing you."

    Her hand reached out to smack his bicep before she could even think about it, huffing out of her nose. "Buckley!"

    A cheeky chuckle left his lips as he leaned closer, still keeping a respectful distance as the hand behind her head slowly curled around the back of her neck. "You wanted the honest truth, Bloom."

    By now, her face and neck had turned an embarrassing shade of red, luckily covered up by the darkness of her bedroom. She wanted to melt into her bed, never to be seen again, and she was really regretting her decision to let him sit in her bed with her.

    "Truth time from you." He continued, head tilting slightly. "Do you want to kiss me?"

    Her throat seemed to restrict, allergic to the idea of letting her feelings out, eyes widened like a doe caught in headlights as she looked up at him. Her brain flickered back to her conversation with Maddie, about how there was a right time to say her feelings. Right now wasn't the best time for love... but kissing wasn't love, was it?

    Swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded dumbly, all of the words gone from her mouth. His smile slowly turned into a larger grin, hand around the back of her neck giving her a soft squeeze before he used it to turn her head towards him. His large body overlapped hers as he practically molded into her, lips covering hers almost shyly.

    Unlike their last kiss, which was all angst and frenzy and longing, this one was tentative, like they were kissing for the first time again. Buck's fingers tangled into her hair as his palm kept a firm hold, burning a hole into the back of her head. Slowly, her own body turned to face him, fingers curling into the LAFD hoodie clinging into his body to pull him even closer.

    After a moment of her mind being shut off by the sure sincerity of his kiss, Buck pulled away just a little bit, lips only an inch from hers still. "You like me." He teased.

    "Shut up." Ollie grunted, using the hold on his hoodie to close the gap again.