Olivia had flown out to see Joe purely because she missed him, and it hadn't even been a full week since they'd last seen each other in Napa. They had only been doing this, whatever this was, for a few weeks now, but if she was being honest with herself, Olivia already felt like she wanted more of him. The more time they spent together, the more addictive his presence became. Joe was… easy. Easy to be around, easy to trust, easy to fall into. Being with him brought this quiet sense of peace she hadn't realised she'd been craving until he came along. And yet there was still this invisible space lingering between them, because technically they weren't anything, not officially anyway. They'd never sat down and defined it. All Olivia really knew was that everything inside her seemed to settle whenever he was close. Maybe that was why his nervousness caught her off guard now, because despite the chemistry crackling so naturally between them, despite the attachment that had grown frighteningly fast, despite the fact they'd both literally boarded planes just to steal a little more time together, Joe was still looking at her like she might disappear the second he said the wrong thing. When his fingers curled around hers, Olivia squeezed his hand instinctively, grounding him without a second thought, and her expression softened into something openly adoring as he continued rambling through his nerves. Her eyes followed every movement, every stumble over his words, and somewhere in the middle of it she realised, with a sudden aching clarity, that she was already far more emotionally involved than she'd ever planned to be.
A quiet giggle escaped her as he faltered, his cheeks flushing, he was mortified for making himself so flustered, and she leaned in slightly closer on the sofa, a bare hand coming to rest, so softly, on his arm. "Joe," she whispered, almost grinning at him through the words now, "breathe." There was no scorn in her voice. All that she wanted him to know was that he could tell her whatever he'd clearly been nursing around in his head. Olivia brushed her thumb slowly over the back of his hand, trying to soothe both his nerves and her own. Why was she nervous, she didn't know. He kept making feel like that, just by looking at her, despite having known him for quite a while now, and having been in each other's lives for some time now. Those eyes. She could get lost in them. "You can tell me," she murmured. Her lips curved, the last thing she wanted was for Joe to think he had to hold anything back, whatever it was he'd been wanting to say, Olivia would be there to listen. She'd gotten used to his presence; the thought of him wanting to stop things where they are crossed her mind, but she didn't want to dwell on it too much. The mere thought crept in on her and she wanted to shake it off before talking again, she didn't want to sound too worried in case it wasn't anything too bad. He said it was nothing bad, but what if? "Whatever horrible, awful thing you might be about to say, it can't be worse than this little pre-speech spiral you've just subjected yourself to." Another soft bubble of laughter escaped her before it faded into a look of sincerity and her lips settled into a softer line as she squeezed his hand again.
