Olivia snapped back from her thoughts when she walked through the front doors of the wellness center and was greeted by a smiling, chirpy Melanie.

“Libby! How are you?” she asked, running from behind the registration desk and giving Olivia a hug. The girl really did have a lot of enthusiasm.

“I’m good, Mel,” she responded, weakly returning her hug. Olivia was not a big hugger, but she did it for Melanie. Melanie loved to hug.

“Here, let me give you your messages. You have a few.” She returned to her desk, handing Olivia a stack of missed calls. “You know, you really should set up your voicemail so that I don’t have to track you down all the time.”

Olivia smiled. “I know. I’ll work on it. Thanks, Mel,” she said, turning down the hall to her office. She popped her head into Linda’s office on the way.

“Hey, Linda. How’s everything going?” Olivia asked her business partner while she sat in her office, smiling through her vibrant blue eyes. She motioned for Olivia to come in as she threw her blonde hair back into a ponytail, taking her reading glasses off her face. The wellness center was her baby; Olivia was just the money behind it. When she agreed to back it, Olivia made her agree to let her teach, having already been certified to lead a few different classes. And of course, she made sure that she had her own office there as well.

“Great!” Linda replied excitedly. “It looks like we’re going to post some big numbers this quarter. Enrollment is up two hundred percent. We may have to hire some new staff to keep up with all the people that have signed up for coaching.”

“That’s fantastic. Just keep it up!”

“Will do.” Olivia left Linda’s office and went down the hall to her own office where she grabbed what she needed for her workout before getting to it in the state of the art gym.

After an intense two-hour workout, Olivia returned to her office, dripping with sweat, and grabbed her messages to sort through. Most of them were relatively mundane and nothing she had to deal with right away. The last message caught her eye. It was Detective Wilder, probably calling to tell her the result of Simon’s arraignment. Olivia had almost forgotten about what happened Friday night, having been living in a bit of an Alexander-induced daze.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her phone and dialed Detective Wilder’s number. She picked up after the second ring.

“Hi. It’s Libby Adler. Olivia. I’m just returning your call from yesterday evening, Detective Wilder.”

“Miss Adler. How are you doing? Is everything okay?”

“Surprisingly, yes. I had actually forgotten about Friday night until now, if you can believe that.” Olivia laughed nervously.

“Well, I’m sorry to have to be the one to reopen that wound, but Simon had his arraignment yesterday. The first thing I need to tell you is that he was issued a no-contact protective order. That means he cannot contact you in any way. If you are both at the same restaurant or bar or whatever, he is under a court order to leave immediately. You do not have to leave. You can if you want, but he is the one required to leave. He cannot approach you under any circumstances. He must stay at least fifty feet away from you at all times. If you initiate contact with him for any reason, he must walk away from you. But if I were you, I would stay far away from him. Do not call him. Do not engage him at all.”

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of ever speaking to him again,” Olivia replied, trying to hide her nervousness.

“If, for any reason, he violates this protective order, he can be charged with an additional felony on top of the other charges of criminal assault and attempted murder. If he violates it by trying to contact you, you must call me immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I do. Thank you. So what’s the next step?”

“Well, as I mentioned, Simon was arraigned on assault and attempted murder charges. The judge set his bail at a quarter of a million dollars. He had an attorney with him and someone posted his bail, other than a bail bondsman. I’m still looking into this. According to his financials, he was eligible for a public defender, so I have no idea how he is able to afford an attorney or to post bail.”

That was a little disconcerting, Olivia thought. Simon did not make a lot of money and his friends didn’t have any money that she knew of. Then again, she didn’t really know Simon that well.

“In the meantime, this case will be assigned to a district attorney who will be in touch with you. If, for some reason, Simon does not accept a plea deal, this will have to go to trial and you will probably have to testify. Do you understand this?”

“Yes, I do. I’m fine with that.” Olivia sounded braver than she felt. She was nervous just thinking about having to tell a courtroom full of people about Simon.

“Just one last word of caution. There’s something about Simon that rubs me the wrong way. He seems like a nice guy at first, but I don’t know. There’s something off about him, Miss Adler. That protective order won’t prevent him from harming you if he really wants to. It will only enhance any sentence he’s given on the assault and attempted murder charges. What I’m trying to tell you is to be very careful, at least until this is all settled.”

“I will be. Thank you for the update, Detective.” Olivia’s voice was clearly shaky now. The detective must have noticed.

“It’s my pleasure. And if you need anything, please contact me.”

With that, Olivia hung up, suddenly nervous. Detective Wilder’s warning concerned her. Why did she feel the need to go out of her way to tell her that something about Simon seemed odd? Olivia had thought the same thing before brushing it off as nothing. But now, maybe she should be worried about Simon, roaming the streets, out on bail.

Her cell phone buzzed, bringing her back from her thoughts. She giggled when she saw the picture of Runner in the dog park with two tennis balls in his mouth. She immediately began to look forward to her date that evening and nothing was going to take away the excitement of that; not even a nerve-racking warning about a potential dangerous ex-whatever loose on the streets of Boston. Olivia didn’t know what scared her more; that she was excited about seeing Alexander, or the warning Detective Wilder gave her about Simon. Both scared her to death.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Donovan, it’s Cheryl.”

“Cheryl, darling, please tell me you have some good news.”

“Well, I do. Burnham is dating this Sarah Olivia Adler. Apparently, she goes by Olivia, though. I don’t know how serious it is yet. They just met over the weekend, but you already knew that.”