Chapter 1

"What do you mean you can't meet me?" she hears on the other end of the phone.  Her hand is shaking, her heart is racing - she just told him no.  No one tells him no.

"I have a class to prepare for, I can't just keep dropping everything to suit you, I'm sorry." she responds, with a growing anxiety - coupled with an extra ounce of courage.

"You know that's not the deal." he responds, through his teeth.  When he talks to her like that, she knows that he's pissed.

"Quite frankly Jon, I have had enough of the deal." she screams at him, "I don't want to be like this anymore."

"Like what?"

"A kept woman that has to hide everything I do when I'm with you."

"That's part of the deal."

With her anger and her frustration growing, Olivia tells him, " I want out of the deal."

"No."

"I'm not meeting you today Jon, I have way too much to do and my career is suffering because of our deal."

"Liv, you know that's not what you want.  Just meet me in the city and we can talk." he pleads with her, "I need to see you."

"You want to see me, you don't need to see me.  And as I told you, I have a class."

"I'm only here for the day.  Let's have lunch, that's it."  In the voice that she can never resist, she finds herself nodding her head, with a smile on her face.

"Just lunch, and then I have to go." she agrees, and he can hear her smile.  He knows the best ways to break her down, on the phone and in person.  

"I promise, just lunch.  I have a press conference to do and then I have to go to Chicago." 

Olivia met Jon not very long ago, at Mercy Hospital in New York City.  He was brought in for a foot injury that turned out to be a break and she was the attending on duty.  They hit it off right away and she was easily smitten with him, until his wife walked in.  When Olivia seen that he was married, she had to withdraw and try to get back to treating him like she was a doctor.  She remembers that day, just like it was yesterday.  

He hopped into the emergency room like she knew the man of her dreams would.  He would have too.  Being an attending emergency room physician was all the life that she had, all the life that she has known since she started her rotations and her grueling school schedule.