Olivia hardly went on personal shopping trips, but today was a special day. And besides, there was no way she could have one of her aides pick out these particular set of items for her. Olivia strolled past the stores that were now selling discounted candy and flowers and walked into "Spice", her favourite lingerie store. She never really cared for stores like Victoria Secret, as she found their selections a little too tame for her taste.

"Hey Olivia," the sales person said as she walked up to Olivia with a basket ready for her. "Looking for something for you and your boyfriend again? What's his name? Tim?"

"Hello Jessica," Liv replied with a smile, "close, but it's Thomas."

"Oh yes! That's right. Well you're a little late since Valentine's Day was yesterday, but I'm sure you can make it up to Thomas somehow," Jessica said as she motioned to some body oils.

"Ooh this smells good," Liv said as she picked up a bottle and opened the cap. "Well he had to work so it's actually his fault we're celebrating a day late," Olivia half-lied and put the bottle of oil into her basket.

The truth was her boyfriend Thomas, otherwise known as Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, wasn't working on Valentines Day. He was with his wife, who happened to plan a surprise for them and Fitz could not get out of it without raising suspicion.

Mellie and Fitz had just moved into the White House a few weeks earlier and were still adjusting to all the changes that came with being the new President and First Lady. Mellie had told Fitz that since moving, she could sense something was off between them and she wanted to reconnect with Fitz and thought Valentine's Day would be the perfect opportunity. While Fitz agreed that indeed something was off, it was not his wife who he wanted to reconnect with. It was the one true love of his life, Olivia Carolyn Pope who he wanted to spend Valentine's Day with. But he couldn't risk Mellie pulling one of her power-bitch moves and tainting his fresh presidency with some sort of scandal in the media. So he reluctantly agreed to whatever nonsense she had planned to keep her happy.

** The Day Before: February 14th **

He hated having to do this to Olivia. Fitz took a deep breath in, picked up the white house phone and dialed Liv's extension.

"This is Olivia Pope" she answered in her usual professional tone.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi."

"Are you alone?"

"I am," she replied as she tried to hide the smile on her face.

"Can you come to the oval? I need you to look at a report I just received."

"I'll be right over." She quickly hung up, checked herself out in her compact mirror and headed over to the Oval Office. Since she was his Communications Director her office was only a 5-minute walk to the Oval. As she approached his office, she could see the door was already open.

"Go right in, he's expecting you," Lauren said.

"Shut the door behind you, please," Fitz said and Olivia obliged.

"How can I help you today Mr. President?" Olivia asked, smiling. "Where's this report?"

Fitz loved hearing her call him that. As soon as she entered the room his mood immediately lightened. But he hated knowing that her smile would soon be a frown and it would be all his fault.

"We both know there is no report Liv" Fitz said, trying to be as charming as ever. "I won't be able to come to Camp David tonight." Fitz spat out.

Olivia tried to mask her disappointment and gave him her best fake smile. Although Fitz had told her a million times that she wasn't his mistress, at times like this she couldn't help but feel like exactly that. They didn't have anything special planned, just a quiet dinner for the 2 of them at Camp David, followed by dessert of course. But it had been a while since they had any alone time and that's what was supposed to make to make it special. No matter what day it was.

The last time they had any intimate time together was on the night of Fitz's inauguration, when they first christened the oval office and his desk. They were both genuinely looking forward to getting to spend time together again, but now that Fitz was actually POTUS, it became harder for them to see each other.

"Oh, ok. No problem at all, Mr. President," Olivia said curtly. Fitz noticed the change in her tone immediately.

"See, when you called me 'Mr. President' a minute ago it sounded hot. Now I sound like a gym teacher".

"What do you want from me, Fitz? Let me guess, Mellie has planned something for the two of you, doesn't she?"

Fitz walked over to her and said, "Liv, if I could get out of it I would; and I tried! Believe me. I'm so sorry to have to cancel our plans at the last minute. Livy," Fitz said as he took her chin in his hand to get her to look at him, "is there any way you can forgive me? I'd hate for our plans to be ruined just because of Mellie."

"Can you promise me that you won't sleep with your wife?" Olivia snapped at him.

"Liv, we both know that is a promise I cannot keep. Not unless we want Mellie to figure out what's going on between us. Livy I will try, as I have been doing since we moved into the white house, but I can't keep this up forever."

Olivia turned around and began pacing in circles. Fitz just watched her, knowing she needed to clear her mind. She then stopped and walked back toward Fitz and placed her hands on either side of his face and stared into his eyes. She knew their situation was difficult on BOTH of them, and she didn't want to make things worse. She stared at the man in front of her and wondered if they would ever be able to live the life they've always wanted. On their terms and no one else's. Not Mellie's, not Cyrus's and not the country's. But as she looked at him, her gut was sure of one thing: She wasn't ready to give up hope just yet. She pulled his face to hers but Fitz stopped her. "The cameras, remember?" he said as he recalled his conversation with Tom from a few weeks ago.

Olivia let go of his face and walked around his desk to the window behind it and stared out. Fitz finally being President proved to be a lot harder than they had anticipated. They worked so hard to get him to the white house, and lord knows Olivia made so many sacrifices for Fitz to be here. But now that they were actually here, everything was so different; so difficult, but Liv couldn't see a way out in the near future.

Fitz walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her body and inhaled her scent. She turned around and kissed him and ran her fingers through his hair, but pulled away before things went any further. After all, it was the middle of the day in The Oval Office.

"Obviously I am disappointed Fitz, but we'll make it work," she said, giving him a half smile and then strutting to the door.

Before Fitz could say anything else, she was gone.