Page 14 of You've Found Oliver

Julie calls me first thing in the morning.

We’ve been trying to schedule it all week.

The time difference has been a challenge.

My days start when hers are just ending.

It’s almost like time traveling, if you think about it.

It’s been a few days since I met Ben in person, and I’ve been waiting to tell Julie over the phone.

“Surprised you answered the phone this early,” she says.

“It’s only ten thirty.”

“Don’t you usually sleep until noon?”

“Did you call to lecture me?”

“One second—” There’s a brief silence, followed by some background noise. “Sorry, had to put in my earbuds. Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, where are you?”

“Walking back to my place,” Julie says. “Just left wine night with some friends from the program. I didn’t drink anything though.”

“How are the people there?”

“Everyone’s been nice,” she says. “At least to my face anyway. You know how they feel about Americans. Someone even asked me if I owned a gun.”

“Well, do you? ”

“You’re hilarious. Actually, that reminds me. There’s this guy in my program from Boston who reminds me of you. He has the exact same sense of humor—and he shows up late to everything. We’ve been hanging out almost every day. I was actually just with him.”

“So you’ve replaced me already…”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You would honestly love him. He’s so much fun.”

I lie back on the bed and groan. “That’s not what you’re supposed to tell me. You’re supposed to say you’re having a miserable time and you’re booking the next flight home.”

“We’re supposed be manifesting nice things, Oliver.”

“It would be nice if you came home.”

Julie sighs. “I’m hanging up.”

“ Alright, alright. I’m glad you’re making new friends, okay?”

“Was that so hard? Now tell me about you. How’s my mom’s class?”

I think about this. “It’s been… interesting .”

“Doesn’t sound like a glowing review.”

“No, she’s great,” I assure her. “It’s honestly better than my other classes. But it can get a little confusing. She always answers our questions with another question.”

“Sounds like my childhood.”

“I wish I had that growing up.” I switch the phone to my other ear. “Did you know there are no due dates in her class? You can turn in assignments whenever you want.”

“Mom doesn’t believe in deadlines,” Julie explains. “But I wouldn’t take advantage of it. I think a lot of her past students have.”

“Who said I was taking advantage of it?”

“Have you started the first assignment?”

I hesitate. “No…”

“Oliver.”

“I’m going to, okay? Give me a break. I had a busy weekend.”

“What were you up to?”

I was waiting for us to get to this. Julie usually knows everything that’s going on in my life, so I can’t keep this secret for long.

“That’s actually what I wanted to tell you. I sort of met someone.”

“As in, a boy?”

“Maybe.”

“What’s his name?”

“It’s Ben.”

“Ben,” she repeats. “Does he go to our school or…”

“No. Thank god.”

“How did you two meet?”

I obviously can’t tell the truth. “We met on an app.”

“Oh…”

“Not that one!”

“I wouldn’t judge you if it was.”

“Well it wasn’t, okay?”

Julie chuckles. “Well, tell me about him. Is he cute?”

“Of course he is.”

“How long have you guys been talking?”

“A couple of weeks.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“I wasn’t sure what the vibe was,” I say, sitting up again. “And we’ve only met up once. Just a couple days ago.”

“How was it?”

I tell her about our dinner, the conversation we had, the questions I asked him. How he waited at the bus stop with me afterwards. “And we text each other every day, which is a good sign.”

“Does that mean you like him?”

“Maybe. But I don’t want to jinx it.”

There’s a pause before Julie says, “I think that’s a good approach. Especially after what happened with you-know-who. But don’t let that hold you back from opening up more. When are you going to see him again?”

I sigh. “One thing I haven’t mentioned yet—he lives in Seattle.”

“Oh…that’s not ideal.”

“I know…”

“I’m sure you could make it work,” she says.

Navigating a long-distance relationship is something I’ve been thinking about. But I shouldn’t be getting ahead of myself. After all, we’ve only met up once. “Maybe it wasn’t even a real date. For all I know, he just wants to be friends.”

“Would you be okay with that?”

I think about it. “I guess so.”

“Good. Because I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“I’ll be fine.”

After all, we’re still getting to know each other. How could I possibly get hurt if nothing’s happened? And it’s not like he lives in Copenhagen or something. We can always continue meeting in the middle. I appreciate Julie’s concern, though.

We stay on the phone for another hour or so. I could honestly talk with her for hours, asking questions about her daily life, the restaurants she’s been to. But eventually I have to let her go.

“I have to hop in the shower and get ready for bed,” she says.

“Alrighty. Have a good night.”

“I’ll text you in the morning.”

I hang up and stretch my arms. I don’t have to be in class for a few hours. But maybe I should learn to start my day sooner. Ben is probably in the lab right now. He texted me a couple hours ago.

Morning.

Hope you have a good start to your day

It’s nice having something to wake up to. It’s nice having someone to wake up to.

I’m still thinking about the question Julie asked me. Of course I would stay friends with him. Why would I want to lose someone like Ben?

The school week goes by slowly, but working the circulation desk is a nice break from my classes. Rami is really growing on me. We’ll often have lunch together now. He showed me the secret staff lounge with an espresso machine.

“Why didn’t you bring me here sooner?” I ask.

“I didn’t know if I could trust you yet.”

Even better, he’s also a musical theater person.

We listen to the Wicked soundtrack while we’re working the desk together.

Usually, I stay in the library for a few hours after my shifts.

But I can’t find an open table this afternoon.

Maybe I’ll head to the dining hall or something. I could use a snack anyway.

As I’m cutting through the quad, I spot him immediately.

Nolan is sitting in the grass with some friends.

Those bleach blond waves always stick out in a crowd.

It’s been a few weeks since he showed up at my dorm.

Thankfully, he hasn’t made a second visit.

Then, I notice someone else. Connor is sitting right beside him.

The same Connor that Nolan cheated on me with.

What are they even doing together? Nolan told me he was never going to speak to him again.

That liar. I should walk over there and confront him about it.

But Nolan and I aren’t together anymore.

So this shouldn’t bother me. I turn around before either of them sees me standing here.

I wish I could teleport to Copenhagen. Julie would be able to talk me through this.

Who cares if they’re sitting together? Maybe they deserve each other anyway.

I push them out of my mind as I head toward the student center.

The second floor is usually less crowded. I find an empty table by the window.

I take a deep breath in and try to focus on something else.

Maybe I’ll start on the assignment from Professor Clarke.

It doesn’t sound too hard. All we have to do is open The Poetics of Space to a random page and start writing about it.

I pull out my copy and read until I find a passage that grabs my attention.

I can recover my calm by living the metaphors of the ocean.

I say it out loud a few times. Is this book telling me to jump into the ocean? I continue reading, trying to figure out what it means. But it doesn’t really make sense to me.

So I turn to another page and find a different passage.

Somehow, this one is even more confusing.

The author is going on about dreams and furnishing a house or something.

It feels like I’m missing a lot of context.

I wish I could just start from the beginning.

How am I supposed to understand anything when I don’t know what happened before?

I’m skimming other passages when I get a message from Ben.

Amélie was amazing

You have to see it

He’s been telling me about this French course he’s taking. Apparently, they get to watch a different French film every week and then analyze it together. Sounds a lot more fun than most of the classes I’m taking. If he didn’t live so far away, maybe we could watch them together.

Isn’t it in French?

That’s what subtitles are for

How’s that book you’re reading btw

I told him about the assignment earlier. He’s been very curious about it.

Honestly nothing is making sense so far

Give me an example

I open the book to another page and pick a random line.

“Inhabited space transcends geometrical space”

Wow

That hurt my brain a little

Now you know how I feel

What’s this book called again?

The Poetics of Space

Sounds like an astronomy textbook

For all I know, it could be

Maybe it’s talking about black holes

What makes you think that?

They’re geometrical and transcend time and space

Just throwing it out there

That kinda make sense. Apparently there are no wrong answers. But I’m not an astronomy major so I don’t know much about space

I could send you some articles

That’d be great

Something with pictures would be lovely

If you want pictures, I can show you in person

With a telescope

Really?

We have an observatory on campus

I have a key so we could go anytime

I’ve been waiting for the chance to see him again.

I would love that

We share our schedules over the next few days. Thankfully, the weekend forecast is showing clear skies. So we decide to meet each other on Saturday. He’s watching another French film for his class that evening and asks if I want to join. The showing is at six o’clock at his local theater.

Can’t wait to hang out again

Me too

I can’t stop smiling at his message. A movie showing, followed by stargazing. Is this considered a date? How am I supposed to focus on anything else until then? I can’t wait get Julie’s thoughts about this.

Mom has been working a lot this week, so we decide to do takeout for dinner. I pick up some Chinese food on the way home. There’s this hole-in-the-wall place called King’s Dragon that we always order from. We haven’t had it in ages. Mom loves their lo mein and sesame chicken.

“Knock, knock,” I say, entering the apartment.

It’s dark in the living room. I’m about to turn on the light when I spot her sleeping on the sofa with the television on.

I would wake her up for dinner, but I know how tired she must be.

She worked a double shift the night before.

So I put a blanket over her and set the food on the kitchen table.

There are some dishes in the sink. I wash them quietly and put them on the rack to dry. Then I take out the trash, along with the recycling. Mom is still asleep when I come back inside. I wish she didn’t have to work so much.

I glance around our small apartment. I’m not exactly the son you can brag about. Yet the walls are decorated with my graduation cap, drawings from kindergarten, photos of me growing with every grade. It makes me want to do better in school. Maybe I can buy us a real house one day.

“No matter what, we have each other,” she always says.

I put the Chinese food in the fridge and turn off the television. Then I give her a kiss on the forehead and make my way out.