Page 112 of Sort of Seeing Someone

“I know they flew you in to be the pro, but can I offer a little free advice? Don’t mistakeresiliencefor being forced to just go with the flow and figure it out later because that’s the only option you have in a world full of people who are too afraid to reallyunderstand you.”

Ollie takes a deep breath and shuts his eyes. Maybe I flew too close to the sun on that one, reminding him I’m just as bitchy as I amwitchy—when I need to be.

But then, he does the unthinkable: he reaches for my hands and holds onto my palms, completely unprotected fromExexveei.

“Ollie, no!”

But it’s too late. I suck in all the air from the room and close my eyes. I try with every fiber of my being to ward off the visions but they come in clear like a movie being projected on the big screen.

“It’s okay,” he says back in the calmest of voices. “I have never been able to stop thinking about you,Moonie. Ever since we accidentally swapped bags in Lincoln Park. I looked through your books, all of them, and I thought about the person who bought them. I admired whoever they belonged to. The ability to think about things from a point of view other than one that’s entirely mathematical and rigid…is a gift. A gift I don’t have. That is just one of the many reasons I am in complete awe of you. From here on out, you have my word, I willalwaystry to understand you.”

I drop his hands and we both open our eyes.

“What happens if you get scared again?”

“Oh, I’ll get scared again, alright. But I’m going to stick around. Promise.”

“I mean thatsoundsgreat. But how can I trust that you’re going to follow through?”

“What day is it?” he asks out of nowhere.

“February 14th,” I say, a little annoyed. “Why?”

“I asked you to be my Valentine in your sister’s bathroom and you said yes. It might be a silly holiday, but I’ve flown clear across the country to make good on that. On top of that. there’s a Dairy Queen a mile away and I ordered a couple of cookie dough Blizzards on the app to be ready at noon. Don’t make me eat both by myself. Ready to go?”

For the second time in a matter of minutes, Ollie reaches for my hand. This time, I grab onto his, feeling sure that the universe has got our backs—or, at the very least, our palms.

31

Eight Months Later

“Good morning,Moonie,” says the love of my life, after we’ve been reunited for some time now.

“Good morning, Walter,” I say back.

Mornings in OB, with my favorite parrot-next-door, represent every good thing in life: brownies fresh out of the oven, the last pair of shoes on sale in your size, the soft black hoodie that’s been washed a thousand times.

I pour myself a cup of coffee on my patio and wave hello to Cassie. Not much aboutmy morning ritual on Narragansett Avenue has changed since the first time around living here. But the physical place where I enjoy it certainly has. I may have a smaller yard and the sound of a chair scraping across a cement patio has been reduced to a mere figment of my imagination, but I still enjoy my one-on-one time with my French press, breathing in the salty sea air, and people-watching the free spirits who pass by the front gate. I also enjoy thumbing through myPeoplemagazines. That’s right, I resubscribed—and I whip out a freshly-sharpened pencil to tackle the crossword every single time.

One new aspect to my morning ritual, however, is social media. It’s been a while since I killed my MBA account, but I reactivated it under my new brand name, the company I share with Yas called Vine n’ Vibes. I check it once every morning for incoming DMs in case anyone has customer service-related questions, or if there’s a good shot of one of our exclusive Tarot Card decks that I canrepost to the feed as user-generated content. But other than that, I keep my distance from the platform and politely turn down requests from influencers for free products in exchange for posts.Maybe in time Yas and I will be open to that, but our word-of-mouth, home-town traffic has proven to be just the right pace for our concept as we ramp up the new business.

On that note, we officially registered with the Ocean Beach Chamber of Commerce a couple months ago and did a ribbon-cutting ceremony shortly thereafter. As of right now, there is no online shop component to Vine n’ Vibes and the concept is quite simple. It’s a wine bar downstairs and a crystal healing shop upstairs. Yas—with her incredible wine knowledge and even better people skills—manages the downstairs. I manage the upstairs. Our hours are 11am to 11pm every day and I see a lot of the same faces who did yoga at Joe n’ Flow. Though no sightings of Gavin, he’d be proud to know that we rehired a lot of the old staff and the place feels like family.

Speaking of ‘feeling like family,’ all of my products are still sourced from Angeline in Chicago, who has since befriended my mother and plans to retire and join her Sisterhood sometime in the next few years.

Other updates? I resigned as Nora’s nanny, giving her a piece of the inheritance money to put toward hiring someone good with anactual desire to make a career out of caring for children. Luckily, that is all working out. Oh, and Olivia had her baby, a girl they named Sabrina. She claims it’s a family name from Ted’s side. I call bullshit.

“I brought you a donut,” says a familiar voice coming through my front gate.

“Oh, hey there, stranger. Shouldn’t you be at work?” I ask Ollie.

“Phil’s on a Home Depot run now. I’ll meet him at the job site in an hour,” he explains.

Oh, and Ollie quit his job with WorldEnge and moved here, too. If I don’t sound surprised by that, it’s because I’m not. I’ve seen this scene before, he and I together, enjoying life in warmer weather. I’m so glad to report that it’s finally playing out.

After he bravely grabbed my hands after the panel discussion, I saw even more and I was honest about it. Here’s how it went:

“Do you want to know what I saw?” I asked as we shoveled cookie dough Blizzards into our mouths.

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