can i see you tomorrow?
Olive could see the text from her home screen on her phone, but she did not click into the text chain, as she didn’t want Charlie to see that she had read the message. She needed time to process. While her heart, and vagina, longed to agree right away, Olive had to be rational. She didn’t come all the way to Italy to fall into bed with someone else so soon after her break-up, no matter how irresistible and muscular the person was.
It was probably not the smartest idea for her to agree already, and she forced herself to ignore the text the rest of the night.
“What waswith yesterday’s text? Are you okay?” Bronwyn asked when Olive picked up her FaceTime audio call. Olive was currently walking around the Duomo di Milano, admiring the cathedral’s stained-glass windows so she hastily tried to find a corner that wasn’t as filled with tourists as everywhere else.
“Hey, how’s your day going?” Olive asked her in response.
“Well, I just woke up,” Bronwyn said, and only then did Olive remember that they were five hours apart.Oops.
“Right. Well, what are you going to do today?” Olive whispered.
“Stop stalling and tell me what the meaning of this text is. ‘Please stop me from DMing this famous hockey player.’ First off, since when do you DM people, and what do you mean by hockey? I thought you hated sports.”
“I do hate sports,” Olive clarified. She looked around to make sure no one had caught her admitting that grave sin during Olympics season in a church. She seemed to be safe, so she elaborated.
“Let me start at the beginning of the story.”
“Please.”
“I may have met someone a few nights ago.”
“A hockey player?! Since when are you into dating men?”
“That’s sexist of you. I never said it was a male hockey player.”
“Ohhh,” Bronwyn said from the other side of the line. Olive could practically hear the gears turning in her head. “So, how did the meeting go?”
“Great. It was casual.” Olive didn’t want to elaborate more. As honest as she was with her sister, talking to her about her sex life was not something she wanted to, in a church or not.
“Then what was the problem?”
“When I texted you, she had my number but hadn’t texted me yet. After I hit send, she basically texted me right then and asked to meet again.”
Bronwyn squealed. “Oh my God, that is so cute. I just knew meeting someone rich was in the cards for you. You deserve it.”
“Slow down. It’s not as if it was anything other than a casual evening. I just don’t know what to do.”
“What do you mean? It sounds like you already know what to do. You did want to reach out to her before she texted you.”
“Right. But…” Olive hesitated before being honest with her. “What if I get my heart broken again?”
“And so what if you do? Life is too short to deny yourself the few moments of happiness when you can find them.”
“Who said anything about happiness?”
“Well, I don’t want to read too much into what you mean bycasual,but I am not above encouraging my sister to get some pleasure.”
“Ew. The first one was right. Please never say that to me again.” Olive made gagging sounds over the phone while Bronwyn laughed.
“I’m just saying. There’s nothing wrong with getting some. Go for it! You’re only thirty once!”
“I amNOTthirty,” Olive said forcefully. It seemed to have been too loud, because tourists passing nearby turned to stare at her. She silently mouthedsorryand turned back to her call.
Olive continued with a whisper. “I should go.”
“Of course. Just have some fun, okay? Just go see her.”
