He smiles. “Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? I can buy us tickets right now,” he says as he reaches for his phone.
“Yeah, sounds great,” I say, always up for an adventure. He taps away on his phone and I replay our conversation. What the heck was he talking about? Oscar has always been the most confident, carefree man I’ve ever known, almost annoyingly so.
Not a care in the world.
I thought I knew everything about him.
But maybe I don’t.
* * *
I text Mom,still insanely worried about her. Here I am in one of the most exciting and beautiful cities in the world, and I’m a complete mess. I’m worried about my mom, I’m trying to figure out how to let Matt down easy, and I’m concerned about Oscar and our relationship.
How are you, Mom? What are you up to? R u still reading? R u up for a movie night? They have some decent movies on DVD here. I can go buy some popcorn.
Mom might have been a little flaky when I was growing up, but she was always there for me. Every time I came home crying, she was there. She’d go to Blockbuster (back when those still existed) and rent us a few girly movies; usually silly rom-coms. We’d have Diet Coke and popcorn and Twizzlers. We’d have a movie night, I’d laugh at the stupid jokes, and soon enough I’d feel better, much better. I probably wouldn’t survived high school if it weren’t for my mom.
Just like the old days. What do you think?
I’m making myself a tea when my phone pings.
Sounds great. My eyes are getting tired of reading. I need some company.
—
Did you eat yet?
—
No.
—
Okay. Come in about an hour. I have a bit of food here. I’ll whip up something.
A night in, in Paris. I think that’s a first for me. Oscar will probably want to hang around but I’ll have to ask him to make himself scarce. He and Corrie wanted to see the Catacombs. I have no desire — too cold, dark and morbid for me. I don’t like to be reminded of death. I’m not even a big fan of Halloween to be honest — too many skeletons.
