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“Yes, and…that’s the restaurant.” He pointed at a building as we passed. “Do you want to get out or do you want to come with me as I park? It’s cold,” he added, as if I might have forgotten somehow.

I wasn’t wearing my warmest clothes, because the new things I’d bought online with Vera and Carmen were cute but not cozy. Nevertheless, I said that I would walk and luckily, we didn’t have to park too far away. It was still far enough that I didn’t enjoy it very much but he went fast and due to running, I kept up.

“I know that you’re concerned about drinking and your BAC, but I’m driving. Would you like a glass of wine?” he offered. I decided that I would and when our drinks arrived, he held up his glass.

“Cheers to the newly licensed driver,” he said.

“Thank you!” I tapped mine to his and we sipped.

“I also have news,” he told me. “I bought the house, the Tudor place that you toured with me. We’re in escrow and if the inspections go well, then it’s mine.”

“Oh. Wow,” I responded. “Wow.” Then I remembered to add, “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” he also said. “I’ll be glad to go.”

“I know that you don’t want to talk about it, but if you didn’t hear the song, would you still want to—”

“We do hear it. There’s no reason for it, no legitimate rationale, but we do,” he stated. “I can’t live like that. I went over to the new house before I made the final decision and I tested almost every water source there. I flushed the toilets. I listened to the ice maker in the fridge. I couldn’t turn on the sprinkler system or try the hose bibs outside because the pipes could freeze, but the showers are ok and so are the sinks. There’s only the sound of the flow, with no old music, no glitter, no…” He hesitated. “I don’t know if I’m right about this but I think I’m also seeing shapes. It’s very, very disconcerting.”

“Shapes?” I echoed.

He nodded. “I could be wrong. I try not to focus on it so it’s all in my peripheral vision. I also try to keep my eyes closed.”

That was a terrible way to live; he needed to move. I needed to get over my disappointment about it, too. “It’s better for you to go,” I said firmly. “You’ll be happier if this isn’t hanging over you.”

“But you don’t want to leave, yourself.”

“I’m only a few months into the lease,” I reminded him. “I just got there.”

“You haven’t even settled in. You hardly have any furniture.”

“I’m not moving,” I answered. “I’m not going to live like that again, hopping from place to place all the time and never having a permanent home. It’s fun for some people, like my mom. Even my grandparents love it. They’re rarely at their apartment in New York because they’re always whirling around the world, going to parties and enjoying themselves. I want to enjoy myself, too, but in my own way. And my way is staying put.”

“You have to consider the extenuating circumstances,” Oliver told me. “If the building went up in flames, you’d have to move. This is the same thing, a problem beyond your control that makes it impossible to keep living there. Acting stubborn about it won’t solve anything.”

“I’m not acting stubborn!” Well, I was. “There’s a difference between how it’s affecting the two of us. It doesn’t really bother me.”

“How is that possible? You’re hearing strange, unexplained music coming out of your kitchen faucet. Why doesn’t that bother you?”

His voice had risen a little as he asked that and when he stopped speaking, he shook his head. “This wasn’t what I planned for our dinner. I’m sorry and I don’t want us to argue.”

“I don’t want to argue either, and I can tell that you’re genuinely concerned. But I’ve started to think that it’s special,” I told him. “I feel like I’ve been singled out—not singled, because you’re in it, too, but that I’ve been chosen for something wonderful and weird. My mom always used to talk about signs and otherworldly forces, things that we can’t explain. Except, all of her stuff was just made up, like when she insisted that the stars were guiding us to our next destination. The stars don’t move in the sky!”

“They do, but we’re very far away and our eyes aren’t powerful enough to detect it,” he said.

I stared at him.

“But I understand what you’re saying,” he told me. “Please continue.”

I did. “She was planning our futures based on cloud cover and the Earth’s rotation, and it was baloney. But this is real.”

“Is it?” He looked very doubtful.

“It is real,” I insisted. “It’s real and special.” I had been a normal woman, living alone, quietly doing my job, and now there was this. “It’s incredible and I feel lucky.”

“What if it’s a precursor to something bad?” Oliver asked me. “Maybe it’s a sign, but not a positive one. This situation appears to be escalating. First, the song was so soft that I could barely hear it. I started to understand more and more, and then came the glitter, and now the shapes? What if the next thing is something violent or harmful? We have to consider all the possibilities. It’s a bad idea to excuse something so totally out of the ordinary as ‘special’ or magical. It very well could be dangerous. I don’t want to be in danger and I don’t want you to be, either.”

“It’s a pretty song and gold glitter,” I pointed out. “It doesn’t seem dangerous.”