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And then I caught myself.
This was only one date. And it was with someone many years younger than me. It was a generational difference that had sunk plenty of previous relationships. Even with our talk, things could change quickly. I couldn’t get too carried away. My feet had to stay planted directly on the ground, and my head had to stay as far from the clouds as bloody possible.
Which, in reality, was an impossible feat.
My head was already far past the clouds. My vision was already flooded with stars. Constellations shining as bright as exploding suns, and they all seemed to spell out a singular name:
Oliver Brightly.
14Oliver Brightly
Two Weeks Later
The sun was shining bright through all my open windows, filling my apartment with light. The tall glass vase holding the flowers Beckham had brought me was sitting on my coffee table, the arrangement of pastel roses and beautiful orchids always catching my eye whenever I walked by. The pink roses matched the pastel pink TV almost to the exact shade. I thought about making some room on my rainbow bookshelf for them but figured I wanted the flowers front and center on the coffee table.
The flowers were such a sweet gesture, they made me happy just looking at them. I gave them an appreciative whiff, taking in the delicate scent, feeling like a full Disney princess in that moment. I half expected a pigeon or something to fly in through my window, but then I realized it would have to break through the screen barrier and figured that would be startling for all parties involved.
So, actually, Ixnay on the Disney princess thing.
With my fill of flowers, I got back to cleaning my apartment, finishing up with a quick wipe down of all the dusty surfaces. My apartment was a blast of color and fun, which happened to be the same way I enjoyed to live. There was a bright red focus wall and my hand-painted bookshelf with a different color on every shelf that popped right off the wall. I had a life-size cutout of a smiling Steve Irwin holding up a baby crocodile, propped up by a small tower of veterinary medicine books. The rug underneath the coffee table was also an eye-catcher, having come from Africa and woven with navy, pinks, white, and tan fabric. It was given to me by a woman who had brought her puppy in as an emergency. I was in the clinic that night and saved the pup’s life, and she gifted me the rug a week later saying it carried good energy.
I don’t know about the good energy, but I sure as hell knew it was soft as heck and felt really great under my feet.
Mason and Jar both watched me from the top of their cat tree, the two of them cuddling as they observed their walking food dispenser. I gave them both quick kisses on the head, the Flonase I had pumped into my nose two hours ago making me immune to the effects of some cat hair finding its way into my system.
“All right, boys, I think that’s as clean as it’s going to get.”
I surveyed my living room, spotting a lone sock underneath the gray couch. After grabbing it and tossing it into my room, where the proper place for random one-sockers was, I heard a knock at my door.
“Just in time,” I said to myself, crossing my living room and opening the door.
“Hey, boo!” Kiley was standing in the hallway, still wearing her dark blue scrubs, a heavy backpack slung over her shoulder. Beside her was Milan, also wearing his scrubs and leaning a little because of how heavy his backpack was.
“Sup, guys! Come in, come in.” I stepped aside, my friends walking in and dropping their hundred-pound bags on the floor, the entire apartment shaking. “Were you guys at the hospital?”
“Been there since seven this morning.” Milan sounded tired. He went straight for the fridge and grabbed one of the Red Bulls he had left for himself. I was more of a tea kinda guy, but Milan liked the hard stuff.
“And now we get to spend the night brushing up on the endocrine system in large animals!” Kiley sounded as excited as someone lining up to get their mug shots taken.
We settled in around my kitchen table, each of us taking our usual study spots. I had laid out a tray of chips and pretzels only fifteen minutes earlier, and it was already down to the crumbs by the time I sat down and opened a text book. Thankfully, being in our fourth year, our daily work consisted of getting hands-on experience. We’d each taken different rotations, all lasting four weeks each, in the different specialties of animal medicine. I was working on my small-animal medicine clerkship this month, which I happened to genuinely love.
It didn’t take long until Kiley got bored and started humming a random song, her way of announcing that she was ready to talk about anything but the words that formed alphabet soup on her page.
I took the bait. “Soooo… I’m seeing Beck again.”
Kiley’s book slapped shut. Milan sat up a little straighter, looking as if he had been sleeping with his eyes open. “No freakin’ way, Olly. What are you guys gonna do?”
“He’s coming over tonight. I’m going to be cooking, and then we’ll probably just watch Netflix.”
“Mhmm, and ‘chill’?” Milan threw in.
“Oh yeah, plenty of chilling involved.”
Kiley oohed, a hand covering her mouth. “This is getting into ‘serious boyfriend’ territory, isn’t it?”
I shrugged, trying to play it as nonchalantly as possible. Meanwhile my insides were twisting around like they were dancing the Macarena. “We’ve been talking pretty much every day, and we’ve gone out on four dates now. Each one’s better than the last, you guys.”
A series of knocks interrupted my dreamy-eyed fawning. I got up, Mason jumping from his cat tree and bouncing over my way. He seemed a little disappointed when he realized I wasn’t heading for the cat food cabinet and instead was walking toward the door.
