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I sighed, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and getting up to pad into the kitchen.
I needed coffee before we could have the rest of this conversation.
“I just got up, Grandma,” I said, holding the phone between my shoulder and ear as I put water in the coffee maker. “Can we do this later?”
“Nope.” She sounded annoyingly chipper and pleased with herself. “I gave you a little time to come to your senses, but you and Boone are both stubborn, so now I’m stepping in. Call him.”
“And say what?”
“How about something like, hey, dickhead—what’s your deal? Did it ever occur to you I might want to come with you and get a job at Vanderbilt? By the way, do you love me or not?”
I was so startled at her use of the word dickhead, the phone popped out from where I’d had it wedged, nearly landing in the sink as I flailed to catch it. “Jesus, Grandma, you know I just got up,” I muttered, stifling a laugh.
“What, you think I spent my life in hockey arenas and never heard the word dickhead?”
“No, but I’ve never heard you use it.”
“It isn’t usually appropriate. In this context, it is.”
I adored this woman.
I’d won the fucking grandparent lottery with her.
“I don’t know what to say or do,” I admitted. “Because even if he did ask me to go with him, I don’t have a job in Nashville. Yes, Vanderbilt is there and potentially an option, but we don’t know that they have openings, much less whether or not they’d want me.”
“There are labs and such there, too,” she said. “And frankly, you’re both young. Things can change, no matter what the current plan is. Maybe he’ll get an offer that’s too good to refuse. Twenty million for one year in Vancouver.”
“Grandma—” I started to protest.
“Iknowit’s not feasible,” she said, snickering as if she’d amused herself. “I’m exaggerating about that, but I’m not exaggerating about the fact that life happens. For all he knows, his brother could get the same offer in Tokyo. Or his sister might meet a man and move to Arkansas. While his parents decide to retire to Florida. Right now, the plan is Nashville. Great. In five years, it could all change. Trust me on this. Life has a way of throwing curveballs.”
“I understand the point you’re making, but it actually makes it worse for me, not better.”
“Why? Because if you get a job and five years’ worth of experience under your belt at Vanderbilt, the people at UCLA wouldn’t want you? Your PhD isn’t linked to one city or state. Would you stop making excuses. Do you love him or not?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Oh, but it is. Answer the question, but answer it thoughtfully, using both your heart and your brain. Take a minute.”
Did I love him?
Enough to move to Nashville and then to Vancouver or Tokyo or wherever life took us, no matter what it did to my career?
I didn’t have to think that hard.
I did love him that much.
I loved him more than anything.
And just because I was comfortable here, and I’d probably get comfortable wherever I landed next, the truth was I could be a scientist almost anywhere.
The lab experience I’d gotten during grad school and the papers I’d already published left me in a good position professionally. Nothing was guaranteed in life, but that was the whole point. Life could and most likely would throw me a lot of unexpected options, and the one thing that needed to be constant was the people in my life.
No matter where I went.
I could foster long-distance relationships if I made them a priority.
Friendships didn’t have to end because the current situation did.
