The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Nineteen

"That guy is something else," Oliver says.

Oliver and I head back out to the porch, each with a glass of whiskey on ice. He plops back down in the chair he was in before, and I sit back on the couch.

"You're telling me?" I laugh humorously. "I am so sorry you had to see all that."

"Don't apologize for him, Kinz."

"I'm apologizing anyway. It was humiliating that you saw all that as if I wasn't embarrassed enough around you already."

"Embarrassed around me?"

"Have you seen you?"

"Seriously?" He questions.

"Uh yeah, seriously. Were you not just at the same meeting as me?"

"Yeah, and so what? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. We've known each other since we were in diapers. We've been through tantrums, bullies, glasses, braces, and everything else. Hell, we even took baths together."

"And later on, showers." I can't help it. I have to, and I make myself giggle as I say it.

"Kinsey!" He laughs as his cheeks flush red.

"Now, who's embarrassed?" I tease, and he pulls a face at me.

We both laugh and then sip our drinks as silence falls over us.

"I don't get it," Oliver says after a moment.

"What?"

"Julian. He's self-centered, rude, manipulative, and obsessed with money, Oliver rattles off. "What were you doing with a guy like that?"

"He wasn't always like this," I explain to a doubtful-looking Oliver. "Yeah, I know, people always say that, but in this case, really, he wasn't."

"We met in college but only started getting to know each other in our junior year. He was in my dorm and always the one throwing the parties. He was very popular, every girl wanted to date him," I recall. "But unlike all his friends, he didn't date at all. He and I became friends over breakfast at the college cafe one Sunday morning. I'd always go home every weekend, well, almost every weekend, and that weekend I didn't. Instead, I ran into Julian when the rest of the world was asleep, and we sat and talked for hours that day about everything."

Even you... I don't add. I wasn't totally over Oliver when I first met Julian; I was past the depressive, can't go on stage, thanks to Hunter and our summer road trip at eighteen, but I wasn't over it, I was just moving along with my life.  Going through the motions. Talking to an someone outside of the situation did help though at that time. 

"Turns out the reason he didn't see anyone at school is he and his high school sweetheart were attempting long distance," I continue." But they'd just broken it off, and he was feeling down. We ended up chatting every day that week."

I look over to see Oliver listening intently as he sips his drink.

"Is this too weird to talk about?" I ask before I get into the romantic part of it, I figure I better.

"A little, yeah," Oliver admits. "But it's okay; we're in our thirties. Of course, we've had other relationships since each other."

Right... meaning so has he. Maybe even a few? Well, look at him, Kinz; of course, he's had relationships. Has he ever been married? No ring, but that doesn't mean he isn't with someone; he's got to be pretty sought after in New York.

"Go on," Oliver encourages, thankfully pulling me from my scattered thoughts.

"So, after a few weeks, Jules asked me out, it was sort of out of the blue, and I almost said no, but–"