Drop Dead.

David and I saw each other regularly and I was rarely in the apartment anymore. I think Melanie was starting to miss me, though, but I thought nothing of it. As heartless as it was, I had a life and she was getting a taste of her own medicine. I rarely saw Oliver as well, unless it was when I was working and he came in for his usual four o’clock black coffee or if we passed each other when David was taking me out.

We spent a lot of time taking walks downtown, getting coffee, and window-shopping. He told me about his life in Ireland and the family who lived there. He had four siblings, all girls (Hannah, Margaret, Lila, and Daniella), and his parents (Marcus and Lillian) were divorced. His father immigrated to America while his mother stayed in Ireland with her daughters. He visited them regularly. Apparently his father remarried to an American doctor named Rosa and they had one child on the way.

“I’m still uneasy about it,” he spilled to me in his thick Irish drawl. “I mean, he’s having a babe with a woman who’s not me mother. It’s just all a bit strange and unfamiliar.”

I nodded and sipped my coffee. I knew where he was coming from, but I swore a long time ago that family was a topic I’d stay away from. My family had a history of rough divorces and numerous affairs and it was embarrassing to talk about, especially when everyone I went to school with knew every little detail of every affair. They all had teased and tormented me about having a fucked up family, which even I knew, and it made my entire school career a living hell. So as soon as I left, I stopped talking to and about my family. I haven’t heard from them in years, and I was hoping to keep it that way.

“What about your family?” David asked, as if the gods were spiting me. I glanced upwards towards the ceiling and sighed. Idly, I twirled my coffee mug in my hands.

“Um, that’s not something I like to talk about,” I told him honestly. Rather than call me out on being unfair since he had to talk about his family, he simply smiled and didn’t push me any further. Our conversation took a quick turn into hobbies and I told him, shyly, that I had a minor obsession with Super Smash Brothers, hence Oliver and I playing it non-stop whenever he waited for Melanie to get ready.

However, that tradition stopped when David came along, and I couldn’t lie and say I didn’t miss it. I did. I missed Oliver in general. I missed greeting him at the front door when Melanie asked me to get it. I missed his staying over and trying to remember how to work the coffee machine. I miss tracing his tattoos as he walked around the apartment shirtless, as if he owned the place. I missed his attitude and his I’m-angry-at-the-world persona. I just missed him. The television hadn’t been used in weeks, not since David and I first got together. The apartment was basically a dead zone, empty almost every night due to its inhabitants always being out and about.

It felt strange to go out every night with David. I was so accustomed to sitting alone in the apartment, making TV dinners and watching crappy movies on Lifetime that being out at nine at night felt alien.

David was interested more in being outdoors than staying inside – most likely the reason he decided to take me out to the park after we’d finished our coffees. He told me of a few camping trips he’d been on with his friends, how they went hiking and lost track of the time and had to climb down the mountain in the dark. He’d traveled across Europe to Germany, Italy, and Greece. He rode horses on the beaches of Spain and went fishing in Italy’s Adriatic Sea. Although it sounded as if he were bragging, I knew he was just excited to tell someone new about his travelling experiences, and I was more than willing to listen.

He came back to the apartment with me, where Melanie and Oliver were huddled up together on the couch watching the Saw saga. I offered to make popcorn while David settled in on the loveseat and Oliver followed me into the kitchen. I was all smiles as I bounced around, throwing the packet of popcorn into the microwave.

“Yeh look ‘appy,” he observed with his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall. I sent him a smile and did another little jig.

“I am happy,” I told him honestly, finalizing it with a nod. He grinned and chuckled when I almost tripped over my own two feet.

“Good. Yeh deserve it. ‘Specially when Mel and I aren’t around to keep yeh company.” There was still a bit of a sting whenever Melanie was brought into the conversation between Oliver and me, but it wasn’t as prominent or as painful as before.

“Thanks, Oliver,” I said to him, staring him in the eye. A small smile twitched at the corners of his mouth but then it was gone. I was too preoccupied in my own little world to really think anything of it.

I didn’t remember ever being as happy as I was as I cuddled up with David on the loveseat, munching on popcorn. Every so often, Melanie would look over and coo quietly, thinking I hadn’t heard her. But I did every time. And every so often, I’d see Oliver turn his head and look at us, but he wasn’t smiling when he did it. Once again, I thought nothing of it.