“I took lots of notes and when I went home, I got to work. I started researching as much as I could about the industry. I read a lot of books, I realized that I could totally write this kind of book, and I dove right in. There were a lot of other things involved in the process as well. I had to learn a lot about marketing and advertising and things like that, but it started to work. When I got started, I thought just like that author. I was like, if I could just make thirty grand a year doing what I love, that would be enough to keep going.”

“And now…you have that huge house!” I say.

I immediately want to take it back because of how crude it comes out but she laughs.

“My husband quit his job and he does a lot of the financial parts of the business. But yes, after a lot of books and a lot of hard work, we were able to buy that amazing house.”

“Your parents must be so proud,” I say.

“I don’t talk to them. I haven’t talked to them for many years after your birth and I only briefly reconnected with my mother before her death. They aren’t part of my life and I will never take a penny from them. My siblings can have all of that.”

17

Olive

When I realize that I’m a bad friend…

Josephine and I talk a lot about school and how much we both enjoy learning.

I tell her about majoring in mathematics and how much I enjoyed the subject in school but not once I got out into the real world.

I tell her the truth about everything except for what happened over the last year of my life.

I don’t know her well and I don’t trust myself to dump everything that has happened with Nicholas and Owen into her lap. I’m afraid the drama would make her run away from me.

Instead, I just tell her the basics.

I tell her about Owen and his past. I tell her that I dated someone named Nicholas but we broke up. I tell her that my ex-boyfriend’s private investigator found her information and I wanted to come here and take a little break from work and find her.

When she asks how long I’m staying, I say at least for a few more weeks.

The word ‘ex-boyfriend’ still hurts when I say it out loud.

It feels like he has barely been my boyfriend and now he’s already an ex that I’m supposed to get over. When I share this with Josephine, she says that it’s important to take some time to focus on myself, otherwise my baggage from my old relationship will leak over into my new one.

A new relationship? Wow, what a novel idea.