Besides, I started hating being alone after Olive. She tends to haunt me the most when I’m alone. It got so bad at one point that the only way I could get any sleep was with a stranger lying next to me.

“How long are you in town?” Mallory asks when I hand her a shot of tequila.

“Well, I was supposed to leave tonight but now I’m not sure. I have some things to work out with the bank.”

“The bank is closed,” she says, taking a sip.

“Yes, I know.” I give her a nod. “I can’t do anything until tomorrow.”

I move a few inches closer to her and put my glass down.

She looks up at me.

I press my lips to hers and she kisses me back.

We are hungry for each other and our clothes come off one by one.

I lose myself in the moment until she whispers “Eric,” the name I gave her.

When I glance at her below me, her face disappears and she becomes Olive.

4

Olive

When we disappear…

In the mornings, I dress in layers, which I slowly shed throughout the day.

I wake up around eight and after half an hour of lounging in bed, I get dressed and go on a walk. There are tall mountains right outside our house, one with a peak of about ten thousand feet.

The neighbors told me that in the winter, it’s covered in snow and down here in the valley the temperature is still in the seventies and the sky is as blue as it has ever been.

Palm trees line my two mile walk since almost every house has one or two in their front yard. This is an older part of the city, meaning that it was built up in the 1950s and the architecture is what they call mid-century modern.

All of the houses, including ours, are one level, about two thousand square feet, some much more. The backyards come with ample green space with hedges to ensure privacy from prying eyes. The majority also have pools and hot tubs.

The ceilings inside are relatively tall but not as cathedral-like as the ones in the older house back east. We have a vaulted ceiling in our rental with a big window looking out onto the street outside. The place is furnished with low to the floor mid-century style furniture to complete the look. Just about the only thing that makes it feel like it’s 2020 is the sixty-inch television mounted on the wall.

After my walk, on which I say hello to at least five dogs and their owners, I get straight into the pool.