I’m about to call out to Maddy to see what she wants for dinner when I remember that she’s not here.
Fuck.
I’ve been doing that for the last month now.
How have I not gotten used to her absence yet?
She told me that I could sublease her room but that’s not something I plan on doing, not yet anyway.
If she ends up changing her mind about finishing her senior year in Italy then I want her to have a place to come back to.
Not that I think she’ll change her mind, she seems really happy over there but I want to be prepared for any outcome just in case.
I’ve forgiven her for keeping things from me and running off to Italy at the start of the summer without telling anyone but only because I ended up spending six weeks over there with her.
The hotel where we stayed was one of the nicest places I have ever been in and it didn’t cost either of us a dime.
All thanks to that disgusting piece of shit Edward Allerton.
It still blows my mind that her biological grandfather she never even knew existed tried to sell her into sex slavery and I thank my lucky stars every day for Blake.
That man is something else alright.
It turns out that he’s a detective who had been planning Edwards’ downfall for like five years or something but Maddy had no idea. He had everyone fooled when he pretended to be her buyer but he literally saved the day when he shielded her body from gunfire.
That’s right, fucking bullets.
Now that’s the kind of dedication that I want in a man.
Not to mention how fucking sexy that is.
Hearing her talk about Blake made me desperate to meet him but after everything that happened, I had to be patient and let her mom fly over and spend some time with Maddy.
As soon as I got the all clear, I was on the first flight over to Rome and I flew back the day before classes started.
Those six weeks I spent with Maddy in Italy were the best six weeks of my entire life.
Blake was everything Maddy said he was and his partner Enzo was equally as handsome but to my utter disappointment, he was married.
Talk about bad luck.
After getting over my disappointment about Maddy and I dating cops for the summer, we spent the whole time exploring the streets of Rome and travelling around Italy.
That country is fucking epic and I can’t wait to go back.
Hopefully when I do, Blake has a new hot partner who is single.
Not that I want Maddy to be in Italy for the rest of her life but I definitely want another holiday over there with her.
While we were travelling, Blake joined us when he could but his job kept him pretty busy so it was mostly just the two of us.
Not that I minded one little bit but Maddy seemed to really miss him when we travelled away from the city.
Seeing Maddy so happy with Blake was the only reason that I boarded that plane back to Boston.
He’s such an incredible guy and I can already tell that she’s falling in love with him.
I never thought I would see the day when she would move on from my brother but Blake seems to be the one she’s been waiting for.
It didn’t come as much of a surprise to me that she would want to finish her senior year in Italy considering if she came back to Boston, her and Blake would most likely break up but I still miss my best friend.
It’s not the same without her here.
I don’t even want to consider the idea of her living in Italy for good if her and Blake become super serious but if that happens then I may have to look at moving over after I graduate.
Maddy and I were always supposed to do everything together.
Where she goes, I go and vice versa but not this year.
This year we are living independently of each other.
Mom thinks it will be good for me to not rely on Maddy so much but that’s basically her way of saying that I’m too unorganized and need to get my shit together.
It’s true that Maddy reminds me to do simple things like laundry and to buy tampons but that’s just the way we are. She likes to mother me and I like to push her out of her comfort zone, getting her doing new and exciting things.
Without me she would just stay in every weekend, which is exactly what I told Blake before I left and he promised me that he would take her out and have some fun.
She sure as hell needs some fun after what she has been through and Blake has been kindly seeing me pictures of Maddy who looks deliriously happy.
Lucky bitch.
Slumping down on the couch, I pull my phone out and dial Maddy’s number.
Just when I think her voicemail might kick in, she picks up the phone. “Hello?” she says in a groggy voice.
“I did it again.”
“Olivia?” she mumbles almost incoherently.
“Yeah, duh, didn’t you look to see who’s calling?” and should I be offended that she can’t recognize the sound of my voice?
I can hear her shuffling around and I wonder if her and Blake were getting busy before I rang. “Olivia it’s like one in the morning, haven’t you figured out the time difference yet?”
“Oops, sorry.” I really need to stop doing that to her.
This time difference thing is a real pain in the ass.
“What do you want?”
Uh oh, she is not going to be impressed once I tell her that I woke her up in the middle of the night just to tell her something trivial. “I just rang to say that I nearly asked you what you wanted for dinner again. Old habits break hard, I guess.”
“Hmmmm,” she mummers sounding like she is already going back to sleep.
I can hear rustling on the other end, then Blake’s voice comes across just as groggy as Maddy’s sounds. “Olivia, stop calling in the middle of the night.”
“Sorry-”
Yeah, he hung up on me.
Don’t really blame him though.
That’s about the tenth time I have woken them up in the middle of the night.
I need to start looking up what the time is in Rome before I call. It’s just that I’m so used to being able to talk to her whenever I want, that it’s hard getting used to this new routine.
It’s not like I don’t have other friends, because I do but none of them compare to Maddy.
She’s the best.
Not feeling up to cooking anymore, I order a pizza and scroll through my selection of movies.
I end up choosing some stupid comedy to try and put me in a better mood but it doesn’t work. Neither does the pizza so I rummage around in my freezer for a tub of ice cream.
After finishing off the entire tub, I set my alarm extra early in the morning so that I can go for a run before class.
The last thing I need is to put on like fifty pounds while she’s away.
That would just be sad.
It’s not like we could have spent our entire lives joined at the hip. We were going to move on from each other eventually, I just never thought it would happen this soon.
I always presumed that she would only move out when Tyler finally got over himself and chose to be with her but now they are both in serious relationships with other people and Maddy is in Italy for the next year.
What if she doesn’t come back at all?
I never even thought about what would happen when we graduate college.
Again, I presumed that she would fly home and we would get jobs in the same city but it’s not like Blake would move over here. His job is everything to him which means if they stay together, Maddy might not come back at all.
Great, now I need another tub of ice-cream.
Maybe it’s time I finally got a boyfriend.
I’ve had boyfriends before but mostly I prefer dating as it keeps things light and easy. I like being able to explore my options but having someone to spend my nights with would be nice.
It would keep me from ringing Maddy in the middle of the night and from turning into a crazy cat lady.
Last weekend, I saw a bunch of kittens up for adoption and I was so close to adopting one until I realized how stupid that idea was.
Right, decision made, I’m going to keep my eye out for any potential boyfriend candidates and if that endeavor fails then I’ll just have to get some kind of a hobby.
Like knitting.
I could knit cute outfits for all the cats I’m going to adopt.
Shaking my head to clear my brain of depressing thoughts, I get ready for bed with a new outlook on life.
I’m a strong, independent woman and I don’t need Maddy to get through my senior year.
I can do this by myself.
But preferably with a boyfriend or as a last resort, some cats.