Chapter 4:

Olivia did sleep that night. Like a baby. She wondered why was that the case. Maybe she already had too many accumulated sleepless nights. Nevertheless, she was the first one to get up. She put her sleepers, pijama robe and started to make coffee. Today, she'll spend the day applying to jobs while she ate his brother's fridge food. She made breakfast though. Pancakes. The least she could do to show she was grateful.

Jasper exited his room suited up for work. His case at hand. He eyed the pancakes and shrugged. 'you must have been delutinal to think I would have actually been able to sit down and have breakfast with you' he said.

'I'm going to ignore you said that' Olivia answered. 'she pointed at a topperware box she had prepared. 'I imagined you would probably be in a rush so I made you some pancakes to go.' At that, Jasper genuinely looked at her appreciatively. He extended her hand and ruffled Olivias hair. 'Now, go get a job so I don't have to maintain you forever! Either that or get married and become someone else's parasite' he said as he stepped outside the door. Jasper's way of showing affection. It was imperfect, but that was all she would get. He didn't know how to show emotions. Olivia rolled her eyes.

She looked at the computer she had left at the living room. It was open and ready to go. Today would be an interesting busy day. She would have to start with defining what exactly it was that she wanted. Not only that: what exactly was it that she wanted with which she could make a living. Did she even know who she was any longer. Olivia looked down and into her hands. Jasper's appartment felt lonely. She came here partially in the hopes that her roots would help her find a direction - but her roots had all the directions she lacked. She was faced with a constant ever changing environment that would never be truly safe or hold still. Olivia grounded herself and went through some of the breathing exercises she had learned in order to control her creapling anxiety. She then walked to the living room, turned off the computer and started making plan in her a writing pad Jasper had lying around.

She wrote the whole day.

Olivia decided she didn't need to have her entire life planned out. It would be alright with having the next step. Her goal had been tu pursue a pHD, but she didn't want to go into academia, and she didn't want to practice psychology either. She was looking at the alternatives of becoming a counselor, social worker or human resources manager.

At 6:00 pm she decided she would try find Ian. Maybe she needed to make new friends now. She really only had Jasper and Ian in Seattle. She could not really count Amber yet.

Ian's phone rang.

'Hey would you care for some coffee?'

'At 6:00 pm? do you sleep?'

'no, but i thought we had already gone through that'

Ian blinked remembering their converzation from the previous day.

'right. Look, come by my office if you'd like. It may be fun to meet the team.'

'No, I dont want to. Sounds so informal.'

Ian laughed. 'It's a startup Olivia. It is informal.'

Olivia stayed quiet. Emotionally, at the moment, she needed to hold on to something that was stable. The idea of a startup did not sound stable whatsoever, and it didn't make her feel well.

Ian interpreted her silence. 'Okay let's go for that coffee.' He said.