Olivia: The Princesses of Silicon Valley (book 7) Page 2

  “Do you have plans for the weekend?” Ethan hopefully asks.

  “Maybe Ethan can drive down to Monterey?” I comment.

  “You’re going to Monterey? Sure, I ‘ll drive you.”

  “Olivia’s not going. It will be you and me. I’ll leave my jealous boyfriend at home as we visit my suddenly overly protective, soldier, brother.”

  “Yeah, I guess I’ll pass. That doesn’t sound fun,” Ethan responds.

  Chapter 4 – Lunch with Conner

  “I’m meeting my brother on Sunday for brunch,” Meredith says.

  “I think you already told me about this. I’m glad you’re taking this opportunity to reconnect,” I respond.

  “Will you join me?” Meredith pleads as she gives me one of her sweet hopeful faces.

  “You realize that look only works on Sam.”

  “Please, I don’t want to drive three hours by myself.”

  “There’s a water polo game on Sunday.”

  “You’re going to choose to sit in those terrible seats by a pool instead of riding in the luxury of Sam’s car?”

  “You think I’d choose driving over watching water polo players?”

  “You never even date those guys. You always choose the angsty artist types.”

  “Hey, I don’t make fun of your choice.”

  “What’s wrong with Sam?”

  “Why isn’t he joining you?”

  “I need a friend, one that doesn’t raise the testosterone level.”

  “Fine, I’ll go.”

  “Why the change of heart?”

  “As you said, we can study on the way down.”

  There’s something going on. I figure with three hours in the car, we can actually talk it out. Before we go I should stop by my psychology professor’s office. A little amateur analysis might be what’s called for.

  ***

  Meredith picks me up in Sam’s Toyota. She’s playing her favorite iPhone mix. “Music or studying?” I ask as I settle my books between my feet and place my coffee in the cup holder.

  “Let’s get on 280 before we start school work.”

  “Togo’s again?” I question as we reach Monterey.

  “Hey, I know where this place is, it fits my budget, and it’s a nice day. I thought we could get a sandwich and head down to the ocean for a picnic.” We walk into Togo’s and look around, Conner’s not yet here. “Let’s get our sandwich while we wait.”

  “I thought army guys were punctual,” I comment as we wait on the bench.

  “They probably are punctual to army things. But sisters probably don’t rate.”

  My eye catches a big guy in army fatigue jogging down the road. I point, he waves.

  “Let me get my sandwich, I’ll join you in a couple of minutes,” he calls out as he jogs into the store.

  “Hey GI Joe, do you think we can eat by the water?,” I ask when he joins us with his drink and sandwich.

  “Let’s go,” Conner responds. The three of us head down the block.

  “Conner, what are you studying?” I ask on our way to the ocean.

  “Arabic.”

  “Are you fluent?” I ask him in Arabic. “Have you learned the good words yet?”

  “You speak Arabic?” he answers in Arabic, with a strong American accent. “Where’d you learn?”

  “I was raised by my Syrian grandmother,” I answer in English. “She grew up in Damascus, my family’s always been there.”

  “You speak Arabic with a Syrian accent?”

  “When I’m with my Syrian family, I do. When I’m in Israel with my Palestinian family, I speak with that accent. “When I’m in Israel with my Jewish family, I speak Hebrew, but it’s not that fluent. The Israelis usually switch to English as soon as they hear me butcher their language.”

  “Trilingual,” he nods with approval.

  “Her French is also pretty good,” Meredith interjects. “We practice together.”

  “It’s only schoolgirl French. Now that I’m living in California I wish I’d learned Spanish.”

  “They want us talking and ordering in the language we’re learning. I should call you up, so I can practice my Arabic over the phone,” Conner confides in Arabic.

  “Your vocabulary is pretty good, but your pronunciation is all over the place.” I respond in English. “There’s a big difference in accents. Each dialect is different, like the difference between Scottish and American. Though I find once you get used to hearing a dialect, it doesn’t sound that different.”

  “It would be helpful if my ear was tuned to the Syrian dialect.”

  “Are you planning on running missions to Syria?” His face goes completely blank. Wow, I was kidding around, I wasn’t expecting a reaction.

  “How far are we from someplace nice to sit?” Meredith questions.

  “There’re some picnic tables by the water.” Conner points to a grove of trees.

  Our lunch conversation is casual and pleasant. Afterward we walk along the ocean.

  “I wasn’t kidding. I really do need to practice my Arabic over the phone. Would you mind if I called you?,” Conner asks as he walks Meredith and I back to Sam’s car.

  “That would work. Have you learned all the swear words yet?”

  “I think those are the only words I know. I’d like to get a little more conversational and to get used to the accent.”

  “What’s your number?,” I ask. “This way I’ll actually answer my phone,” I flirt as I type it in and call him.

  “Were you flirting with my brother?” Meredith questions as we start driving away.

  “Why would you even care?”

  “You’re my best friend and he’s my brother.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Olivia, you don’t need to add my brother to your entourage.”

  “He needs to practice his Arabic over the phone.”

  “That better be all.”

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on here? You’re the one that wants a chaperone to visit your own brother.” She shakes her head and continues to drive. “Okay, your choice is tell me what’s going on with your brother or we can study?”

  “Study.”

  “You should know by now that you can talk to me.”

  Meredith doesn’t respond, all her focus is on the road.

  “After my mom died, dad hired Laurie to help out,” she finally says.

  “Laurie, your evil step monster?”

  “Yeah, she quickly moved from doing the laundry to doing my dad. Three months later she was pregnant and installed full time in our house. Conner was angry. He had a few arguments with Laurie, and the next thing you know he’s moved to my grandparent’s farm. I hardly ever saw him after that. It’s like my mom died, I lost my brother, and my dad moved on with his new family. I was always so afraid to say anything to Laurie. I didn’t want to be banished to the farm. Conner said he would protect me. But I never saw him. Then he took off and joined the army.”

  “You have to know that there was not much he could do. He too was busy surviving.”

  “At some level, he’s a stranger to me, almost an enigma. He was kicked out of the house when I was eleven; he left for the army when I was fourteen. But, he never tried to help me. He never was there for me. I lived in that house like a border. I was always afraid that they would kick me out too. When I needed someone, where was he?” A tear rolls down her cheek.

  “Meredith, he was a teenager, who lost his mom, and was kicked out of his house. I think he was too busy trying to survive to help you. If you want a relationship with him, I think you need to forgive him.”

  She nods. I sit back in my seat. My family has issues, but it’s always been the rest of the world trying to cause havoc with us. My parents have always been the place I’ve gone for support and refuge. It makes me realize how lucky I am and how hard it would be if I didn’t have that.

  “I guess we should study,” I comment after a long silence.

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “I’m always right. But am I right about forgiving your brother or studying?”

  “It’s not like speaking all your issues and irrationalities out loud to a friend makes them go away,” Meredith contends.

  “Josef Breuer did call it the talking cure,” I reply.

  “Yeah, I remember that lecture from Psych 101. Though I think maybe Adler and Jung are a little bit more to my liking.”

  “Actually, I think your anger is focused on the wrong person. You should lighten up on your brother; he seems like an interesting guy.”

  “Don’t go there Olivia, I have enough drama with my brother. You can’t get involved with him.”

  “Meredith, what’s wrong with him practicing Arabic with me? Anyway, it’s not like he’s my type.”

  “Really? In some ways, he’s exactly your type. Promise me you won’t add him to your entourage.”

  “I’m not going to add your brother to my entourage.”

  “Scouts honor, promise me.”

  I hold up two fingers. “I promise you. I won’t add your brother to my entourage.”

  Chapter 5 – Max has an Idea

  “Hey Max,” Meredith calls out in greeting.

  “We haven’t seen you around,” I comment when he joins us as we comfortably sit in the shade.

  “What are you up to?” Meredith questions.

  “I’ve been working crazy hours with my advisor to fine tune my nanobot. I think I’ve figured out a twist that will let it work much more effectively than current applications.”

  “What’s a Nanobot?” she asks

  “They’re a micro-sized sensor that can be flushed into a system and provide a reading. My solution is focused on water systems to search out leaks.”

  “
Wow Max, I had no idea you were so entrepreneurial,” I flirt. “Are you looking for funding?”

  “Yeah, as a matter of fact, there’re lots of VC’s buzzing around our lab. If I can solve some of the technical issues by the end of this quarter, I bet I can get funding. One of the other guys in my program just got ten million.”

  “They gave some guy in grad school ten million dollars to turn his science project into something real?” Meredith gasps.

  “Meredith, that’s why people come here. If you’ve got your act together, you can make it big.”

  “I thought you were contemplating going for your Ph.D.?” I exclaim.

  “If I can get ten million in funding for what I’m working on, why would I waste my time finishing school? Zuckerberg, Gates, Ellison, and Jobs didn’t even finish undergraduate school.”

  “Yeah, but for each guy who makes it big without finishing their education, there’re thousands who don’t make it big, and they’re left with no job and no education. If the VC’s like your idea at the end of the quarter, they’ll like your idea at the end of the school year. That way you’ll have your masters and the ten million,” Meredith cautiously advises.

  “You’re never going to get anywhere unless you think big,” he replies.

  “You realize I’m going into genomics,” Meredith responds. “I don’t think you can get smaller than that.”

  “But you better have some big ideas of what you’re going to do with genome or you’re going to spend the rest of your life counting protein pairs.”

  Sam, a medium height, nicely built, good looking Hispanic guy, joins us.

  “What’s up?” he asks after giving Meredith a quick kiss.

  “Max was telling us he’s hoping to get VC interest for his thesis.”

  “Good luck with that. They say funding’s getting tight.”

  “They’re always saying something. If you have an idea they're looking for, they’ll find the cash.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “I’ve decided that I do want that coffee,” Meredith pronounces with this innocent voice she uses when she wants to change the conversation.

  Sam pops up and extends his hand, while Max extends his hand to me. I take it with a smile. Max tries so hard. It’s kind of fun to throw him a bone every once in a while. He has all this bravado over thinking big and has all this confidence of getting funding. He reminds me of an engineering version of Kanye West.

  “You were getting flirty with Max,” Meredith confides as we head to class. “Have you changed your mind?”

  “Max is interesting. He doesn’t annoy me, but…whatever.”

  “Why do you bother giving him any hope if you’re never going to throw him anything more than a bone?” Sam questions. “That poor guy is trying so hard.”

  “Hey if I give him a reason to be successful then doesn’t it make me his muse?”

  “That’s where you’re going with this?” Meredith says.

  “You like toying with your entourage,” Sam declares.

  “Hey, he came over to me. It’s not like I’m chasing him.”

  “Yeah, but you always give these guys just enough encouragement that they think they might have a chance,” Sam confirms.

  “They’re legally adults. If they weren’t getting something out of this, they wouldn’t be hanging around,” I justify.

  Chapter 6 – Phone Call

  My phones alarm jars me as I study. Only my mom and my grandmother call me, and it’s not either of their tone. I pull away from studying to peer at my phone. “Conner” is displayed in bright letters. My face feels hot in anticipation.

  “I take it you really do want to chat,” I answer in Arabic

  “I need to work on my phone skills,” his deep base voice rumbles back at me in broken Arabic.

  “Do you need experience talking to women?” I flirt back at him.

  “Well…um…I haven’t had many opportunities to speak Arabic to any woman. In Iraq they were usually dressed in bee suits and you don’t want to be the cause of some young woman getting offed by her family.”

  “Your vocabulary’s good. I think you said almost everything in Arabic.”

  “It’s hard processing what you’re saying. The accent isn’t what I’m used to.”

  “For some reason I thought you were stationed in Afghanistan?”

  “I was.”

  “Then where did you learn Arabic?”

  “I also got to spend some time in the Middle East.”

  “Well then, I guess I’m lucky that they sent you for Arabic training, since I wouldn’t get to talk to you if you were sent to learn Pashto,” I flirt.

  “Do you know any Pashto?” he asks.

  “Only that Pashto and Farsi are what Afghani’s speak.”

  “To bad, I could use someone to help me keep up with my Pashto.”

  “When did you learn Pashto?”

  “When I was in Afghanistan, that’s when I realized I had an ear for languages. The other guys were still stumbling over basic words, while it took me about three months to be conversational. Our squad stopped using an interpreter, since I could communicate directly with the locals.”

  “That’s impressive.”

  “I think what you and my sister are doing is impressive. She wants to go into genomics. I had to look it up in Wikipedia to even know what she was talking about.”

  “I’m not nearly as impressive as your sister. I’m only studying to be a doctor.”

  “You’re both saving lives.”

  “Says the American hero.”

  “I’m far from that. Before the war started, did you ever go to Syria?”

  “Not Syria in the Middle East, but every Sunday morning during the school year, I’d go to Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn with my grandmother. That’s the unofficial headquarters of the Jewish Syrian community. Grandma and I would get off the train, stop at Mansoura Bakery, pick up Maamoul with dates, Candied Pistachios, Sambousek, and Greybeh. Then we’d go to my great Aunt’s house for brunch.”

  “Your mom never went with you?”

  This gives me pause. Conner understands about broken families. Maybe this is how I can get him to talk to me about Meredith. “Her decision to marry my dad was…let’s just say it caused arguments. Mom would join us sometimes. My brother hated going, sitting around listening to all the old people talk, it drove him crazy, while I loved it.”

  “Yeah, I get family drama.”

  “Did you have big family dinners on Sunday afternoons when you were growing up?”

  “When my mom was alive, we would go to my grandparents. Once she died my dad and his family stopped visiting.”

  “Did you see Meredith very often after you moved to the farm?”

  “Did your family cook Mediterranean or American food?” Conner finally answers.

  “Both of my parents worked crazy hours. My grandmother raised me. She picked me up from school, took me to after-school activities, and made us dinner. So yes, she always spoke Arabic, and she always cooked Middle Eastern food. Did you enjoy Middle Eastern cooking when you were over there?”

  “At first, it was strange. But I learned to like hummus and tzatziki, actually, all the guys got into kebabs. In Afghanistan, I ate a lot of Naan, kebabs, and rice. Yeah, the food was surprisingly good in the Middle East. Now I prefer it to the casseroles I grew up with.”

  “So the stereotype of Midwesterners eating casseroles is true?”

  “I can’t talk to all of the Midwest, but that’s what my grandma would make. It seems like a long time ago. Some other person’s life when I think about living there.”

  “Have you been back?”

  “Once, nothing had changed except me. I’ve called back a few times. My dad and I have a difficult relationship. I was close with my grandfather, but he died.”

  It leaves me cold thinking that he has no real home to go back to. Then again Meredith never goes back either. Mom and I are continually texting. I can’t imagine what life would be like without her.

  “Hey Olivia, it’s been nice talking to you. Do you mind if I call you again?”

  “Sure, it’s a nice break from schoolwork…but I have to tell you, just talking about Middle Eastern cooking has made me hungry. I’ll have to get Sam to take me off campus to Orems, they make great shakshuka.”

  I hang up the phone. My roommate Jennifer came in somewhere in the middle of the conversation.