Later that night with Brian

"Slow down, Liv. What are you going on about?"

Olivia took a deep breath. She stopped in her tracks and turned to look across her kitchen. There stood Brian, sweet, patient, friendly Brian. Boring, simple, quaint Brian. Brian who couldn't get away from work the day before to take Olivia out for her birthday, but who was desperately trying to make up for it now.

"Which part?" Olivia asked.

Brian wiped his hands off on a dish rag. He had been chopping vegetables, stirring some kind of sauce, and was probably too focused on dinner to hear the entirety of Olivia's story -- yet on the other hand, Olivia had been talking about a hundred miles a minute since he had arrived twenty minutes earlier.

"Liv, whatever's bugging you, I'm here for it, but I ... I don't think I understand. Something you saw on Twitter?"

"No, TikTok. Twitter's not even Twitter anymore, it's --"

"I know, it's X, whatever." Brian turned back to the sauce and stirred. "So what, this morning, at work ..."

Olivia steeled herself to repeat it all again. "This morning at work, the guys were watching a TikTok of some story that someone found on some website, and the main character had the same name as a guy from work, a guy I know, a guy who was there, who also saw the video, and yeah, yeah, yeah, but what was super weird was that the story was so close to something I had been thinking about the day before."

Brian stopped stirring again, cleaned his hands, and walked over to Olivia. He clasped her hands in his own, and looked her straight in the eye. "Liv, is this because I missed your birthday yesterday?"

Olivia threw down her hands and let go of Brian, exasperated. "No! It has nothing to do with that. Or with you. It was --" She stopped. "Okay, you don't understand, maybe because I'm leaving a part out. Look. Two nights ago, I got home late from work, I was in bed, and ... well, you and I never really talk about this sort of thing, but whatever, I might as well lay it all out there. I masturbate. Sometimes. A lot, actually. Usually in bed. Or the shower. It doesn't matter. Point is, two nights ago, I was in bed, and I was masturbating, and I was using a vibrator, and I was thinking about all sorts of things, and -- please don't get upset, because it's not anything, it's just -- I was thinking about this guy from work. Don't get upset! I'm not cheating on you, I just ... think about things sometimes. I promise, I wasn't cheating on you. I just ... this guy, I was thinking about him, and it was sort of like a little sex dream, just a fantasy, just a thing in my mind while I was masturbating. And then today at work, they were all looking at this TikTok, and I'm dead serious, but the story was exactly like the things I had thought about."

She stopped, and stared at Brian. He had been stirring his sauce the whole time, but was now staring, open-mouthed, at Olivia.

"That's the story." She paused. "Are you going to say anything?"

Brian swallowed. "Um," he said slowly. "That was a lot to take in all at once."

Olivia stifled a laugh. She wanted to make a 'that's what she said' joke to break the tension, but it didn't seem like the right time.

"Let me see if I understand." Brian put down the spoon. "You were touching yourself --"

"Masturbating."

"Masturbating. You were masturbating. Two nights ago. And you pictured a guy from work. A guy you haven't slept with. And then today, on Twitter --"

"TikTok."

"TikTok. Today, on TikTok, there was a video --"

"A screenshot. A picture of a block of text."

"A screenshot. And it was a story. And the story was similar to what you were picturing when you were touching yourself."

"Masturbating."

"Masturbating. Yes. That's basically it." Olivia thought about it. "Not similar."

"What?"

"Not similar. It was identical." Olivia softened her tone and stared at Brian. "It was identical. I mean -- the guy at work, Tyler."

"Oh, Tyler," Brian said, drawing out the name.

"Do you know him?"

"No," Brian quipped. "But now that he has a name, I'm immediately more jealous of him."

"Stop!" Olivia waved her hands in the air. "That's not what we're doing right now. In the story, the guy's name was Tyler. Tyler Jones. He was a tall, thin, Black guy. He had a dimple on his cheek. He was reading A Court of Thorns and Roses. I mean -- to the detail, it was the same thing."

Brian shook his head. "I don't know, Liv. I mean -- could you have read the story the day before or something, and it was in your mind?"

"That's what I thought!" She got excited again. "I thought that too, but I don't think so. The TikTok thing was dated today. But it was a screenshot of something from before that, of course -- but when? What was it even a screenshot of?" She stopped and spread her hands out as if discovering the answers to the universe. "What was it even a screenshot of! That's what I need to know! Find the screenshot source, and things become clear again. Right? Right."

Brian smiled and chuckled a little. "Liv, I'm -- I'm still pretty confused by all this. But I'm here for you." He looked at the stovetop. "And dinner's ready. Are you hungry? It's chicken parm, some mixed vegetables in a butter wine sauce, some potatoes with sour cream and chives."

Olivia looked around, not at anything in particular, but just feeling generally satisfied. "Yes. Yes, I could eat dinner. I could eat a lot, in fact. I don't think I've had anything at all since coffee this morning. I'll tell you, sweetheart, this video, this screenshot -- it kinda messed me up. But I think I'm doing better now. I think I have a plan."

"A plan?"

"Yes. I'm going to find the source. Easy. I'm going to just do a search online for some of the words, and I'm going to find out where it came from."

"Easy." Brian served up two plates of the various items he'd prepared. "But after we eat?"

Olivia nodded. "After we eat."

"And after ... a little dessert?"

"Did you bring dessert?"

"It was your birthday yesterday, honey. Of course I brought dessert. It's a chocolate chip cookie cake, just needs to be warmed in the oven. In fact, I should put it in now." He extracted the cake from a bag on the counter, unpacked the cake quickly and set it on a baking pan. He slid the whole thing in the oven and set the temperature.

"A cookie cake." Olivia smiled. Brian was a good guy, even if he was a little dull. And perhaps a little dull was a good thing, considering the events of the morning. "I like a cookie cake." She scurried over to him and gave him a sweet kiss, and a brief embrace. "Let's eat dinner."

Brian nodded, and carried two plates to the table, pushing a few things aside to make room.

Olivia watched him. admiring his efforts to soothe her, to bring some calm into her world. He's a good guy, she thought. Then she laughed to herself. That's what I say about my cat too, sometimes. He's a good guy. It's probably not great that I have similar opinions about my cat and my boyfriend, is it? She laughed again, this time more out loud.

Brian turned. "What's so funny?"

Olivia shook her head. "Nothing. Let's eat."