Neverending

13

This is what I love about Juliette. She's really interested in people. Sure, she can be acerbic to the many, many assholes that Lincoln seems to be crawling with (and I suspect being a beautiful woman attracts a special, bolt-on extra percentage of them). But she so easily shifts from person next to you on the Flex to vulnerable human within seconds. It takes only a teensy bit of investment from someone and Juliette is there, heart open. Always listening.

She just always makes the time.

This world we live in... Everything's just so damn fast. Information: instant. Assistance: constant. Entertainment: endless. People rush and they rush and they pause for milliseconds to broadcast their thoughts before throwing their stuff down the recyce chute and running straight to City Mall to replace it.

I mean, I'm literally surrounded by idiots.

When I started to get to know Juliette, I started to understand what shared values meant. Yeah, it's the sort of cliché you hear in every relationship Acoustalk. But bear with me, here. I'm a twenty-seven-year-old guy with almost no girlfriends in his back pocket. Up to that point, shared values to me very much meant, she likes nachos but she also likes Sci-Fi (though that still sounds like an excellent basis for a relationship, if I'm being honest) (which may be why I have almost no girlfriends in my back pocket).

So the fact that Juliette felt nothing but apathy towards thought broadcasts, Genetrix and our embarrassingly outdated consumerist culture meant that I was half in love with her by the time we finished that first bowl of ramen. As we talked, I felt time slowing down – I think partly because being fascinated with someone can do that but also because Juliette's manner is just so... expanse. She takes her time with words. She doesn't seem aware of spaces where words could be, the pointless overloading that people tend to do with voids they feel the need to fill. Everything she says seems considered.

Me? I just blurt out whatever's in my head. Call it naivety, call it an over-excited inner voice – I'm that open book guy.

After lunch, we took a walk uptown, past the library and Ferne (I didn't know it at the time but this was going to become one of the cornerstones of our relationship). The sun felt warm on my skin. I took in how fresh the air felt. I watched the edges of the leaves green against the brilliant sky as we walked past the arboretum.

'That colour,' I said, pointing towards to sky, 'it's called Celeste.'

Juliette's pace slowed.

'Celeste is the ultimate sky colour. When there's no dust or too much humidity or whatever.' As I said it, I wondered if I was sounding every bit the geek that I actually am.

'Is it really called that?'

I'm relieved.  She doesn't seem horrified at my random science fact.

'It is. I love that colour. I studied physics for eleven years but I still don't actually know what makes the sky blue.' I half laugh, not sure if this sounds stupid. But as I do, a realisation settles over me: I've spent my young adult life auditioning for women. Trying to be smart. Trying to be funny. Trying to be sporty or whatever. But with the woman walking next to me right now, I realise I don't want to audition any more. I want to just be me and see how that lands. I've just raised the stakes but I honestly can't see any other way to get to know this person in the way that I want.

Juliette pauses, then looks up.

She grabs my hand.

'Follow me!' She says and turns back down the street.

So I follow her.