Swedish Love

“Go meet a nice Swedish boy!” my host mother called out to me. It was my second week in Sweden. I was twenty-three, and enjoying my stay. Officially, I was there studying their health care system for my master’s project. In truth, I wanted to travel and have an adventure. “I’ll see what I can do,” I called back.

Three months earlier I’d had a dream. It was on Valentine’s night, after having a party with my single, and not the least bit bitter (OK, maybe a tiny bit) female friends who also did not have dates on this annual night of relationship-status reflection.

(Cue dream-land music) I was taking a bus (no one I knew took the bus in Los Angeles, but it’s a dream, so work with me here) to a nightclub. I walked in, and saw him. He was someone I felt I knew, and was handsome, in a good-person way that makes you just want to smile. I was so happy that I immediately hugged him. He took my hand, and led me outside. In my journal (yes, I did write this down) I describe it as a French courtyard with cobblestones and window boxes with flowers. He leaned down and kissed me, one of the most romantic kisses I’d ever had.

I looked up and saw three moons in the sky. “Wow!” I exclaimed, “Look at the moons!” as if three moons in the sky weren’t that unusual.

When I awoke, I was smiling. I felt happy and hopeful.

Maybe the guy I’d just met at a dance club a few nights back was the one! That annoying voice in my head reminded me that the number he gave me, upon urgings from his friends, had been the wrong one. I called it four times. For some reason, he hadn’t called me. I checked my message light just to be sure. Still not blinking.

I told a friend about the dream, and she said that three moons mean three months. “Three months?” I whined. “I don’t want to wait that long. And anyway, I’ll be in Sweden.”

However, three months and two days after the dream, I was on my way to a pub with a new Swedish friend. She was bitter about a recent breakup (some things are universal) so we chose a place where she wouldn’t run into her ex.

We sat outside at a table for four.