August, 2016

Ingrid lay spread-eagled on her bed, tangled in thin summer sheets. It was so fucking hot. Her mood always suffered from the heat. She'd been awake for several hours, had scrolled through all the possible social media updates and now stared at the ceiling as if it held the answers to all of life's burning questions.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. Her head turned in that direction, then she flipped over so she could reach for it. Propped on her elbows, she read the message from Oskar, one of her former university lovers, inviting her to an outing he was in charge of as a student volunteer. Sommeruni was underway and he had to look after the international students during the free time activities.

He felt she would be a valuable addition to their evening of public drinking. Ingrid felt the same.

This newfound purpose to her existence gave her the strength to get out of bed and make breakfast. She scrambled a couple of eggs with two handfuls of cheese and bacon and dug into it straight out of the pan, with chopped tomatoes as a side dish on a nearby plate. For dessert, she mixed herself a boozy frappe from two sachets of instant coffee and a shot of Irish cream. The hours that remained until she had to begin getting ready were spent binge watching some gory show on Netflix.

Oskar messaged her a reminder two hours before they were due to meet in Treptower Park, to pump themselves full of beer and wine on the bank of the river Spree. Ingrid texted back a confirmation that she was on schedule. She wore her lightest summer dress and pulled up her hair in a loose, messy bun, which fully exposed her shoulders and her collarbones. Nevertheless, she packed both a breezy shawl and an umbrella. And a change of underwear, just in case.

When Ingrid made it to the particular spot in the park, Oskar and his cohort of doe-eyed students had already popped open the beers and were passing around a bottle of wine. He waved as he saw her approach and welcomed her with a hug that lasted too long for Ingrid's taste, given the heat.

"Hey, everybody, can I have your attention for a minute, please? This is Ingrid," he put his arm around her shoulders and the crowd murmured a half-hearted slow-motion 'Hi Ingrid' in unison.

"Ingrid is one of the most international people I know, which is why I asked her here tonight. She's Romanian, like some of you here, I think." He scanned the crowd to see if he could spot the students in question. Cheers and whistles erupted from the back of the group. "There you go!"

"Hi!" Ingrid waved at them.

"She did her bachelor's in London," Oskar continued, "and just finished her master's here with us in Berlin. I think she did some time in New York and Amsterdam as well. Right?" He turned to her for approval.

"Wow, you're saying it like I went to prison or something."

Collective laughter made Oskar reconsider his word choice. "You spent some time in New York and Amsterdam."

Ingrid nodded appreciatively. "And Denmark and Hamburg and Sweden."

"Like I said...very international. So," Oskar grabbed a beer bottle and popped it open for her, "if you're nice to her, she'll answer your questions in any of the following languages: English, German, Romanian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch...Spanish?"

Various exclamations of amazement arose from the group.

Ingrid shook her head. "Oh, no, my Spanish is...rough around the edges to say the least and I only know enough Danish and Dutch to order food and find a toilet. As for my Swedish, it's basically non-existent. So...English and German, please," she smiled.

Oskar helped her mingle with the crowd, introducing her separately to some of the students and refreshing her acquaintance with some of the volunteers. They'd met when they were both freshmen—except Oskar was just starting his bachelor's degree and Ingrid her master's. Their relationship was brief but passionate, as most of Ingrid's relationships tended to go, and a bond remained.

He was about to start his final undergraduate year, a responsible young man, clever and confident, with sparkling future prospects. When Ingrid had first laid eyes on him, she'd had to coax him out of his shell. Now he was doing the ice-breaking himself, making sure everybody felt welcome, safe and included.

More than once throughout the evening, Ingrid caught herself staring at him with a strange sense of pride. Somewhere in the back of her head the thought sprouted that she had made him. She had given him all that radiant confidence. Those people skills. She shook her head and smiled into her beer bottle.

"What?" the boy next to her asked out loud.

"Sorry?" She re-focused her attention on him at the last moment.

He couldn't hold her gaze. "What were you smiling about, I mean."

"Oh, nothing, I...I just remembered something about Oskar, is all."

"You've known each other long?"

Ingrid shrugged. "Couple of years."

"Right."

Ingrid finished her beer and went to ditch it on the pile of empty bottles. She grabbed fresh ones for her and the boy. "Dale, was it? Oskar told me you're staying on with us after this."

"I am, yes."

"Erasmus?"

"Yup."

Ingrid gave him one of her best smiles just to see him blush a bit. He was the same age as Oskar, a little younger maybe, but he hadn't grown out of his awkwardness yet. It must have been that baby face. He was tall and slender, looked athletic, but his cheeks were a bit full and his eyes were wide and blue and innocent.

"I got two placements, myself," Ingrid said, "first in Amsterdam, hence the Dutch, then in Copenhagen, hence the Danish."

"That's really impressive," Dale said, visibly awed.

"Thanks, but like I said...my language skills are conversational at best. Plus they're both sort of similar to English and German so I got the hang of it pretty quickly."

"What about New York? How did you get there?" Those baby blues of his glittered with excitement and admiration.

Ingrid sat down on the grass, with her legs crossed at the ankles. She leaned back, supporting herself on one hand, while the other held the beer bottle. "I spent my summer working there, after my first year in London. Made some connections and got to go back after I graduated. Don't get me wrong, New York is awesome, but..."

She pointed to his beer with her own. "You know, what we're doing right now, it's pretty much illegal in NYC."

Dale quirked an eyebrow. "What, drinking?"

"No, public drinking. I once wanted to bring a bottle of wine to a picnic in Central Park and my American friend who I was going with was like...you know that's against the law, right? I'm like...really?"

Ingrid drank from her beer, as if in spite of New York's public drinking laws.

"After three years in three major European cities—I spent a month in Hamburg, by the way—New York didn't have much left with which it could impress me enough to stay. Did you know the Dutch first colonized it and called it New Amsterdam? Then the British took over at some point. It was renamed after the King's brother or something. King of England, that is."

"I seem to remember something of the sort, yes," Dale said quietly.

"Sorry, I always like to point out that little historic snippet because I moved to New York after I'd lived both in London and old Amsterdam. The irony is usually lost on most people. Do I talk too much? I think I must be tipsy."

Dale didn't have time to put a word in, but he didn't seem to mind anyway. It looked like he enjoyed listening to her.

"So eventually I came to Berlin, which is like...an affordable version of New York, where I can also bring wine to a picnic in the park."

Dale laughed. "Fair enough. Wine is primordial."

"Couldn't have said it better myself. Cheers."

They clinked their bottles and sat on the grass, watching the sun set. When the dark began to deepen, Oskar reminded his flock of their public transport possibilities and announced his retreat.

"You're free to join me to the station if you'd like or you can stay out for the rest of the night as far as I'm concerned, it's up to you. Just be sure to behave and pick up your litter, all right?"

Various little groups had already broken off and left a long time ago, a few people now chose to stay behind in the park, while Dale and some others huddled together to walk with Oskar to the station.

"Can I take you home?" Oskar asked Ingrid, in such a way that no one would hear.

"Isn't that why you asked me out here in the first place?"

Oskar cleared his throat. "Not necessarily. I wanted them to meet you, a live example of all their opportunities out there. I wanted them to hear from somebody who's done... things, so they could think about doing things themselves."

Ingrid watched him with a grin of delight plastered on her face. "Take me home, then."

"Okay. Let's go."