Page 13 of Sebastian

I held my breath, waiting for an answer. The silence persisted so long that for a moment I thought the line had disconnected.

Nope. Still connected. There was just no noise coming from the other side of the line. Not even the sound of breathing.

Finally, after several agonizing moments, Bastian responded. “All right. I can meet you. Name a place and I’ll be there.”

The moment I heard those words, part of my brain drifted off into the clouds. I gave him the address of the first coffee shop I thought of close to the hospital, and we agreed on a time and place to meet. When it was done and I hung up, I stared at Frankie in shock.

“He said yes.”

Frankie hummed and rolled his head back and forth on his shoulders. “Well, technically you didn’t actually ask him out. You asked him to meet you. There’s a difference.”

“I don’t care.” At this point, I was practically shouting. “He said yes. After everything I did, he still said yes. Oh my god, that means I’m going to have to talk to him. I... I... I can’t think about this right now.”

There was only so much emotional whiplash my mind could take in one day, and I had reached my limit. I needed to not think for a while.

Turning on the game console attached to the television, I picked up one of the controllers and tossed the other to Frankie. “Here. I need a second player for this new game I just got.”

Frankie looked at the controller, then looked at me, then back at the controller. I could see the wheels turning in his head.

“Fine.” He relented and reclined back against the couch to face the screen. “But we’re not done talking about this. We need to make a plan. Date outfit. Conversation starts. Things like that.”

“Plan later. Games now.”

In the end, I got a few hours of reprieve to let myself recover from the excitement of the day. By the time we got back around to discussing my upcoming sort-of date with Bastian Roth, I was actually feeling more excited than nervous.

Well, no, that was a lie. I was still mostly nervous, but there was excitement as well. The good kind that made my stomach feel fluttery.

When the next day rolled around, and I opened the door to the coffee shop, my fingers couldn’t stop twitching. There wasn’t even any caffeine in my system yet, and I already felt over-energized. Especially, when I looked across the coffee shop and saw Bastian’s familiar figure sitting in a chair on the far side of the room.

Seeing him there, I realized I’d made a mistake in my choice of coffee shop. I hadn’t been thinking clearly and just picked my favorite place. Cool Beans had once been a comic book shop. The place almost went out of business until the owner got the idea to turn it into a coffee shop decorated with nerdy memorabilia. It even still sold comics along with coffee and pastries, and a line of vintage arcade machines stood along the back wall waiting to eat people’s quarters.

It was a place where I felt comfortable, and a place where someone like Bastian Roth absolutely did not belong. Dressed in a long black coat, flatteringly tight black t-shirt, black jeans, and fancy leather boots, he looked like the hero of a spy movie who had accidentally wandered into a kid’s cartoon.

I was also really regretting my choice of outfit. Frankie had insisted that I wear the clothes I liked best. It would make me more comfortable, and there was no point in presenting a false persona. I’m a weird little nerd, and Bastian needed to be aware of that from the start.

It had sounded so logical when Frankie was explaining it, but now, looking down at myself, I felt a bit ridiculous. The orange rain jacket was already loud enough, but then I’d paired it with a lilac shirt that didn’t match at all.

The worst offender, however, was my hat. It had been a gift from my grandmother for my sixth birthday. The crochet creation had been made to look like a chipmunk, with big cartoon eyes and furry little ears. It was my favorite for rainy days because the two paw-shaped flaps on the side kept my ears warm.

I’d felt comfortable when I left my apartment, but seeing Bastian sitting there waiting for me, a new wave of embarrassment left me feeling hot and cold at the same time.

Well, too late to turn back now. All I could do was charge forward.

First, however, I made a quick stop at the counter to pick up a drink and several pastries. When all else failed, I could always rely on stress eating to cheer me up.

“Hey,” I greeted as I sat down in the seat across from Bastian. “Thanks, um... thanks for meeting me.”

He nodded, tipping his half-finished drink at me. “I should be thanking you. You’re the one bringing me the info I need.”

Right. The reason we were here. This wasn’t really a date. Just an exchange of information.

Caught up in the excitement of meeting with Bastian again, I hadn’t actually looked at the DNA results. I pulled the file out of my bag and flipped it open on the table so we could both see the contents.

There, written right at the very top of the first page, was the answer Bastian had been waiting for.

0% match.

The John Doe lying in my hospital was not the brother of Bastian’s client.

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