Page 72 of Time After Time
My mind took longer than usual to process what Sylvie had said. Maybe it was because I kept thinking about how quiet he’d been on the way back yesterday, how he hadn’t said a word about what was going on in his head. Or maybe it was because she tried to stuff the entire slice of cake into her mouth, crumbs falling onto the counter, which made me stare at her in dumbfounded silence.
“It’s weird, Sylvie. He’s been acting strange.” When she raised an eyebrow at my words, I added, “I know he has reasons not to act like himself, but there’s something more going on. I don’t know what, but... I just feel it.”
“What did he say?” Sylvie asked, taking a sip from her milkshake, ignoring the straw and drinking directly from the glass, probably to wash down all the cake she had shoved in her mouth.
“That he was going to help his mum with the new furniture.”
“Then why is that weird? It’s not like it’s the first time he’s helped her with that.”
“I don’t know, Syl.”
“Gen,” she said, pausing to swallow another mouthful of cake. “Don’t you think Cora would let him help her, even with the smallest tasks? The busier he is, the less time he’ll have, hopefully, to dwell on the internship and how his arm might… get in the way.”
I opened my mouth, unsure of how to respond, but before I could think of an answer, my phone rang, making me jump a little. Glancing at the screen, I saw Cora’s name in bold white letters, as if talking about her had somehow summoned her. “Hey, Cora!” Mr. Whiskers jumped onto the barstool next to me, his paws pawing at my arm, demanding my attention. I shiftedmy seat toward him and lowered my forehead, letting him bump his little face against mine.
“Oh, yes. Yes. Don’t worry.” At Cora’s words, my eyes widened. When I looked at my sister, she was already staring at me, curious and expectant. “I will tell him. Bye, Cora. See you later.”
“What?”
“Cora asked me to tell Sebastian he forgot his phone at her house.”
“But isn’t he...?”
“He isn’t. She asked about our picnic.”
“So… he lied to you?”
He had lied to me. I hated to admit it, but Sebastian had truly lied, and in my mind, the only question spinning waswhy. Why did he feel the need to do that? Didn’t we trust each other enough to be honest about everything?
“Maybe he is with Robert?”
I couldn’t answer, biting my lower lip as I tried to figure out why he would lie and where he could be. He didn’t have any doctor’s appointments for the rest of the week, and Cora thought he was with me, which meant he had lied to her, too.
“Oh, he isn’t there? I guess he’s on his way back here. Thanks!” My sister’s words snapped me from my trance. Glancing at her, I saw her setting her phone down on the kitchen counter. “I called Robert to ask if Sebastian was there because you had asked him to get another milkshake from the diner for me. He said he hadn’t seen him this morning, so I told him I figured Sebastian was still on his way, but I’d go pick him up myself since we don’t need another milkshake.”
I nodded, sighing, and glanced at my phone.
“What do you want to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Sebastian went God knows where without telling the three people he trusts most in the world where he’d be.” Gosh, I hadn’t thought of it that way. The realisation only made me even more worried. “You’re clearly worried, and now I’m starting to get worried, too. So get dressed, grab your sunglasses, and let’s drive around town. I’m sure we’ll find him.”
“If he’s trying to hide something... maybe we should just respect that and stay here, Sylvie,” I mumbled.
My sister gave me an intense look, but then just shrugged. “Well, if you change your mind, I’ve got Dani’s car here—fixed. He’s coming to pick it up later tonight, and I’m sure he won’t mind if I take it for a spin.” I looked at her in confusion, and she chuckled, shaking her head. “Sebastian would recognise my car in a second.”
I scoffed, smiling. How was she even thinking that far ahead?
“So, what do you say? It’s another way to see if this could be your calling.” The corners of her mouth lifted into a grin, dimples appearing as a spark of excitement lit up her eyes. “Private investigator, Geneviève St. James.”
Unable to hold back my laughter, I grabbed a cherry from the bowl of fresh fruit our mum always kept in the middle of the counter and tossed it at her. Without missing a beat, she ducked her head and caught it in her mouth. I laughed even harder, knowing that if I had tried that, the cherry would’ve probably ended up hitting me in the eye.
“And, I mean,” Sylvie leaned forward on the counter, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, though it faltered for a second. “Maybe it could be a cool memory for us. Something to hold onto from this summer before I…” She didn’t finish, but she didn’t need to. We both knew how that sentence ended. “I think we’d look ridiculously cool with our sunglasses and mysterious faces. Although,” she paused, tossing her hair back like adramatic movie star, “we’d look even cooler in my car, if you ask me. So—what do you say, Private Investigator St. James?”
“I say you’re a bad influence, Sylvie St. James.” I stood up from the barstool, slipping my phone into the side pocket of the tight shorts I wore under my sundress. “And that I need five minutes to find my sunglasses.”
Turning around, I started up the stairs, chuckling as Sylvie let out a squeal of excitement and jumped up from her barstool, running around the kitchen until I heard the jingle of car keys. But beneath the laughter, a wave of nausea rose in my throat at the thought of Sebastian lying to me. What hurt most was the silence that followed, filling my mind with questions I couldn’t answer and a growing fear that he was already pulling away, distancing himself before the summer ended. The thought of losing him before he even left terrified me.
