Page 9 of The Grump and the Second Chance

Theo

Good to catch up the other day. Want to meet up on Thursday?

The text message was unexpected. Theo hadn’t realized Seb even had his phone number. They certainly weren’t close enough to be meeting up multiple times a year. Hadn’t they socialized enough last week?

But then, Theo had drifted away from most of his school friends over the last few years.

He didn’t keep up with any of them really, and he’d let himself drift away without meaning to.

Seb, he supposed, had been changed by being in a relationship. Perhaps he was happier than he used to be, or at least less sullen, now he was getting laid regularly.

Still, it would be odd to see him this often, and Theo couldn’t help but wonder if Seb pitied him. The thought annoyed him.

The way Seb had been talking about making his relationship work had been buzzing around in Theo’s head. How did a self-important ass like Seb Rafeli know anything aboutrelationships? Especially things so profound that Theo was stilling thinking about them a week later.

So, despite himself, Theo agreed to meet up.

By the time Thursday arrived Theo wished he had made his usual vague excuses, or simply ignored Sebastian’s text. His bad mood deepened when Seb texted him to meet him at a certain address. He hadn’t agreed to go to some auction with the man.

Theo’s scowl stayed on his face all morning, even as he sat down in the back of the auction hall, wondering why he’d bothered coming. He should have canceled, he should still cancel, before Seb arrived and forced him to stay.

He picked up a glossy catalog from the empty seat next to him.

Seb probably wanted to come here to buy a gift for his girlfriend. He sneered as he flicked through the pages. It would be even more of Seb rubbing Theo’s face in his happiness.

Theo stopped at the sight of a large dinosaur skull. He hated dinosaurs, and he didn’t understand why anyone would care about long extinct species that had nothing to do with anything. Dinosaurs, he firmly believed, were completely irrelevant.

He went to flip to the next page, but stopped himself.

This was the exact attitude that had cost him Mena. She might be gone, but he could still grow. He was not so stupid to ignore lessons in life.

“Ah, there you are!” Seb said, far too loud, as his hand fell on Theo’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Theo grunted, looking up briefly and then going back to the dinosaur skull. “Have you seen this?”

“Hmm. Oh, you like that one, do you? T. rex skull.”

Theo gave him an incredulous look. Seb was far too boring to buy something for any other reason than financial gain.

“Louisa told me that dinosaur bones are the new thing. Good investments.”

“Dinosaurs?” Theo said skeptically.

Seb nodded, before looking around, trying to gauge the crowd. The hall was fairly full, most of the seats were taken although some people were standing against the wall, their phones in their hands, ready to bid on the behalf of third-parties.

“Hmm. That one is expected to go for over five million.”

Theo snorted. “I had no idea anyone would want to own one.”

“I was thinking about putting in a few bids for the ones on the next page.”

Theo turned the page. These were the types of fossils that Mena used to happily talk about for hours.

Just like Seb had reminded him last week; Theo had enjoyed listening to her being passionate about the subject she loved. She’d reel off the long, complicated scientific names of dinosaurs, her tongue wrapping around the strange words with ease. Then she’d explain how paleontologists could work out details about how dinosaurs had lived their lives by some bit of a bone or another, and comparing them to modern animals with similar bones.

Theo had loved listening to her - right up until he realized that her interest was taking her away from him.

“What on earth would you do with it?” he said, jutting his chin at the familiar looking fossils.

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