“You’re…oh.Oh. That’s fun. How’d you meet him? Grindr? Sniffies? What are the other ones called?”
“I’m shocked you even knew about Sniffies.”
“I do my research. How’d you meet?”
“At school.”
“Wow, the old-fashioned way. I demand a photo.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Fine. I’ll find him myself.”
“You don’t knowanythingabout him.”
“Has that ever stopped me before?”
She had a point. If becoming Queen of the Netherlands, or CEO of her own hedge fund, didn’t work out for Lotte, she could always go run espionage for Interpol or someone. She could find anyone online based on vibes alone.
“Honestly, I’ll be impressed if you found him.”
“I have five candidates already.”
“My god.”
“I’ll get back to you with my final analysis in an hour.”
“You do that.” Bash finished his cigarette and found an ashtray pillar on the sidewalk to dispose of it in. “Thank you for buying the plane tickets. I’ll see you soon. I’m going back into the restaurant now.”
The door to the pizza joint opened, and Adonis stepped out. “Hey,” he said. “I was starting to get worried about you.”
“Who’s that?!” Lotte screeched into the phone. “Is that him?! Oh, my god. That’s him, isn’t it?!”
“Hey,” Bash said, switching to English as he talked to Adonis. “My sister called me.”
“WHAT’S HIS NAME?!”Lotte shouted. “Put him on the phone!”
“But she has to go now,” Bash said loudly. “She was just saying goodbye. Doei, Lotte!”
Adonis leaned close to the phone. “Bye, Lotte! Nice to meet you! I’m Adonis—”
“BYE!”Bash shouted, hanging up just as he heard Lotte cackling on the other end.
“That’s nice of her to call you,” Adonis said pleasantly, oblivious of the danger he’d just inflicted on himself by giving Lotte his name. In moments, she would have access to his entire history.
“Yes, it was,” Bash said weakly.
Adonis looked carefully at him, and Bash schooled his face.
“Is everything okay?” Adonis asked.
Bash was tempted to say that yes, everything was fine. No need to worry! He found himself wanting to tell the truth. It wasn’t usual for him to want to be vulnerable. “It’s my dad,” he said. “He’s sick, and he’s working too hard. If he keeps it up, he’ll kill himself with this schedule and his habits.”
“Oh. Bash, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” It wasn’t okay, but that’s what you were supposed to say when things were bad, right?
“It doesn’t need to be okay,” Adonis said, taking a step closer.
