“What?”I mouth.
“Them,” he mouths back unhelpfully.
My shoulders go up in a silentAnd?
“Hey, have you seen that girl around?” Bradley asks his aunt.
I hold my breath.
“You mean the one who can’t be bothered to fix her hair? A handsome young man like you could do a lot better than that, Bradley.”
“Not around here.” He laughs at his own joke.
Maybe I should set up a dating profile on one of the apps:Looking for someone under 65? I’m your gal!
Felix points at me and then in the direction of the approaching footsteps. I shake my head, not getting it. Now he’s pointing at himself. What are we, commandos? I roll my eyes.
He holds up three fingers, as if this is the ideal time for charades. No, wait— He’s counting down, finger by finger. Three, two, one… I squeeze my eyes shut, convinced he’s about to pull the old “someone’s coming, let’s pretend we’re kissing” trick.
When nothing happens, I open one eye to see Felix stepping out from behind the suit of armor. What the hell? I reach for him, but it’s too late. Bradley and his aunt are rounding the corner. I shrink farther back, until I can barely see Felix leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Just a dude, chilling in an empty corridor with his bag of cashews. As one does.
He cups a hand over his ear like he’s in the secret service—or hiding the fact that he’s not wearing AirPods—and pretends to laugh at whatever his imaginary caller said.
“Yeah. No. I know.” He laughs again. “For real.”
My mouth is hanging open. I can’t help admiring the boldness.
“Hey there,” Felix greets Claude’s sister. “Nice weather we’re having, eh?”
Apparently, the character he’s chosen to play is Canadian Tourist Dad.
“The weather is the same every day,” Bradley grunts, stopping a few paces short of my hiding place. “Let’s go out,” he says to his aunt. “You can buy me lunch.”
And people say chivalry is dead!
“Have fun,” Felix calls after them, when neither bothers to say goodbye. I count to thirty before joining him.
“So,” he says.
“So,” I echo, thinking maybe he’s going to shake me down for some quick cash now that I owe him.
“That’swhy I haven’t seen you around.”
It doesn’t escape me that Felix noticed my absence. Then again, as Bradley so graciously pointed out, I am the only youngish female in the vicinity. “That’s one reason.”
“Among many?” he guesses.
“I’m complex like that.” I’m not sure this is true, much less something to brag about, but talking to Felix is like table tennis. I have to hit something back across the net.
He frowns in the general direction of the lobby. “I guess he’ll keep coming around, huh? Since she’s going to be here for a while.”
“Seems that way.” Someone must have told him about theterms of Claude’s will. This place is like a funnel when it comes to gossip; you can slow the flow, but it trickles out eventually.
“Maybe we should teach him a lesson.”
I pivot to face him. “Like… manners? Or were you picturing more of a karate smackdown?”
Felix looks intrigued. “You do martial arts?”
