Page 165 of When In Doubt

I pull at a loose thread in my sweater. “He’ll come.”

“Freya.”

“He’ll come,” I protest.

“I think we’d have heard by now if he was just running late.”

“Then maybe I should go to the station?” Oh god, why didn’t I think of that before? Maybe he’s hurt? Maybe something went wrong on a callout?

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” She reaches out and takes my hand. “If there was a problem, then surely his mom would have called, like last time?”

God, I don’t know if I can go through that again. “She might have forgotten?”

“She would have called,” she says more firmly.

“Okay.” I nod, trying to calm my breathing. She’s right. If there was actually something wrong, then I would have heard about it by now. Hell, in a town like this, half the restaurant would be talking about it already. “I’m going to text Valerie, just in case.”

“Good plan.”

The waiter brings by our wine and pulls out his notepad, ready to take our order. I look up at Luci with a panicked expression but she just takes a quick scan of the menu, ordering a pasta dish for each of us. She knows me well enough that she’s able to predict my orders with an almost scary level of accuracy by now. Thank you, I mouth. She gives me a wink.

I tap out a quick message to Valerie.

FREYA

Do you know if Oscar’s okay? He was supposed to meet us for dinner but he hasn’t shown.

Her reply comes within seconds.

VALERIE

I’ve not heard anything. No news is usually good news, but I’ll try calling him

FREYA

I tried, I couldn’t get an answer.

VALERIE

I wouldn’t worry, sweetheart. He’s probably just running late

FREYA

Yeah, probably.

“She’s going to try calling him,” I say, placing my phone face up on the table, just in case.

“I’m sure everything’s fine.” Luci reaches over to give my hand a squeeze.

“I’m just worried about him.” I prop my elbows on the table and lean my face into my hands. “He’s not been himself.”

“Yeah, he did seem kind of out of it last night.”

I brush away my bangs, which have fallen in front of my eyes. “He wouldn’t tell me what was happening.”

“Maybe he just needs some time to process?”

“I don’t know,” I say. The last few days have been so confusing, I have no idea what to do about any of it. “I just want to help him, but I don’t know how.”