We used to order out from there a lot—50 percent convenience, 50 percent best fucking gyros I’d ever eaten. But since I’d broken up with Neil, I hadn’t stepped foot in the Greek shop, despite doing business at my bank nearly every day and beingright next door. Subconscious thing, I guess.
“Sebby—” Neil paused and then corrected himself. “Sebastian.”
I smiled a little. “Yeah?”
“I’ve been… thinking about you a lot lately.”
“Neil.”
“I mean… it was serendipitous running into you.”
“This isn’t a ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’ situation, is it?” I asked.
Neil looked confused.
“Cab Calloway? No? Never mind.”
“There’s just some things I’d like to say to you. A cup of coffee’s worth of conversation.”
I let out a breath and consciously relaxed my shoulders. The turbulent relationship I’d had with Neil was the very depiction of what happened when one settled for what they knew in their heart was profoundly wrong for them. That being said, I put the man through hell in February. He’d nearly taken a bullet because of me. A chat over a house brew wasn’t going to kill me.
“Okay,” I agreed. I fished my cell from my messenger bag. “Let me tell Calvin I’ll be home late.”
Neil looked at the ground again as he nodded. “Still seeing him?”
“We’re living together,” I stated.
He raised his head. “Is he treating you right?”
To which I elegantly responded, “Huh?”
I admit, that was not what I was expecting from Neil. In my memories, he was still cold and bitter toward Calvin. I couldn’t blame him. We might have been wrong for each other, but hearts were still broken. The comfort and routine of Neil’s life had not only been disrupted by me meeting Calvin, but thrown on its head and then out a window.
But he silently waited for my answer.
“Uh… y-yeah. He does.” I smiled a bit serenely. “Like a prince.”
My phone rang in my hand.
“Shit. Sorry, hang on.” I raised the screen close, expecting it to read either Calvin or Pop.
It was neither.
I frowned a little and accepted the call. “Hello?”
“This is Tasha Lewis calling with Advice Line. May I speak with Sebastian Snow?”
“Oh God! That’s me. Speaking.”
“Sir, your place of business is reporting an unauthorized entry after no security code was entered. Can you confirm if this is you or an employee?”
“No, not at all! My shop is closed for the night.”
“I understand. We are notifying the police at once.”
I swore loudly and could feel myself starting to shake. I had been at the Emporiumfifteenminutes ago. It had to be the same person as early this morning. Right? Had they waited in hiding? Or was their plan to come in and make it a face-to-face confrontation, and I’d simply left work more on time than I usually did?
“What’s going on?” Neil asked, getting close.
