by Cara Bastone
“Fin! Your phone’s blowing up!”
“Who is it?” Fin called back from the bathroom.
Via flipped over the phone and checked the display. She blinked and set it down, taking a step away. Her hand felt tingly where she’d touched the phone. For some reason, her stomach was clenching. “It’s a text from Sebastian Dorner.”
Apparently, he’d made use of the contact information Via had forked over. She glared at the coffeepot. Seriously, what the hell was taking it so long? She contemplated leaving her coffee maker on the curb and going to buy some ridiculously expensive chrome contraption from Sur La Table.
Yeah right. Via had had to psych herself up for three solid weeks to buy herself a pair of fifty-dollar gold studs. There was no way she was blowing half a G on a coffee maker. She talked herself off the ledge.
“So, you’ve been texting each other?” Via called, slicing the melon on her cutting board just a tiny bit more forcefully than she usually did.
“A little. Will you read it out loud?” Fin called back.
Via sighed. “Can’t you take a bath at your place?”
At least twice a week, Via woke up in the morning to find her best friend luxuriating in her tub.
“You know my bathtub leaks. Read the text!”
Via gritted her teeth and unlocked Fin’s phone, her heart softening. Fin used the same pin code as she did. 1885. Their address at Jetty’s house. It wasn’t fair to be snippy with Fin just because she was getting texts from Sebastian. There was absolutely no reason to get weird.
“He says, ‘Serafine, I’m so, so sorry to text this close to when we’re supposed to meet, but my son came down with strep yesterday. I’m not comfortable leaving him until he’s feeling better. Can we reschedule?’” Via set the phone down and kept carefully cutting melon. So, apparently they’d made breakfast plans together. “That’s true, by the way. He had to race Matty to the doctor straight from softball yesterday.”
“Text back, ‘Feel like company? Via and I could bring by some breakfast for you.’”
“I’m not texting that!” Via slid the melon into the bowl and started dicing mango.
“Why?” Fin shouted back, her voice echoing from the bathroom and down the hall. Via’s neighbors probably hated when Fin came over for bath time.
“It’s pushy. I’m sure he doesn’t want guests over right now, and I wasn’t invited along on your...date in the first place. It would be so weird for me to show up.”
“Look, Violetta, either we can take the long way, and I can slowly convince you that it’s fine, or you can just trust your psychic friend that this is all going to be just fine, okay? Text him.”
Via didn’t respond, but she did send the text. Fin could be a pain in the ass, but she was usually right about these things.
It was less than a minute before Fin’s phone vibrated again. Via picked it up and cleared her throat. “He says, ‘Actually, that would be great. I have two friends over to see Matty, and neither of the bums thought to bring anything to eat. Is that too many people to feed?’”
“Text back, ‘Be there in forty-five minutes with breakfast in hand. Feel free to kick us out whenever you want.’”
Via chuckled and sent the text and then picked up her own phone, just as a new text from Evan popped up. She clicked out of the message without reading it and went into her text strand with Seb from last night. She smiled at it. He was funny.
Hey, Fin tells me we’re coming over. Does Matty need anything in particular that we could pick up on the way?
She clicked back and read the text from Evan. He was visiting his parents upstate and obviously very bored. Just got a new high score on QuizUp! She could think of exactly zero things to say back to that.
Seb texted back, and she immediately read it.
His royal highness has requested a Nintendo DS because he’s ‘sick and deserves one anyways.’ Do not get him that. I repeat. Do not come here with a Nintendo DS. Some tissues would be nice.
Sounds like he’s feeling better ;)
Modern medicine, am I right?
Her fingers paused over the keys before she exited out of the text strand and instead called Evan. He answered on her first ring.
“Hey, baby.”
She smiled at his smooth baritone. So familiar. “Hey.” She regretted fighting with him yesterday.
“Whatcha up to?”
She cleared her throat. “Fin and I are visiting a friend from school for breakfast. That guy you met at the farmers market? Sebastian? Well, his kid got sick, so we’re gonna go visit.”
“That’s nice. You knew him from before, right? You had Matty in pre-K?”
She felt a burst of love for Evan. He’d always been a good listener. She had so many students and so many different stories about them. It really was kind of remarkable that he could keep track of all of them.
“Yes. Right before I met you, actually.”
“I remember how worried you were about the kid. His mom had just died?”
“Yeah.” Sadness crept into her voice. “What are you up to this morning?”
She could hear some clicks and pings in the background that indicated he was probably still playing QuizUp while they were talking.
“I’m just hanging out until noon, and then I have a meeting with my dad’s friend from work. Remember, I told you about that?”
“Right!” How could she have forgotten? She’d been wanting to help prepare him for this meeting. It was really important that he got it right. “He’s going to try to pull some strings to get you hired on as a paralegal in BK, right?”
“I guess.”
His noncommittal tone had her stomach sinking. He could come across as very aloof if he wasn’t interested in something. She didn’t want his dad’s friend to think he wasn’t serious about getting a job. “Do you have your résumé with you?”
“Yeah. Look, babe, I really have to jet. You wanna talk more later?”
“Sure, there was just one thing I wanted to say. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry we fought yesterday.”
“Apology accepted,” he replied without any hesitation whatsoever.
Via paused. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant.”
“Right. Look, let’s talk about it tonight, okay? Love you.”
“Love you,” she answered faintly as the call clicked off.
She heard Fin pad, barefoot, into the kitchen. But she didn’t turn around. She didn’t want to see the expression that she knew was going to line her friend’s face. Via caught sight of herself in the shiny toaster. She only had to look at herself to see it in full force.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SEBASTIAN DIDN’T ANSWER the door to his little brick two-story house. The most beautiful woman that Via had ever seen answered the door. Maybe thirty-five years old with a symmetrically perfect face and rivers of long blond hair, she grinned at Via and Fin and waved them inside.
“Hi, I’m Mary, Seb’s friend. He’s with Matty right now.” The woman stepped aside in the small foyer, her rust-colored sweater dress and high-heeled boots looking so cool that Via almost winced. “And this is Tyler.”
Mary pointed through the doorway into the homey little living room toward a man who was setting aside his phone and rising from a plush armchair. He had an easy smile on his face that completely froze in place as he looked up and saw Via and Fin.
All three women waited for Tyler to say something. Anything. But he didn’t. He just continued to stare straight at Fin.
“Uh...” Mary started.
“Whoa,” Sebastian said, as he stepped into the living room from the kitchen entryway, drying his hands on a paper towel. “Weird vibe in here.”
He tossed the paper towel back into the kitchen, and Via saw that it banked perfectly into his trashcan.
“Hi, Via, Fin. We
lcome.” He stepped over and in turn, took each woman by an elbow, leaned down to kiss her cheek. Via felt the rough scrape of his stubble, the brief press of his mouth, and she froze as stiff as that Tyler guy. She couldn’t remember if any man had ever casually kissed her cheek like that before. It was strangely old-world. And charming.
“This is Tyler Leshuski and Mary Trace, two of my closest friends. Did everybody get introduced?”
“Yes. Yeah. Uh, sort of.” Tyler came unfrozen and stepped toward the women, his hand held out. He was cute, if a little preppy, in his khaki pants and polo shirt. His blond hair sat high up off his tan forehead and his eyes were so blue they could give you a toothache. He also had the strangest, slightly stunned expression on his face. He took Via’s hand first. “You must be Via DeRosa? I’ve heard so much about you from Matty.”
She nodded. “Nice to meet you. And you, too, Mary.”
Via turned back just in time to see Tyler holding his hand out toward Fin, almost tentatively, almost like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to touch her or not. “And you are...”
“Serafine St. Romain,” Fin answered, one eyebrow halfway up her forehead in an expression that only someone who’d known her as long as Via had would interpret as delight. She’d flustered Tyler somehow. And it was tickling her. She eyed his hand for a second longer than necessary before she pressed her elegant, ringed fingers into his.
Tyler jolted, and looked for a second like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to yank her forward or push her away.
“Let me help with your bags,” Mary said, breaking the tension and giving the fairly awkward group a task.
Breakfast. Time to set up breakfast. Thank God.
* * *
* * *
“HOW’S MATTY?” VIA ASKED as she stood hip-to-hip with Seb, unloading groceries onto his kitchen counter.
“He’s all right, slept through the night. I can tell the antibiotics are already doing their thing. Weirdly, he’s not complaining about his throat being sore. It’s the aches and chills and stuff that are bothering him. Wow. You brought a lot of food.”
Via grinned up at him and Seb ignored the zinging flare up his elbow when her shoulder brushed him there. “I’m Italian. We bring food. Lots of food.”
He laughed. “It’s a good philosophy. It’ll make you friends.”
Via shrugged, her smile dimming just a little, and Seb wondered if she had many friends. People at school really liked her, so he didn’t think it was a matter of being prickly. But she definitely had a lonely kind of vibe coming off her.
They filled their plates with bagels and spreads, fruit salad and pastries galore. They sat at Seb’s dining room table, and he cracked the windows, letting the crisp fall breeze filter over them as he poured everyone a cup of coffee.
“So,” Serafine began as she tore her bagel up into little pieces and dipped them in the nearest tub of cream cheese. “How do you all know one another?”
Sebastian had been about to sit at one end of the table, between Mary and Via, but he realized, with a little jolt, that this was supposed to be a sort-of date with Serafine. It felt a little strange to sit down next to her, at the head of his table. Public and a little declarative. But whatever. He wasn’t going to be an asshole and pretend like he hadn’t made a coffee date with her. Seb glanced around the table as he settled himself in his chair and saw Mary’s curious gaze, Via’s eyes steadfastly on her plate, and strangely enough, his gaze clashed with Tyler’s. His best friend since childhood had an expression on his face that Seb had never seen before. What the hell was wrong with him? Sure, Fin was pretty, gorgeous even. But Tyler was acting like Cleopatra herself was gracing them with her presence.
“What’s that? Oh.” Seb tried to focus himself to answer the question. “Ty and I met in kindergarten. We’ve been best friends ever since. And Mary...” Was best friends with my wife? Was Cora’s friend from college? Helped scrape me off the sidewalk after my wife died? “...and I became close a few years ago when she moved to Brooklyn.”
“I own a little shop in Cobble Hill called Fresh. It’s a home goods store. Furniture and kitchenware and things like that. Design-y stuff.”
“Oh! I love that shop!” Via’s eyes lit up, and Seb had to hope that this was the point when this breakfast hang became a little less awkward. Everybody besides Serafine was acting like they were here against their will. “You had a window display there a few months ago that I lusted after.”
“With no shame,” Fin added in that deep Southern lilt of hers. It was musical, like a slow-moving river descending into waterfall. “She was a real home goods hussy for a while.”
Mary and Seb laughed.
“Which window display was it?” Mary asked.
“You’d set up the front room like a little living room. With that lavender suede couch and the metallic pillows. Oh! And the—”
“Peacock-green copper-based lamp. Oh, I remember. I had trouble parting with that set. Everybody wanted to buy it, but I wanted it for myself.”
“As I recall,” Seb cut in, “you ended up keeping that lamp for yourself.”
“Not true!” Mary was outraged, gesturing toward him with the melon at the end of her fork. “I just had you make me another one exactly like the first.”
“You made that lamp?” Via’s eyes were wide and amazed. “I thought you only did furniture.”
“I made the base.” Seb waved his hand through the air. “Mary chose the shade. I’ve made a few lamps and chandeliers. But I don’t love all the electrical components. Shocked the shit out of myself a few times while I was working on the wiring.”
“Can I—we—see your workshop after breakfast?”
“Oh. Sure. It’s not much to look at, but yeah.”
Mary was opening her mouth, probably to smoothly introduce another line of conversation—bless her—when a bell tinkled from the other side of the house.
Seb dropped his head in his hand and grinned. “I knew I never should have given the kid a bell. I feel like a butler.”
But Via was the one who was pushing out of her chair. “Can I go? I wanted to say hi.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind? I wouldn’t want you to get sick.”
She shook her head. “I wanna see him.”
“All right. Down the hall, first door on your left.”
Seb resolved not to watch her go. Instead he looked up at the remaining three people. Particularly at his typically gregarious best friend, who was avoiding eye contact and staring down at his food like it was his last meal. Mary and Fin struck up a conversation, but Seb kind of tuned them out.
He heard Via’s low voice and then her light laugh. A minute later she was back.
“He says he wants some of his dad’s water?” She looked confused.
Seb made wide, exasperated eyes at Tyler and finally, the man cracked, laughing.
“That kid, I swear.” Tyler chuckled, affection in his eyes.
Seb sighed as he rose from the table and joined Via where she stood at the threshold of the kitchen.
“Here.” He filled a big blue glass from the sink and handed it to her. “Tell him it’s mine.”
Via laughed. “Simple as that?”
Seb shrugged. “I should probably try to start breaking him of the habit of only drinking my water. Like, it’s gotta be a control thing, right? But the truth is, I think it’s kind of cute. And someday he’s not even gonna wanna be seen with me. So whatever, the kid wants to share water? That’s cool with me.”
Via’s cheeks were pink and her eyes wide and dark at the same time. She wore no makeup today, and it made Seb realize that she must usually wear some to school because she looked just a little different. Around the eyes. Her brown hair was up in a messy bun and she wore two gold studs in her ears. He thought she looked casual and, honestly, a little stunning, in her white shirt and jeans. He found
it both the easiest and the hardest thing to keep looking at her. His eyes vibrated with the tension of holding her gaze.
And when she smiled and left the kitchen, taking the water to Matty, Seb felt like he’d been released from some sort of invisible force field.
When he returned to the dining room, he was amazed to see Tyler with a flush creeping up from his collar. Serafine was talking to him, and it seemed he was a little flustered. He’d never seen his friend thrown so far off his game before.
Via returned, telling Seb that Matty was asking for him, and he was back in his son’s room in a flash. The lamplight was dim in the Cars-themed room; red sports cars smiled down from the wallpaper runner on every side. Seb glanced up and was relieved that Via had seen it mostly tidy. The drawers on Matty’s dresser were closed and the books on his shelves were mostly lined up. His stuffed animals and craft table were another story, but he was a kid. Seb couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Hey, buster. How are you feeling?” Seb crouched at the edge of Matty’s bed, adjusting the ancient Charlie Brown sheets that had been Seb’s as a kid. A wiggling lump under the covers by Matty’s feet told Seb exactly where Crabby had chosen to take a nap. He scratched at Crabby’s back through the blanket and watched as the misshapen lump obviously rolled onto his back, belly in the air, even under the covers.
Both Seb and Matty laughed, but Matty’s chuckle was subdued. “I don’t feel good, Daddy.”
“I know, buddy.” Seb scraped a hand across Matty’s forehead, feeling for a fever, even though he’d never had any idea what a fever really felt like. The kid had a naturally hot forehead anyway. But his hair and the collar of his pajamas weren’t sweaty, so he figured that was a good thing.
“I’m sleepy but I can’t sleep. My body won’t let me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I try to sleep but I keep shaking, and it wakes me up.”