Chapter 13 #4
Dell scoffed, knowing Jason’s idea of a mess was a glass left on the counter, or a shoe kicked out of place from its orderly row, or a magazine askew on the coffee table.
His apartment was spotless and resembled a cozy floor display at a Restoration Hardware more than anything.
“He considers this a mess?” Cole said from behind Dell once they filed inside. The narrow entryway led to a small living room
appointed with leather furniture and an array of houseplants.
“He has very high standards,” Dell muttered.
“What was that?” Jason asked as he shuffled into the galley kitchen. It opened on either end, with the living room on one,
and the short hallway to his bedroom and the bathroom on the other.
“Nothing,” Dell said, and sat on one of the barstools looking into the kitchen from a cutout wall. She wanted to get to the
point, but she knew trying to talk to Jason before he’d had coffee on a Sunday was not wise.
She impatiently watched him flip on his machine and set a mug under it. “Want any?” he asked through a yawn.
“Actually, coffee sounds great,” Dell said, hoping Robbie wouldn’t mind if she infused his body with a dose of caffeine.
“Coming right up,” Jason said, and reached for a second mug. “Does your man want any? Or, well, I guess he can’t really drink
it, can he?”
“Not unless you let him hop in and borrow your body.”
Jason tilted his head in curiosity and frowned at the same time. Mercifully, his coffee brewer got down to business and squirted
out a mug in about a minute. Dell let him add his creamer and take a sip before she reached in Robbie’s pocket and shoved
the printout in his face.
“Is this the guy who crashed into me on the slopes in Tahoe last year? The Italy-bruise guy?”
Jason flinched at her sudden movement, nearly spilling his coffee, and leaned back. “What?”
“The guy, remember? The one who plowed into me and left a bruise. You said just the other day you’d be able to pick him out
of a lineup.”
He took the paper and studied it. “I did say that, and yes, this is him. Why?”
Dell smacked her hands on the granite bar top and cheered. “I knew it!” She turned to Cole. “We were right! It was you!”
Cole beamed at her as she leaped off the stool into his arms. No matter she was in Robbie’s body, he still squeezed her tight.
“Wait, what’s going on here?” Jason asked. “You’re hugging the air right now. What do you mean It was you?”
Dell reluctantly pulled herself from Cole’s grip and turned back to the counter. “Jay, this is him. The man in the picture is Cole—the same guy who crashed into me on the slopes! We’ve met before!”
At this, Jason jerked his head back. “Oh shit, really? That’s . . .”
“Kind of unbelievable?” Dell filled in for him.
“Uh, that’s one word for it. This is the guy you’ve been hanging out with for the past day and a half? Damn.” He flipped the paper over as if to see if there was more of an explanation hiding on the back, or perhaps another picture. “So what does this mean?”
“It means we know who he is now! All this time, he had no memory, and he still doesn’t, not really, but we’ve figured it out.
We think this was my wrong turn.”
“Like what, like you guys were meant to be or something?” Jason asked with equal parts hope and skepticism.
“Maybe!”
He studied the printout again. “D, he died the day you met him. I remember it was Saturday of that weekend when he hit you. Look at the date on this.”
“I know, and that’s probably important, but we haven’t figured out how yet. The article also lists his parents, and we want
to go talk to them.”
“How are you going to—?” He started and stopped when he figured it out. One of his thick eyebrows rose up into an arch. “You
need me.”
“Please?” Dell said, pulling Robbie’s smile as wide as it would go. “They live in Berkeley. We have the address; we just need a means
of talking to them. I’ll go with you, as Robbie.”
Jason cast her an interested but reluctant gaze. “And who would we say we are, their deceased son’s client in a body-snatched
Zoomer and his . . . babysitter?”
“I don’t think that would land very well,” Dell said, not really having thought through who they’d say they were. “Maybe we’re
old friends who hadn’t seen Cole in ages and somehow just heard about his death.” She turned to Cole to check if this story
would go over well with his parents, but of course he didn’t know.
“I guess it could work,” Cole said with a shrug.
“And what are we hoping to learn from them?” Jason said.
“Anything that could help us,” Dell responded. “Maybe with more information about Cole’s life, and his death, we can fix everything.”
Jason folded his arms and drummed his fingers. “Seems like a shot in the dark, but also like the best shot we have. Okay,
I’m in. But you have to let me fully wake up and get ready. I’m not showing up to Mama and Papa Cole’s house in my jammies.”
Dell almost quipped about having run all over the city, and even to the top of the Golden Gate, in her jammies, but remembered
he couldn’t see her in that form. Instead, she said, “We’ll be ready when you are,” and settled back on the barstool to wait
what she hoped wouldn’t be an unreasonable amount of time.