"So, you're gonna hook up with him after twenty years?" Katie asked a few days later when I was having dinner with her and my brother.
"She didn't say anything about hooking up," my brother said, looking at his wife from next to her in the booth.
Katie squinted at him. "She knows what I mean," she said. "Meet up. I was just asking if she was gonna meet up with him, Will."
Will peeled open an edamame pod and skillfully popped the three beans into his mouth with one side of the casing. Katie knew I loved sushi, so she and my brother usually called me when they went out for it. My nephews, Ben and Jack, were 6 and 3, and they preferred mac and cheese, so they stayed at my parents' house.
"Are you?" Will asked, looking at me. "Are you meeting him in person?"
I shrugged. "I think we might," I said.
"I thought you just said he already made plans," Katie said.
"I know," I said.
"Then why did you just say you think you might?" Will asked. "Is he coming here or not?"
"He is. I'm just nervous about it, so it's crazy for me to say it out loud."
"What are you nervous about?" Katie asked.
"Everything. The fact that I haven't seen him in twenty years. Plus, he leaves stuff out when I ask him certain questions."
"What the heck does that mean?" My brother asked with a protective expression. "I hope you're not inviting some wack-o over here."
"I hope not either," I said. "I can tell he's really smart, so that makes me feel a little better."
"Smart wack-o's are the scariest kind," Will said, eating a piece of nigiri. "They're the ones who play mind games." He made a really serious expression at me, and I rolled my eyes at him.
"You let him watch too many movies," I said looking at Katie.
"Why do you say he leaves stuff out when you talk to him?" She asked. "Do you think he's being dishonest with you?"
"No," I said. "If I distrusted him I would never agree to meet." I paused for a second and then added, "He is slightly elusive, though."
"How? Why? What does he do that's elusive?" Katie asked.
"How many times have you talked to this character?" Will asked.
"Twice." I said. I turned to Katie to answer her question about being elusive, but Will cut in again.
"Twice?" he said. "You talk to a guy twice, and he's flying all the way over here? I don't know about this, Caroline."
"I'm the one who reached out to contact him, Will, and not the other way around. It's not like he was seeking me out. And besides, I want to see him. I would have been willing to go to New York if he wouldn't have come here. I like him, Will. He's a really nice guy."
"Nice, but elusive," my brother said, reminding me of my own words.
"What did you mean by that?" Katie asked.
"I don't know. I don't really know what he does. I feel like he might be lying to me but in a good-guy sort of way like he might work for the CIA or something. He knows a lot about art, though. I don't know how that would factor into it."
"Maybe he's an art thief!" Katie said with a wide-eyed expression like she'd just solved a mystery. "That's someone who would know a lot about art and also seem elusive. Maybe he's coming down here to do a huge heist, and he needs you to be in on it. He might have an elaborate plan where you have to play the damsel in distress."
"He's not an art thief," I insisted.
And at the same time, my brother said, "she's not going to steal any art."
"Okay, okay," Katie said defensively. She smiled and lifted her hands. "It would make sense about why he would act sketchy and know a lot about art, though. I'm just saying, don't take him around any art museums or galleries unless you want to get in on a heist." She was joking around, of course, pushing her husband's buttons since he had always been protective of me.
"When's he coming?" Will asked.
"Saturday."
"This Saturday?"
I nodded.
"Tomorrow?" he asked.
I nodded again.
"Where are y'all meeting?" Katie asked.
"At the store," Will said instantly (referring to the family business). "Or at my house," he added.
"The library," I said.
"Awww," Katie said since she remembered the part about where we met.
Will still didn't seem too excited about it. "What do you know about him?" Will asked.
"He was an only child, and his parents died when he was sixteen. That's when he left Montréal and headed for New York. You should hear him speak French. He speaks English with no accent, and then he switches over to perfect French."
"No, I don't know if you should do it, Caroline." Will said, shaking his head.
He was so serious that I stared at him with a confused expression. "I'm doing it," I said. "I wasn't asking for your permission. I can meet a man at a library in the middle of the day if I want, Will."
"What are you supposed to do?" he asked. "What's supposed to come of it? I know this guy's not trying to fly down here just to get you to say 'hello' to him, Caroline. He's going to be expecting something."
"Will, stop," Katie said, nudging her husband with her shoulder. "She just told you she was a grown woman."
"I want to meet him," Will said.
I laughed. "No way."
"Why not?"
"Because you'd give him the third degree, obviously."
Will put his palms up like he didn't see what the problem was. "If he's a good guy, he can handle the third degree. He shouldn't have anything to hide."
"I love you, Will, but no. I got this," I said.
"I don't want to give him the third degree," Katie said. "I just want to meet him. I wish you would bring him around just because I'm curious. I can't fathom that you saw him one summer when you were kids, and now you're hooking up, I mean, meeting up with him again."
"He looks exactly like he did back then," I said.
"What is supposed to come of this?" Will asked again. He still looked a little annoyed. "What could possibly happen with the guy who lives in New York when you live down here? Are you supposed to pick up your life and move to New York City?"
"Good grief, William," Katie said. "She's just trying to meet the guy."
"Yeah, but why would she even want to meet him unless she's going to start dating him? And what's the point if he lives in New York?"
"These are all valid concerns," I said. "And I will gladly smile and pretend to consider them, brother. Especially since you have agreed to pay for sushi tonight." I smirked at Will, and he narrowed his eyes at me.
"I'm serious," he said. "You're only trying to see him because you like him, right? And what's really the point when you live across the country?"
"The point, Will, is that I liked him back then. I liked him a lot. I remember really having a connection with him."
My brother shook his head looking unconvinced. "You said y'all didn't even understand each other."
"We did some of the time," I said. "And I could just tell by the way we looked at each other that… I don't even have to explain this to you."
"What do you think he does?" Katie asked. She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows as if speculating about this guy was her new favorite thing to do. "CIA? Navy Seal? FBI? Art thief? I kind of picture him robbing casinos like George Clooney and Brad Pitt."
My brother rubbed his own forehead as if his wife's speculation did nothing but give him a headache. She smiled at his gesture and leaned into him as a means of apologizing for pushing his buttons.
"Does he have money?" Will asked.
"How would I know that?"
"Did he say anything about coming up with the money to fly over here?"
"No."
"Did he ask if he could stay at your place?"
"No."
Will shrugged. "Then he's at least got a little money."
"What's his last name?" Katie asked. "We can just search him on Facebook."
Panic rose inside me when she asked the question. I was aware of the fact that I didn't know his last name, but I hadn't expected her to ask me for it. I cleared my throat and then I took a bite of sushi, all while pretending that I hadn't heard Katie's question. "This is soooo good!" I said, smiling at them as I finished my bite.
"What's his name?" Will asked.
"Theo."
"Theo who?"
"What?" I asked, pretending to not hear him.
"What's his last name?" my brother pressed.
"Yeah, you could just check him out on Facebook," Katie said.
"I don't want to do that," I said. "I want to just have the experience of meeting him at the library like we did when we were kids. I want it to be like it was twenty years ago before we had Facebook and all that."
"You don't know the guy's name," my brother accused. His eyebrows were raised as if I was a child who was getting in over my head.
"So what?" I asked. "I don't even know if he knows mine. He's a nice guy—a smart guy. I'm just going to run into him in public place and see what happens. We might go our separate ways and not see each other again for twenty more years."
"That's just weird," Will said.
"No, it's not," Katie said. "She's just saying they're going see what happens."
"Exactly," I said.
***
I finished having dinner with my brother and his wife before we parted ways so they could go to a movie. I went home to get Elroy before driving us to a stretch of beach that I loved to walk. It was a beautiful evening, and I enjoyed our walk, contemplating all the things that may or may not happen the next day at the library.
I was in the middle of daydreaming about Theo when I decided to call. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't feel like stopping to text, so before giving myself too much time to think about it I pressed the button to give him a call.
I had in earbuds for listening to music so I slipped my phone into my pocket, smiling when I heard it begin to ring. It rang three times, and I was just about to find my phone and press button to hang up when Theo picked up the phone. My heart began racing the instant I heard him, and suddenly, I was mad at myself for calling.
"Hello?" I asked.
"One second," he said. I heard him say, "Thank you," to someone on the other end before speaking to me again. "Hello," he said.
"Hi. Am I disturbing you?"
"No," he said. "What are you doing?"
"I'm walking Elroy," I said. "I'm down at the inlet. It's a beautiful night."
"I know. At least it is down here."
"You mean up there?" I asked.
"Down here," he said. "I'm two hours south of you."
"Miami?" I asked.
"Yes."
"What are you doing there?"
"I came in this morning, thinking I'd explore a little bit. It's a city I have always been curious about. I was checking out the art scene."
"Do you have a sketchy job?" I asked.
"No," he said. I could hear him smiling.
"Are you an art thief?" I asked.
"No."
"Some other kind of thief?"
"I'm no kind of thief," he said. "Why would you think that?"
"Are you a criminal of any sort?"
"No."
"Because to me you seem like a totally reasonable person."
"That's because I am a totally reasonable person," he said. "Most of the time, anyway."
"Military?" I asked, trying to get one last guess in.
"No, I'm not in the military," he said.
"Just tell me I can trust you," I said. "You know, with my safety."
"I'm not sure why you're worried, but yes, you can trust me with your safety, Caroline."
"You would say that even if I couldn't, huh?"
"I guess I would, yes."
Both of us had a smile in our voice, so we shared a second or two of lighthearted silence.
"I can't believe you're two hours from me," I said.
"I know, I thought about driving up there to see you, but I thought if I waited twenty years, I could wait one more day. Plus, I figured you wouldn't be hanging out at the library on a Friday night."
"Nope," I said. "I'm on the beach. I ate sushi with Will and Katie, and now I've got Elroy down at the beach. He loves it."
"I'm on the beach too," he said.
A wave of unnecessary jealousy hit me when he said he was at the beach. I wondered what sort of scantily clad, bikini-wearing women were in his vicinity. I closed my eyes and reminded myself that I had no reason to have any types of feelings about this guy.
He could do whatever he wanted.
"Do you like Florida?" I asked. "Are you staying at a nice place?"
"I do, and I am," he said. "Miami's got a lot going on. I'm looking forward to Jensen Beach, though."
"Oh, really, Jensen? What's in Jensen?" I asked. I smiled at myself for being so bad at flirting as Elroy pulled me down the shore.
"This girl," Theo said, playing along with me. "Just this girl I used to know."