Missing In Paris

Chapter 30

The leaves rustled in the early evening breeze, as worlds collided and destiny reigned supreme.

Dante stood in front of Neela and Antonio with hands firmly on his hips; he was nothing short of triumphant.

Neela jogged her memory for details of the long-forgotten métro man quest. "Before you rock my world, I have to know; it wasn't the composite sketch, right?" She frowned. "Oh my god; was it the sketch?!"

"A Sketch?" Antonio said with sudden interest. "There is a sketch of me?"

Dante patted Antonio on the shoulder. "Shhhh...just sit there and look pretty while I explain."

Antonio nodded. "I will try my best."

"Great," Dante said, before shifting his focus back to Neela. "Remember how all the leads were dead?"

Neela nodded. "I mean yeah, you said you weren't even checking the accounts anymore. And then we said we would never speak of it again, remember?" She frowned. "So how did this even happen?" She crossed her arms. "Explain yourself."

"Well know that's what we said, but I may have kept the DM alerts on." He smiled innocently.

Neela smiled back. "Aww; you did that for me in case destiny pulled through?"

He avoided her stare. "I'm gonna be honest here...I left it on in the chance that there'd be unsolicited dick pics."

Antonio nodded in understanding. "That is prudent."

Dante nodded in approval. "I like him Neela; well done!"

Neela grabbed Dante's arm with force. "Focus."

"Ok ok!" he cried, before wiggling his arm free. "So I didn't get any DMs—dick or otherwise—but apparently there were retweets that I didn't see, since that wasn't included in my notification alerts." His eyes widened. "And one of those included one particularly life-altering retweet from a French account."

"Oooh what account?" she asked, wanting to know who to send her regards to for altering the course of her life.

Dante shrugged. "I think it was a bot," he said, ignoring Neela's frown. "Anyhoo...then another bot shared it, and then a couple of other bots shared it...I mean it's weird, they must've thought your 'missed connection' story was anti-democracy or something." He shook his head. "I mean who can really say."

"Or maybe it was a bot that believed in love," Antonio said, his eyes all gooey and intense.

When he noticed Neela and Dante staring at him in shock he immediately blushed. "And by love, I of course am simply referring to...the pursuit of human connection."

Dante nodded sarcastically. "Oh of course!"

Neela stifled a laugh. Antonio was every bit as extra as the typical French guy, but she didn't want to scare him away with excessive mocking. "That was really profound," she somehow managed to say with a straight face.

Dante clapped his hands to recapture their attention. "So fast forward through the interconnected network of the world wide web, and eventually..." he gestured to Antonio, "...this very much not a bot A: saw the thread, B: apparently remembered your fine ass..." he wiggled his eyebrows at Neela, "...and C: he DMed me last week!" He leaned in towards Antonio. "F-Y-I, it would've been fine if you'd sent an unsolicited dick pic."

"Thank you," Antonio said. "I will remember that for—"

"For what?" Neela said suddenly. "For next time?" A stag-five clinger level of thirst inadvertently swept across her face. "How many random 'hos in the city are you currently trying to find?" Like coming out of a weird hypnosis, the thirst quickly drained away and she smiled as casually as ever. "Just joking; obviously."