7 Chapter 7

That Night Nick did not have a proper sleep. Even when he went to college the next morning, all he could think of was the little encounter he had last night with a mysterious stranger.

Who was that man? How did he know my dad? He left his food untouched. So the only intention he had for coming to the diner was to meet me. But why?

Nick had too many questions in his mind with no answer in sight.

After the class, he asked Tony, "Do you happen to know anyone by the name of Anthony Donovan?"

Tony looked at his face in surprise. "Who?"

"Anthony Donovan. Rings any bell?"

Tony scratched his head and said, "I am hearing the name for the first time."

"Thought so. Never mind."

"Why, what happened? What's your relationship with this person?"

Nick hesitated a bit but then told him about the incident in the diner. Tony was the person he could trust the most besides his family.

Tony immersed himself in deep thoughts for a while and then said, "You sure you have never seen him before? He said you might have seen him in the medical shop but do you recall any such thing?"

Nick shook his head. "Not any instance that I can think of. At first glance, he seemed a bit familiar, but now he doesn't feel very familiar to me. I mean I could never forget that face. Nobody can, I bet. Maybe he has similar features to someone else I have seen or met recently. I feel like my brain is tricking me into imagining stuff. You know how sometimes I just love to overthink."

"What do you have to overthink? Aren't you happy with your growing harem?"

Nick could see something like that coming. He rolled his eyes and said, "Dude, you totally misunderstood yesterday's thing."

"What part of you standing half-naked with two girls did I misunderstand?"

"The whole thing. They came to my apartment for a friendly visit."

Tony sniggered. "Oh really! What kind of creep hangs out topless with two girls who came for a 'friendly visit'?"

"Listen, I know it sounds weird but I removed my shirt only because one of them wanted to sketch on my back."

"You do realize that you are making it worse for you, right?"

"Come on, it's hard to explain, and yes it sounds weird, I agree. But there's nothing between us. Trust me."

"There was nothing on your upper body as well."

"I am telling you, they are just my friends!"

"Yeah, that's what everyone says before the scandal gets exposed."

"Fine. Believe in whatever you want. I am tired of trying to convince you otherwise."

"You sure you are not tired from yesterday's threesome?"

"Okay. That's it. I am going home. And you can go to hell."

Nick got up, collected his stuff, and walked away.

Tony laughed and chased after him.

"Hey slow down! No need to get so offended. I am just messing with you."

Nick was slightly angry with Tony, but mostly he was trying to put up a drama. So he stormed out of the room ignoring Tony.

As soon as he stepped out, Nick bumped into someone.

"Watch where you are going, idiot!" said the person whom Nick almost knocked down.

"I am so sorry! I am so sorry!" Nick said and looked up at the victim.

It was Bobby Kendrick, Rita's brother. He was a fourth-year senior. Bobby's towering height and strong physique easily earned him a ticket to the college basketball team. Needless to say, Nick was the one who got the most hurt in that unforeseen collision.

"Maybe try walking with your glasses on!" Bobby growled and walked past him.

"Phew, that was close!" Nick released a sigh of relief.

"I can't believe you almost knocked down Bobby Kendrick. I also can't believe he didn't beat you up to a pulp just for that, which he is quite famous for."

"I also heard that rumor. But is that true?"

Tony shrugged and said, "We almost had the chance to find out."

As they left their college behind, Nick said, "You should go ahead."

"But this is not where we part our ways."

"I am not going back home now. I have something else to take care of."

Tony put an arm on his shoulder and said, "You know, I would have been more supportive of you if only you avoided lying and told me that you are going to visit your harem members."

"I am not." Nick shook his head in exasperation. "It's about this Anthony guy. I have a little investigation to do by myself."

Tony understood that Nick was serious about this and was not lying to cover up something else.

"Are you going to the Medical shop?"

"Yes."

"Cool. Bye then. Have fun."

As Tony left, Nick started walking towards his destination.

The medical shop was near the central market of the district, a fifteen minutes walk from Nick's college. As he stood outside the medical shop, a feeling of nostalgia hit him. It had been a long time since he last came to this place. The central market area was for people who were much wealthier than Nick. He could only dream of shopping from that place. There was absolutely no reason for him to visit the place other than the fact that his dad used to work in the medical shop.

He entered the shop and mostly found new faces. In the last three years, the shop had changed a lot.

He approached a middle-aged man behind the counter and asked, "Do you know anyone by the name Anthony Donovan?"

The man looked up at him with a puzzled look on his face.

"Excuse me? Do I know you?" The man asked.

"I don't think so. But my dad used to work here ."

The man eyed him suspiciously so Nick said, "David Fowler. He used to work here three years ago."

The man still gave him the same puzzled look and said, "Sorry, I don't know anyone by that name. I have joined last month."

"Oh, my bad."

That's when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"Nicholas, is that you?"

He turned around to find Paolo, dad's colleague. He knew him quite well. Paolo had visited Nick's house on several occasions in the past. He had not seen him since his dad went missing though.

"Paolo!" Nick was both surprised and relieved to see a familiar face.

"It's been a long time! What's up with your life? You are going to college now, I believe."

"Yeah. I joined this year. I am studying engineering."

"Great. Good for you. How's your mother?" After his mother got sick, Nick used to flinch in the beginning, every time someone asked him how his mother was doing. But after tackling the same question countless times, it did not bother him anymore."

"She's very sick right now."

"Oh, what happened?"

"We are still trying to figure out." Nick shrugged.

"I am sorry, Nick."

"No don't be. She will be fine."

"I hope she recovers soon," Paolo said, who looked genuinely concerned for his mother. "So, what brings you here today?"

"I am actually here to enquire about a man," Nick said. "Do you know anyone by the name Anthony Donovan?"

Blood drained from Paolo's face after hearing that name. But he recovered soon and said, "I have never heard that name before."

It was too apparent to Nick that he was lying. So he asked again, "You sure?"

"I am confident about it." Then he looked around with his scared eyes and said, "Nick, why don't we meet someday else? I am a little busy today."

Nick realized there was something he wanted to share but that place was keeping him from doing that. But if Paolo knew something about this man, there was no way Nick would let him go without telling him the truth. He needed to catch hold of him.

"Sure. But when do you want to meet?"

"You have my number, right?"

"Yes."

"I will text you then. Now goodbye." Paolo said and disappeared inside.

Nick leaned back on the couch and thought about the two weird encounters he had in the last twenty-four hours. First with the man named Anthony Donovan and then with Paolo earlier that day. He wondered what Paolo was hiding from him. Why would he get so scared hearing his name? Why couldn't he tell him the truth in the medical shop? The man appeared odd when he saw him last night, but not scary. It was hard to tell people's nature just by looking at his face, but Nick found it difficult to consider Anthony as a bad person. Not to mention that he kinda seemed funny to him, far from being scary.

His head started to ache with all the thoughts so he switched on the tv to distract himself with mindless nonsense.

He was about to change the channel, when the giant face of Mr heart, wearing his iconic heart-shaped goggles, and bearing the typical thick French beard, appeared on the screen.

"Good evening, fellow citizens of Megacity. I hope you are doing great. Well, today was the last day for registering for the contest. We have received five million registrations. Can you believe it? Yes, you heard it right, five million, about one-tenth of this city's population. But unfortunately, only twenty thousand people can advance to the next stage. We asked you to upload your photo on our website, and based on the voting, the top ten thousand boys and the top ten thousand girls have been selected. Gender equality, right? So here is the list of all the selected candidates."

The speech was followed by a brief period of letters flying across the screen at light speed.

After that, the face returned again.

"So, did you catch your name? Are you selected? What did you say, you couldn't see anything because the letters were too fast? Well, I am sorry if your brain is not good enough to process information fast. We are not going to show the names again. If your name was on the list, then congrats. If it wasn't, better luck next time. And if you don't know whether your name was on the list or not, then ask your friends who could read the entire list and remember it. Good luck with that! Goodbye."

But the face did not disappear. Instead, it started to laugh. Once he was done with his laughter break, he said, "I am kidding, folks! You really expected us to display all the twenty thousand names on the screen! Nope, not happening. Soon you will be receiving a text message to know whether you have passed or not.

Now before you get busy with your smartphones, I have one more announcement to make. For the next test, we will pair up guys and girls randomly and you will be asked to upload a photo taken together. The top one thousand pairs will advance to the next level.

Congratulations to whoever has passed the first test. And if you have not passed, don't be sad, you can still contribute to this contest by voting for your favorite candidates.

I look forward to the next stage of the contest. Stay happy, stay safe. Until next time.

Ciao!"

The head disappeared and the normal broadcast resumed.

Nick watched a movie until he started to yawn uncontrollably. He switched off the tv and got up from the couch to go to sleep. As he picked up his phone from the table next to the couch, it vibrated with an incoming message. Nick unlocked the phone to read it.

It was from the contest organizers.

"Congratulations on your advancing to the second stage of the Mr heart contest! Your picture has attracted a lot of attention on the internet and we believe you have the potential to become a star someday.

We will soon update you with further instructions. Enjoy your accomplishment, Nicholas Fowler."

It was a generic message sent to all the people who qualified for the next stage.

Nick looked at the phone screen in disbelief. He was one of the twenty thousand people who were selected from five million in total and that also by popularity count! Nick couldn't even recognize himself.

With everything that was going on in his life, the message came to him as a source of hope and happiness. It was a small step, a silly one too, but an important step towards pulling off a miracle. He had a slim chance of doing it, but if he indeed won the contest and the one million dollar prize money, that would be nothing less than a miracle.

Nick did not believe in miracles. He believed in unfortunate events which his life was full of. But he could at least savor the moment by celebrating his minor feat. He might not get a chance to celebrate anything in the near future at all.