“Hello, Catie,” said a male voice from the other end, his accent indistinguishable from that of a New York native—it was where Takuro had apparently gone to university. None of which explained how he knew it was Catie on the line.

“Takuro?”

“Yes,” he said. “I was about to call you.”

Her heart thundered. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “Danny is in the hospital—”

“What!” It came out a yell.

“But he is fine.” Takuro rushed to reassure her. “He had bad pain in tooth damaged long time ago in game and went to dentist, and dentist sent him to hospital.”

The fact that Takuro—whom Danny had told her was totally fluent in English—was dropping words and not using contractions just stressed her out even more. “Why?”

“Infection,” Takuro said. “It goes from tooth to heart if doctors don’t stop.”

Trembling, Catie sat down on a breakfast stool. “Where is he now?”

“Sleeping,” Takuro said. “Doctors give him medicine for infection but also to make him rest. He forgot his phone at home, asked me to call you—he really wanted me to call you.”

Mouth dry and chest aching, Catie ran a trembling hand over her hair. “Have you told his parents yet?”

“No. Danny said call Catie first because Catie’s waiting for my call.”

“You have my number programmed into your phone.”

“Yes, you and his family.” Takuro sounded calmer now, his breathing even. “For emergencies.”

Catie’s nails dug into her palm. “I can talk to his parents. But first give me all the details.”

Takuro went above and beyond, even going to a doctor and asking questions, the answers to which he then translated for Catie. The doctor reassured them that they’d caught the infection early and Danny would be out of the hospital within a day or two. Mostly they were just keeping him for observation—the sleeping meds were because he’d stayed up the previous night as a result of the toothache.

Once she had all the info and was calm enough that she wouldn’t freak out his family, she hung up with Takuro and immediately called Alison.

The entire family knew within the hour. By then Takuro had been joined at the hospital by a couple of people from club management, and all three of them conferred with the doctor and were assured Danny would be fine. Catie still couldn’t concentrate or sleep or do anything in the hours that followed.

So she was wide-awake when her phone lit up with a message at three o’clock in the morning.

A sloth emoji.

A laughing sob broke out of her. Fingers shaking, she found the tooth emoji and the sick smiley with a thermometer in its mouth, sent both back to him.

He sent back the cute smiley with the big, sad-looking eyes along with the words: Pity party of one.