Uncensored is risky. You might want to reset your hologram program back a day or two.

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

The air left my lungs, my world tilted, and I had to lean against the building wall. “Jesus, Jordan,” Merry said, alarmed. She grabbed my arm. “What’s wrong?”

I handed her my phone. “He quoted Lewis Carroll,” I tried to say, but it was barely a squeaky breath.

“Oh, Jesus,” she whispered. Her eyes went from my phone to me, then back again. “So that’s it then. I’ll start planning the wedding.”

I ignored that and concentrated on breathing. Breathing seemed important.

Merry handed me back my phone just as it rang. It was Hennessy’s number. I hit Answer, and his smooth voice met my ear. “I thought it’d be just easier to talk rather than text. Is that okay?”

“You can’t just quote Lewis Carroll to me,” I said into the phone. “You can’t quote literary giants like Alice in motherfucking Wonderland to me while I’m in public. That’s not fair. You say stuff like that and I forget what oxygen is. You can probably watch the six o’clock news and there’ll be the headline Asexual Gay Man Forgets How To Breathe, and there’ll be video footage of me freaking the fuck out in the Pitt Street mall.”

He laughed. “I should have sent a warning first?”

“Yes, you should have.”

“You called yourself asexual,” he said, ever so casually. “So I take it that revelation is going well?”

“Did I? I don’t think I said that.”

He hummed a noncommittal sound. “So what’s happening in Pitt Street?”

“I’m with Merry. We’re shopping while we wait for Merry’s mother. She’s getting her talons done.”

Merry laughed and leaned up close to the phone. “Accurate description is accurate.”

Hennessy snorted. “Talons, huh?”

I chuckled. “Yes, the finger-knives of the velociraptor are its weapon of choice.”

Merry gave me a shove. “Come on, or she’ll come looking for us. Can you walk and talk at the same time? Are you good with the whole air thing now?”

I nodded. “Yes, air in, air out. Got it, thanks.”

“I’m sure she’s not that bad,” Hennessy said.

“Well, I can tell you this. ‘Hell is empty, all the devils are here’,” I replied.

He barked out a laugh. “So I can’t quote Lewis but you can quote Shakespeare?”

My smile became a grin. “I don’t make the rules.” Then I sighed. “You knew who said that?”

“I can’t say for certain that he said it, but he most certainly wrote it.”

I did that swoon thing again and quite possibly hugged my phone. “Touché.”

“Hey, I’ll let you go,” Hennessy said, sounding happy. “Be wary of the velociraptors. I hear their talons are fierce.”