Eyes full of stars | ✔️

Chapter 10: The scientist

"I had to find you

Tell you I need you

Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets

And ask me your questions"

-Coldplay

*

Two o'clock on Monday afternoon arrived. Then ten past two. Then two and thirty. But not even a whiff of Sebastian.

"Strange" I thought. "He's late."

Sebastian had always showed up like clockwork, so I got a little worried and dialed the reception number. "Hi Grace. Have you seen Sebastian Lowe, by any chance? He's late for our appointment."

"No, I haven't seen him today" she said in her natural squeaky voice. She cleared her throat. "I thought that you two were a thing. Couldn't you just text or call him with your personal phone?"

I would have loved to call her out, what Sebastian and I were was none of her business. But it would have been useless and I eventually just thanked her, hung up... and followed her suggestion.

Hey, where are you? You are late.

I sent the text, but the thick remained white, meaning that the server couldn't not deliver it. I tried to call him but his number was unreachable. There was only one more thing I could do - and stop being anxious and worried -. I got up and went to Melissa's desk.

"I need to go to David H. Pierce" I declared. "Could you please take care of the phone and everything until I come back, Melissa? It should take only a few minutes."

Without even stop typing or look at me, she nodded. "Cookie time" she whispered.

I decided to ignore her too and I exited my office.

***

The David H. Pierce office was huge and, as you may expect from an architectural firm, it was stylish like crazy. They didn't have a proper reception area, so I just came in to find a big living room with sofas, armchairs, a big wooden table, a television and decorations of all kinds everywhere. There were two carpeted corridors extending deep in two separate directions of the floor. Faint voices came from both, but there was none in sight.

"Hello?" I tried.

Nothing.

How the heck was I supposed to find Sebastian without making myself looking like an idiot?

I played rock scissors paper with myself to decide which direction to take. Fate chose the right side, but I only took a few steps towards it when I heard a horrible sound that gave me the creeps.

Amanda's loud and annoying laughter.

"Hell no" I whispered, turning around and bolting towards the other corridor.

So I ventured into the West Wing. I was feeling like Belle in Beauty and the Beast, maybe I should have bumped into a sparkling rose under a bell jar to understand that I found Sebastian's office. I chuckled while passing by door after door, with no clue as to which one was Sebastian's.

I stopped sometimes to eavesdrop voices and try to understand if it was him, until I saw a half-closed door that had something strange to it. I went closer and noticed that the room inside was dark, at first I thought that no one was there but I soon heard movements and sounds like paper cutting and pencil drawing. Somehow, I felt seriously drawn to that room.

"Hello?" I said, knocking.

"Come in" a toneless voice responded.

I opened the door, stepped in and my jaw dropped.

The room was completely dark and, right in the middle of it, there was an enormous drafting table with a drawing of almost the same size on it. It pictured a beautiful villa or manor surrounded by trees, flowers and a breathtaking landscape, but the best thing about that drawing was that its colors were fluorescent and they were actually the only visible thing in the room. I couldn't stop looking at that it, it was captivating to say the least and I could tell that it had a really special vibe to it.

"Who is it?" the same voice asked.

One second later, the lights were switched on and Toby appeared, sat by the drafting table. It took a few seconds for both of us to recognize each other, his eyes were not used to the light since God knows when and he supposedly would have never expected me to pop up in his office like that. As for me, I was still astonished by the beautiful view of the fluorescent drawing.

"Lily!" he exclaimed, giving me his usual smile. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" He stood up and came closer to me, rubbing his hands with a rag to clean the colors. When he stopped in front of me, I noticed that there were bags under his amber eyes, he looked tired.  "It's been a long time!"

"Oh." I was speechless and I didn't know why. I blinked and shook my head to compose myself. "I... I was looking for Sebastian, actually" I explained. "He didn't show up to our daily meeting and his phone is off."

He frowned. "Sebastian left for Los Angeles before dawn" he replied. "David has called him at 2 in the morning, ordering him to reach him there at once. I was still awake and I overheard everything. He was really a mess when he left for the airport, so he must have forgotten to change his appointments and everything."

Toby didn't know that I was dating Sebastian, so he couldn't have truly understood how much I was worried and anxious about his disappearance. That was why I just shrugged and quietly said something along the lines of "no problem, we will reschedule as soon as possible". I took a step back with the intention of leaving - and text Sebastian immediately -, when my gaze was caught by the fluorescent drawing again and Toby noticed.

"Would you like to come and see it?" he asked, indicating the drafting table.

I nodded. Toby put a hand on my back and together we reached it. Now that I was closer I found myself being even more caught up in that drawing. It was just perfect in every single detail, in every color, in every shadow. To me, this was the work of a painter, not an architect, and I told him.

Toby smiled and thanked me for the compliment. "I am using a new technique" he explained in a soft tone, exactly the same someone would use in a museum while admiring an ancient masterpiece. "The colors are a groundbreaking invention, they are not just fluorescent, but they give a special look to the drawing if correctly used. Like it was--"

"Alive" I finished, glancing at him.

He looked back at me. "Exactly."

My eyes scanned the drawing again and read something on the right bottom on it. Daisy House.

"So this is the latest project you are working on for Mr. Pierce?" I asked.

"No." Toby rubbed his short brown beard with a hand. "It's for... someone else" he murmured, sounding quite distant.

"Well" I sighed, "whoever they are, they will love it. I promise."

He smiled again, all the distance gone. "Thank you, Lily."

He accompanied me to the lift - nobody from his office showed up even then - and we started talking about movies, a topic we already had brought up multiple times during our morning rides on the tube.

When the lift doors opened and I was about to get in, Toby said "The project is almost finished and I am alone at home this weekend. Would you like to go to the movies together?"

It was an excellent idea, Felicity was spending the weekend at her parents' home in Exeter, I would have loved to watch a new movie and spend some time with Toby to get to know him better.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "Sounds fun."

We exchanged our mobile phones numbers and planned to meet on Saturday night in Leicester Square.

Going back to my office there was only one thought haunting me, and it was not Sebastian's disappearance - which, I know, was not a true disappearance, he just had to fly to his boss overnight and had no time to inform me -, but... Toby's eyes were incredibly unique, I honestly had never seen eyes like those before. And not because of the color, but because of something in them.

They were eyes full of stars.