Free Arrhythmia by Johanna Danninger Page B

be able to overcome at least a little of her shyness. My curiosity got the better of me after an hour, and I decided to pay the two a visit in the consulting room.
    At first glance, the situation didn’t appear terribly promising.
    Desiderio was seated at the desk, studying a patient file, while Lisa stood practically as far away from him as possible.
    It seemed that my help was sorely needed.
    Without hesitation, I rushed into the room and collapsed in a chair.
    “Phew. This heat is too much,” I whined, fanning myself with my hand. “What’s the temperature today?”
    “Mideighties, according to the weather service,” Desiderio replied. He seemed a little surprised that I would just initiate a normal conversation.
    “Eighties! Jesus.”
    He waved my complaints aside. “Oh, I could stand it even a little warmer.”
    Spoken like a true Mediterranean type . . .
    “As long as I have to be in this bunker, it might as well be raining the whole time,” I said. “A person shouldn’t be required to work in such heat; we should be lying on a beach sipping cocktails. Oh, what I would give for a caipirinha! What about you, Lisa?”
    “Hm?”
    “What sort of cocktail could you go for right now?”
    She shook her head slowly. “I’m not sure. I don’t really know much about alcohol. I almost never drink.”
    Inwardly, I was face-palming.
    I almost never drink? She might just as well have said, “I collect stamps.”
    Her statement briefly threw me off course, and I needed a moment to take up the thread again. I hoped I wasn’t staring at Lisa with too much dismay and was glad to see that Desiderio had turned his attention back to the patient file.
    I quietly cleared my throat.
    “Very responsible of you,” I praised her abstinence. “After my last night out, I made a promise to myself to start drinking less.” Was I just imagining it, or was Desiderio grinning? Just in case, I quickly added, “I mean, it’s not like I can’t have a good time without alcohol.”
    Now he clearly was grinning! Idiot.
    I swallowed my anger and decided to rededicate myself to my task.
    “Say, Lisa,” I began casually. “Where do you go when you want to have fun? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at Go.”
    Even before she could answer, I knew I’d made another mistake. Lisa’s expression spoke volumes, but before I could stop her, she said, “Oh, I almost never go out.”
    I peeked at Desiderio, but he still appeared to be engrossed in his reading.
    Had he really not been listening, or was he just pretending? I hoped the former was the case.
    My efforts to make Lisa appear interesting had, so far, had the opposite effect. I decided to give up this line of questioning and try something else.
    I rose and patted my coworker on the shoulder. “You know what? The two of us really should hit the bars sometime!”
    OK, so on the one hand, we had Lisa, a pretty, timid girl who had never painted the town or drunk herself silly. And on the other, we had the heartbreaker Desiderio, who never seemed to pass up a chance to have a good time.
    How the hell was I going to bring these two together?
    They say opposites attract, but is that even true? How can you be interested in someone if you don’t have anything in common?
    In my opinion, that was completely impossible. I had to find something that would be equally interesting to both Lisa and Desiderio.
    But what? What was a universal topic of conversation, other than the weather? Politics? Literature?
    Movies!
    That was it! Everyone in the world was familiar with movies and television, so everyone had something to say about them. At least I hoped so.
    I pretended to have some forms urgently in need of sorting. After rummaging in a drawer for a while, I ventured, “Hey, I saw A Good Day to Die Hard in the theater yesterday.”
    Fortunately, Desiderio entered the discussion right away. “Oh yeah? I want to see that. Was it good?”
    “Oh yes. Bruce Willis doesn’t get older; he just