I flipped over my phone to see if Michael had texted back yet, he hadn’t.

  I set my phone back down and took a sip from my soda, watching the newly dubbed Gavrilo Hodzic wallow in the mirk of his thoughts. In his hands he was turning over a work badge with his name and picture on it. It read “Gavrilo Hodzic, Jr. Engineer”. The badge had an old picture that was clearly him, but skinnier, maybe a little sicklier too when compared to his appearance now. Perhaps that was due to the chemotherapy he might have been going through at the time, though that was just a guess.

  We found the badge in his gym bag, along with a set of work clothes, the protein shaker, a water bottle, a wallet, and a phone that was out of power. The wallet had an I.D with an outdated address that still said he lived at the assisted living facility, so finding Gav’s new home would have to wait. The phone was sitting next to mine on the diner table. We’d picked up a power bank for it on the way over.

  If Michael didn’t respond to me while I posed as a new customer, then we would message him as a returning one with Gav’s phone. Gav had also agreed to let me sift through it for possible leads. We didn’t know how he lost his memory, and we didn’t know anything about Michael or the mysterious miracle supplement that he was pedaling– presumably, it would seem –for Mars Gym. Michael didn’t work in the gym itself according to Lexa, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t working for them under the table, or just at a different level.

  At the table, Gav was still turning over his badge.

  “Gavrilo?” No response. “Gavrilo!”

  Gav’s head snapped up.

  “Huh? What?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah bro, I’m fine. All good,” he said, pouting and casting his eyes to the table.

  I sippied my soda, and instead of saying anything I raised a demanding eyebrow, letting my silence speak for me.

  Gav wasn’t making eye contact with me, but I knew he could see me because he was beginning to look pressured.

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  “Okay!” he said at last. “Okay, maybe it’s not all good, maybe I’m not fine.”

  “I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but… what’s wrong?”

  “I don’t really know, is the thing. Like… some of it’s my name… some of it is… other stuff.”

  “Your name?”

  He sighed, and finally met my eyes.

  “When I woke up today I had this picture of myself in my head. I didn’t remember who I was, but I just it was someone dedicated enough to build themselves into something– someone –that was out of this world.” Gav dug around in his gym bag which sat next to him on the booth. “Now It turns out I’m just this.”

  He brought out the shaker with its neon green contents, and planted it on the table.

  “You told me Gavrilo Hodzic had congenital paraplegia, and somehow I knew what that meant. It meant he couldn’t walk. Then it turns out that he’s me, and I can walk. If this stuff gave me my legs, then maybe it gave me everything else. What if it’s all I am?”

  “Gavrilo, that’s not true.”

  “When that guy at the gym asked me about my workout routine it spilled out of me like that info was just waiting there. Then he said I forgot to mention what I did for legs, and for some reason that hit me, right here.” Gav pointed at his heart. “And it was because I didn’t have anything. So I made it up, and something about that felt familiar.”

  He paused. I didn’t move to break the silence because it looked like he was summoning up the courage to say something that was important to him.

  “I don’t remember anything about Lexa, but when she looked at me I felt so ashamed. I don’t think I ever told her. I think I pretended that I’ve always been like this. Isn’t that pathetic? Bro, be real. It’s pathetic right?”

  , though I decided to keep that thought to myself for now.

  “You’re not pathetic,” I said, then, “where is this coming from?”

  “I don’t know bro. I guess I just didn’t expect to be such a fake.”

  “Hey, big guy, listen, when Keith asked about your workout routine, you had an answer for everything your legs right?”

  “Yeah bro, don’t rub it or anything.”

  “Well doesn’t that mean you were doing something you started taking the green stuff? I mean your leg routine was the only thing you lied about, you said it yourself.”

  “Yeah, but–”

  “No buts, you aren’t fake. Maybe you wouldn’t be a Greek god without the green stuff, but so wouldn’t anybody else, I told you. And Lexa talks to any number of hulked out bros all day, but you’re the one she literally jumped for joy over. She liked , not your body.”

  I’m not sure how much I was able to convince Gav of what I’d just said, but he did give me a smile.

  “There we go!” I exclaimed.

  “Thanks Nando.”

  “No problem Gav. I can call you Gav right?”

  “ ‘Course bro.”

  A moment later our food arrived. My meal was a burger and fries. Gav also had a burger and fries. For his first meal. He was still hungry afterwards so I bought two more meals off the menu, plus an ice cream. He was as mystified as me to discover his own appetite.

  He vacuumed it all up, and in the end he decided to have a fourth meal.