The entire group, with the exception of Petra, who was eating her hot dog in complete indifference towards her surroundings, stared intently at the door, waiting.

And after a couple of minutes when absolutely nothing was happening, Norman sneezed loudly, alerting everyone.

“Sorry, I just have a little cold…” he tried to apologize, but just as the attention began to wane, the bell above the door rang, and a young man with Asian features entered, shivering, unaware of the six pairs of eyes on him (Petra was excluded).

Amabelle brightened, Denny was paler than before.

“No!” he said before Amabelle could make any comment.

“You accepted! You have to do it!” she objected.

“It's a man! I can't ask him on a date!” he tried to object, eyeing the boy in question, who was sitting at an isolated table out of earshot but not out of sight.

“We said regardless of gender and age!” Amabelle insisted, wiggling her eyebrows.

“You said that! I have never approved of this rule” Denny's heart was pounding too fast, anxiety was skyrocketing. But part of him was almost relieved that a boy had come in. Not because he preferred boys, on the contrary, he considered himself decidedly straight, but he found it safer to talk to them, since girls scared him most of the time (and who could blame him since he was always in close contact with Amabelle, Petra and Clover) and he was really hoping to avoid the bet altogether, now that a boy was in the middle of it.

“Look at it like this, with a boy the chances that he accepts are lower, so it's more probable that you won't have to go on a date and that you will be able to reveal the story of the bet, coming out completely clean and without consequences” Diego pointed out to him. Denny further disliked him because he was managing to talk him into it.

“Statistically he is right. The chances that he will say yes are considerably lower” Mirren nodded thoughtfully.

And if Mirren was saying it, 30 cum laude in all the statistics exams taken in five years (and practically all the exams taken in general, but details) Denny could actually rest easy.

He sighed deeply.

“Okay… I'm in” he accepted, clenching his fists and trying to be brave.

Amabelle gaped at him.

“Seriously?!” she asked, surprised and incredulous. She had never actually thought he would do it. She was mostly teasing him, to be fair.

“Yes!” reinvigorated by having managed to surprise his friend, and offended by the fact that she didn't believe him capable of honoring a bet, Denny got up confidently, and walked towards the boy, trying to contain the tremor that was shaking his body.

Arrived a little less than a meter away, the boy turned towards him and smiled at him.

SOS!

SOS!!

Mission to be aborted immediately!

There was no way Denny could do it.

He froze in place, and was about to go back to the table, duck under it and rock back and forth in shame, bet be damned.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the boy spoke to him.

“Hey!” he greeted him, waving his hand amicably, and encouraging him to come closer.

“I don't work here!” Denny exclaimed toward him, in a panic, mentally calling himself stupid for the bad first sentence that he had managed to come up with in his anxiety.

It was obvious he didn't work there, the waiters wore official uniforms and aprons.

The boy chuckled to himself.

“I know it. But since I'm the only one on this side I thought you have something to tell me” he guessed, pointing to the empty chair in front of him.

“I don't… I don't want to disturb you” Denny tried to pull back, torturing the sleeves of his sweater and starting to back away.

“No disturbance, please sit down. I'm not waiting for anyone” the boy encouraged him.

So much for the statistics! The guy was the most open person Denny had ever met… except Amabelle. Were they in cahoots?

It would have been both worrying and comforting.

“Oh… eh… I… okay” Denny sat down hesitantly, while his mind began to make associations that led him to more and more worrying places.

What if he was a murderer? Maybe he was walking right into his trap. Or a psychopath, or a spy in disguise, or a…

“My name is Mathi, Mathi Yagami” the boy introduced himself, raising his hand and smiling innocently.

“Daniel Sleefing, but you can call me Den…” Denny he began to introduce himself, and then suddenly stopped.

Wait… Yagami?

YAGAMI?!

He couldn't help but widen his eyes and retreat slightly in his chair, worried.

The boy burst out laughing.

“Don't worry, I'm not Kira. Even though I'm gay if you're wondering” he gave him a playful wink.

Dang it!

It would have been better if he had been Kira, at least he would have killed Denny and removed him from that incredible embarrassment.

“I never supposed that you were!” Denny exclaimed trying to pull back. From the way he worded the sentence it was not clear what he should have supposed, whether the Kira thing or the gay thing.

“I said it because of how the surname reads backward, you know. There are several jokes about my surname” explained the boy.

Ahhhh, okay, now that was better explained.

So he didn't say it because he thought Denny wanted to hook up, or because he wanted to hook up with Denny. It was reassuring.

Although… Denny actually had to ask him on a date, so…

“Ehm… ah ah ah” he tried to laugh at the joke, without success.

Why the heck had he accepted that bet?! It was too difficult!

“So, let me guess. It's a bet, right? What do you have to ask me?” the boy went to the point, arranging the placemat on the table.

How could Denny ask… wait.

Denny jerked his head up at him in surprise.

“How did you know that it's a bet?” he asked, incredulous.

“No offense, but you and your friends aren't very discreet. You seven have been staring at me since I entered, it was a bit difficult not to notice you…” the boy admitted, rubbing his neck in amusement and glancing at Denny's table, where everyone kept staring at the two. Amabelle waved her hand and made a thumbs-up gesture to encourage Denny.

“…And since you don't seem like the type that would come to me to get to know each other, I guess it's a bet, right?” Mathi finished assuming, looking at Denny waiting for assurances and clarifications.

“Yes, it's a long story… no, actually, it's a short story, and rather trivial. We practically made some resolutions and my friend Amabelle wants me to respect them and… forget it. I had to ask the first person who entered the bar for a date” Denny admitted, burying his red face like a tomato in his hands.

Mathi stared at him wide-eyed, then looked back at the table, where Amabelle was leaning so close to them, trying to hear what they were saying, that she nearly fell off her chair. Then he glanced back at Denny, who didn't dare look him in the eye.

And he burst out laughing.

“What intense friends” he commented “I guess I have to say yes to let you win” he then supposed, thoughtfully.

“No!” Denny exclaimed, a little too hasty, perhaps. He cleared his throat and continued more calmly.

“Actually I think I already lost, because you shouldn't know that it's a bet. So… it's likely that Amabelle will ask me to do it again with the next person who enters the bar” Denny started banging his head against the table, despondent.

He couldn't see it, but Mathi was looking at him tenderly.

“Listen, if you want I can pretend not to know anything about the bet and accept” he tried to reassure him.

Denny looked at him in disbelief, again.

That boy was really weird. And full of surprises.

“I’m not… I'm not gay” he pointed out, in a faint voice. Mathi blinked, but didn't flinch.

“So? It will be a platonic date between friends. I have two exams in a row these days, so I'll be swamped with studying until the 17th, but we could do that evening, or over the weekend. You tell me” he shrugged, relaxed, and then his face darkened slightly.

“Unless you have problems with the fact that I'm gay” he added then, a little worried.

“No! Absolutely not! I am pro-LGBT! A complete and total ally! For me it's really the same. I have several queer friends, like my brother... actually I think Clover and I are the only completely straight ones in the group” he explained, embarrassed by the wrong impression he had given him.

For a moment, Mathi looked skeptical, but it quickly broke into a wide smile, so Denny thought he was just imagining it.

“Great then!” he exclaimed, taking a pen from his pocket and a napkin from the table.

He wrote something Denny didn't quite see, and handed him the napkin.

“Write me the day then. And the time, and the place, etc. It will be fun” he winked at him.

Denny checked the napkin, he had written his number and his name on it, with a heart.

He blushed up to the tips of his ears.

“Since we have to pretend it's a date, I put my heart in to trick your friends” Mathi explained in a confidential tone.

“I… eh… well… thank you, thank you very much. I will…” Denny started to get up and leave, but stopped abruptly, and approached his new… friend maybe? Could he really consider him as such having just met him?

“…Why do you trust me and are you helping me? You don't know me” he asked, confused.

Mathi thought about it for a few seconds.

"Why not?" he said then, shrugging.

Ever since that surreal encounter had begun, the first smile escaped Denny’s lips, lasting only a few seconds.

“Thank you” he just said, before turning around and going back to his table, squeezing the napkin tightly and starting to get a lot of anxiety about the type of date, the place, the time, how to fit it into his study program, how to dress, if he had to do something special.

He returned to the table almost completely dissociated from his body, without even fully realizing what had happened. One thing was certain, he had been very, VERY lucky.

“So, so, how did it go?!” Amabelle asked him jumping on her chair and seriously risking falling.

“Huh?” Denny woke up as if from a trance, and looked at her without seeing her at all.

“What he said? What did he do? I saw that he laughed a lot and that you were extremely awkward. He said no and you revealed that it was a bet?” she began to question him.

“There would be nothing wrong, you're terrible at flirting” Felix gave him a few pats on the shoulder.

Denny clenched his fists at that comment.

Even if it was an indisputable truth.

“If you want to know he said yes, and gave me his number! We'll probably go out on the 17th evening” he showed his napkin, proudly.

Silence fell on the table. They all stared at the napkin as if it came from outer space.

Except for Petra, who was playing on the phone again.

“Wow, unexpected. From a statistical point of view this was the least probable possibility” Mirren commented, adjusting his glasses, as surprised as the others but trying to maintain a certain composure.

“Yes, something like 0.000000000000000001% probability” Norman gave him a hand, but he had seen several situations like those, and he didn't pay much attention to them anymore.

“He gave you…. his… number…?” Amabelle was white as a ghost.

“Yes… yes… Oh my god! He gave me his number!” Denny seemed to realize only at that moment how absurd the situation actually was, and he held the napkin carefully, like a bomb ready to go off.

He glanced at the table behind him, to make sure it hadn't been a hallucination, but Mathi Yagami was there, having a friendly conversation with Max, who had come to take his order.

He noticed his gaze and waved at him.

“Did it work…?” Amabelle continued to be completely incredulous, like a zombie.

“Amabelle, I would like to remind you that I'm straight! We will go on a fake date and that's it. Don't think you’ve just combined me with a random unknown person!” he reminded her, sharply.

This seemed to unlock her.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!” she burst out in an excited high-pitched eardrum cracker which attracted the attention of the whole room, but which of the group only made Diego fall off his chair in surprise, completely caught off guard.

“I am so proud of you. You faced your fear and you got a result. Who is this Mathi? We have to make him join the group. Is he at the university? How old is he? Wait, I'll dial the number on the phone and…” she started to take the napkin from Denny's hands, but he hugged it protectively to his chest.

“You won't get his number. He gave it to me!”

“Awwwww, look at how protective you are! All right, keep your boyfriend to yourself. But you have to keep us informed about the date, because you have to prove that it will happen or the bet loses its value” she threatened him, rubbing her hands.

“The bet was just to ask him, not necessarily to go out” Denny tried to protest, without too much force.

Actually, the prospect of hanging out with Mathi, as friends, wasn't bad. He seemed like someone who was easy to get along with, and Denny had actually felt good and safe with him, and not judged or looked down upon for his obvious agitation.

Maybe they could have actually become friends.

Perhaps.

“I’ll pretend you didn't say that. Keep us informed on the group” Amabelle took the previously requisitioned law book and gave it back to Denny.

“You are free to go” she dismissed him then, in a sacred tone.

Denny took the book, and pouted.

“Sure, you use me for your plans and then you get rid of me when I'm no longer fun” he muttered to himself, starting to arrange his backpack and taking the money to pay for his lunch. He carefully put the napkin back in his wallet, to prevent it from getting ruined.

“What did you say?” asked Amabelle, who hadn't heard him.

“Nothing, nothing!” Denny hurriedly denied, putting the money on the table and running away from the café, right at the exact moment Clover entered.

Denny chuckled to himself thinking about what would have happened if she had entered instead of Mathi during the bet. He would pay to see Amabelle's face.

Too bad.