Page 61 of From Beijing, With Love

With that, she waltzed off.

Alone in his hotel room, Daniel packed his belongings. As with most aspects of his life, there was a whole system. He stopped when he got to the maroon Universiteit van Amsterdam T-shirt Yang had worn, not quite able to make himself pick it up. This was exactly why he didn’t do casual flings, because here he was, caressing a damn T-shirt like some kind of widower.

Swallowing his stupid feelings, Daniel picked up the shirt. A piece of paper fell out of it and fluttered to the ground like a leaf. The page bore the Hotel Alium letterhead. It wasn’t a letter, more a doodle.

Even with its rough lines and unfinished edges, Daniel recognized his own face. The doodle version of him wore a relaxed smile, like everything was okay in his world. Like he had nothing to worry about. At the bottom of the page were four words.

My sleep paralysis monster.

“You better literally be on fire” were Poppy’s first words when she picked up the phone. Her voice was a mix of grogginess and justifiable grumps.

“There was a note.” Daniel sat hunched over on the hotel bed with the phone on speaker, the note still clutched in his hand. When he was met with no response, he added, “From Yang.”

“Who the hell is Yang?” Poppy groaned on the other end.

Daniel wanted to shake Poppy telekinetically across the expanse of Beijing. “Yang! The guy that you wouldn’t stop pestering me about? Great Wall, Forbidden City … that Yang.”

“The guy that you told me was, and I quote, a ‘casual thing’?” Poppy sounded wide awake now.

Daniel wanted to bury his face in a pillow. “I … might have lied.”

“What does the note say?”

He traced the words. “My sleep paralysis monster.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Sorry I called you at”—Daniel checked the time—“god, three in the morning. I’m being ridiculous. It’s okay. Go back to bed.”

Thirty minutes later, Poppy was at his hotel room door in yoga pants and an oversized hoodie with an extra-large pink Thermos in hand.

“Is that coffee?” Daniel tried for a smile. “A bit late for that, no?”

“It’s three thirty in the morning. If I didn’t have coffee, I would have knocked down every single streetlamp like bowling pins before I even got halfway here.” Poppy went straight for the bed and tucked herself under the blanket. “You can tell me in bed. And yes, my clothes are clean.”

“Okay, so …” Daniel braced himself. “The thing with Yang was casual, but … it also wasn’t? I don’t know.” Daniel hugged a pillow while being his inarticulate self. The thing was, he didn’t even know how to really explain it.

“I figured,” Poppy said, waving a hand for Daniel to continue.

Daniel’s brain was too wired to sleep yet too tired to bullshit, so out came the truth. He told Poppy everything, from the first moment he laid eyes on Yang in the hotel lobby to every moment afterward, the real version.

And the inconvenient and messy truth—he was falling for Yang.

“Now he’s gone. After leaving me this stupid note. What does it even mean?” Daniel shook the piece of paper at Poppy.

“Danny.” Poppy squeezed his hand under the blanket. “Is he in Xi’an now?”

Daniel sank back into the pillows and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m not sure. He said the train’s leaving … Monday morning?”

“Today is Monday.” Poppy smacked Daniel’s hand. “Today is Monday.”

“And?” Daniel eyed Poppy warily. He didn’t know what she was up to, but he didn’t like it.

She sprang out of bed and pulled his luggage out of the closet. “Pack your bags. We are going to Xi’an.”

“What? That’s insane! Isn’t that like halfway across the country?”

“What happened to Spontaneous Daniel?” Poppy threw his clothes haphazardly into the open suitcase.