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THE NEW GUY is starting a food tour.

The Konstantin Duhovny Culinary Experience.

A stupid name, you think but don’t say. Instead, you ask him how it works. If what you’ve heard about the, uh, itinerary is for real.

Think of it as a hop-on, hop-off , the New Guy tells you.

He winks as he says it, which you take to mean that the rumors are true. That you’ll be hopping neither on, nor off, but through. You try to probe further, to understand how it happens, whether they really can make Aftertastes outside of the Food Hall. But the New Guy deflects. Either he doesn’t know, you decide, or he isn’t saying.

You ask when the tour leaves, and he tells you that his guy is opening a restaurant on the other side. That the tour’s gotta be there opening night.

Why? you ask, unsure what a Living restaurant has to do with the Dead.

’Cause that’s what his spot’s for! Aftertastes. Spirits. He’ll bring us all back there. Long as you’re down for the ride.

The Hunger lurches, hard, inside you.

Okay , you tell him. I’m in.

He says he’ll reach out about the date, but it shouldn’t be long now. No time at all.

You just hope Maura lasts until you make it.

That she doesn’t do something reckless. Impulsive. The kind of something that spells trouble.

But then, because she’s Maura, of course she does.