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When Liv sets Ravi up on a date, he’s not sure what to expect. He didn’t even know that Liv had any other friends but the ones that Ravi knew.
(She doesn’t. But she apparently had eaten the brain of someone who had known his soon to be date and it was enough evidence for Liv that they would be “perfect together.”)
They end up meeting at a middle of the road Italian place, not too nice, not too cheap. His date recommended it apparently. He still has yet to learn the name and face of this date, just being told that she’s a petite Asian woman with a bob.
As he scans the restaurant, he catches sight of someone with that description and when they meet eyes, hers widen and she sends him a bashful wave.
“Hi,” she says. “You must be Ravi.”
“And you must be…”
“Edrisa,” she says, shaking his hand energetically. “You look… wow. I didn’t know what to expect when Bright had set me up on a blind date but clearly he didn’t go into it blind. And by that I mean to say you are incredibly attractive.”
Her forward words startle him. “Oh. Uhm, thank you. You’re…” He takes a moment to look at her and his breath catches. Her smile is blinding, one that he can’t help but mirror, and her eyes seem to sparkle beneath the dim light of the restaurant. “You look beautiful.”
She fiddles with her glasses. “Oh. Well, thank you very much. I don’t, uhm. I don’t do this very much if you can’t tell.”
“Neither do I. I’m a little married to my work as I’ve been told.”
“So am I! But I love my work. It’s the best work that I could ever ask to be in.”
They both have taken their seats now and Edrisa wildly gesticulates as she speaks.
“What do you do?” Ravi asks.
“Oh, I’m a Medical Examiner for the NYPD.”
“Shut up.”
“Uh.”
His eyes go wide. “No, sorry! I just mean to say, that’s such a coincidence. I’m also a Medical Examiner.”
“Really?” she says, perking up. “That… is actually not as much of a coincidence as we may think.”
Ravi groans. “Of course. Liv must’ve set us up—”
“Because of our shared employment.”
“Well, hopefully that’s not the only reason they thought we’d be a good fit,” Ravi says. “I can already tell that we are kindred spirits in a way.”
“How so?”
And he can’t put an exact finger on it, but there’s something about her bubbly personality and blinding smiles that makes him believe that they’ve pushed through their careers and lives in similar ways.
“So you mentioned someone named Liv set you up with me. Is that…?”
“My Assistant Medical Examiner and good friend of mine,” Ravi says. “And Bright?”
“A coworker as well. He’s a profiler for the NYPD. The way that he looks at a crime scene is just exquisite.”
“Liv is like that as well. She just has a completely different perspective.”
“Yes! He really likes to get into the mind of the killer.”
Ravi pauses. No… no surely not.
“Get into the mind of them, you say?”
“It’s like he can see what the victim had been doing and thinking when they got killed.”
No. No! C’mon. She can’t really mean—
“You know, my coworker Liv is a lot like that. There’s really a lot to learn from a brain.”
“Yes, there is!” Edrisa says cheerfully. “It’s why I feel such a connection to those who are brought to me. I want them to be handled with the utmost love and care.”
The conversation change is sudden but smooth and Ravi feels his heart constrict at her words because he knows the feeling exactly.
“I feel the same way.” Ravi clears his throat, segueing poorly. “So, you work with the police. Liv is a consultant with a detective. Is your friend Bright like that as well?”
“Yes! Though he doesn’t do anything with me. Just helps get justice for the people who get brought in. He really gets to know who they were before they died so they’re able to catch who killed them.”
She must be hinting at something. This Bright has to be a zombie and that’s why he knows Liv. Right?
“Though the way his mind works is a mystery to me. Sometimes it feels like he’s a completely different person every time I see him. He’s got his own stuff going on but when he gets to a crime scene he completely locks in.”
“I know what Bright is,” Ravi blurts out.
Edrisa stills, eyes going wide. “You do?”
“I know how he gets into people’s thoughts and finds their killers.” Ravi says.
“Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy. What did I say? I didn’t think I had said anything to give it away. So, you know that—”
“Bright is a zombie.”
“Bright’s dad is The Surgeon?”
They both still.
“I’m sorry, what?” Ravi says.
“Did you just say that you think he’s a zombie?” Edrisa asks incredulously.
“No. No! I definitely… did not. Say that.”
“How do you know about zombies?”
“I—” Ravi pauses. “Wait, what?”
“Max Rager completely covered up the scandal. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone about this without them getting wiped off the face of the Earth. How—”
“I know some zombies. Ones that I provide, uhm, sustenance so that they don’t go mad.”
Edrisa jaw drops before pulling into a smirk. “Well, it’s definitely a lucrative career when you get a free meal every shift.” She meets Ravi’s eyes shyly. “I would know.”
It’s Ravi’s turn to gape. “You—”
“I was part of a, uhm, BDSM club and there was a lot of Max Rager there. Energy drinks, y’know? Helps keep up stamina. But suddenly things became a lot less consensual fun and a lot more of bloodthirsty murder. I was the only one who got out of there alive. Or, well. Unalive.”
“Goodness,” Ravi says.
“I had already been a medical examiner, so it was just an ironic twist of events. And, well. Here I am.” Her brows furrow. “I didn’t realize there were more—”
“There are,” Ravi says. “A lot more than you know.”
“I’d like to meet them one day, if I can.”
“A lot of them are pretty evil,” Ravi says. “But my friend, Liv, she’s one of the good ones.”
“You really care for her, don’t you?” she asks.
“And you care for your Bright?”
“Is it that obvious?” Ravi suspects Edrisa’s cheeks would be flushing if they could.
“About as obvious as how I feel for Liv, apparently. Though, since she’s setting me up on dates, I don’t know how she could possibly feel the same.”
“Being a zombie is hard,” she says. “And it’s especially scary when you want someone you know you can hurt. The last thing any of us want is to turn the ones we love. But hey. Gloves exist for a reason. Just saying.”
“And you and Bright?”
“Him and I… it’s a fantasy. One that I don’t think will come true.”
“Who knows,” Ravi says. “Maybe when he gets through whatever stuff it is you say he’s going through, you might have a chance.”
“Maybe,” Edrisa says. “But to be honest, he has enough on his plate without introducing the fact that zombies exist.”
“You never know,” Ravi says. “He might be the perfect person to tell. Now. Let’s enjoy some okay pasta and not spend the rest of the night pining. I do enough of that as is.”
Later, Ravi goes to Liv and tells her about the chance encounter with the other zombie, and when Ravi spots the jealousy in her eyes at his interest in the other zombie, he takes a leap.
Much, much later, Edrisa reveals her zombieness to Bright and the young man is not horrified at all, only fascinated and burning with a million questions, and during their many sessions of him picking her brain (pun intended) something begins to bloom between them.