Turbo

"Do you know how you met Valera?" you wrote in your shared chat, sending a message and immediately expecting a flood of reactions. Several fires and excited emojis flew in in response. You smiled. This question seemed to have been haunting you ever since you and Turbo stopped hiding. The guys from the grocery store, where Valera often hung out and you sometimes stopped by for groceries, were especially eager. It was as if they were competing in ingenuity, each time coming up with new versions worthy of a blockbuster. Your finger was already reaching for the "Send" button when the screen flashed: "Natasha is typing..." Right on schedule. "Ha, I'll guess!" Natasha wrote, her message appearing on the screen with the lightning speed that bespoke someone who'd been waiting for just such an opportunity. "Hey, girls. I'm the best man in the world and the cutest guy in Kazan. Who wants to be with me?" Natasha, as always, split her version into several messages to ensure the full drama of the moment was conveyed. You could practically hear her intonation, her sly chuckle behind every parenthesis. “And you fell at his feet!” she finished her tirade, anticipating your reaction. You almost choked on your tea. "He fell at my feet," you wrote, adding a wink emoji. You were waiting for Natasha's response, preparing new arguments, but then the chat popped up, "Valera is typing..." Oh, it seems your story has attracted more than just your friends. "Actually, I just tripped..." came Valera's message. His message was short, laconic, but so disarming in its simplicity that you almost dropped your phone. There was a pause in the chat.