The waitress arrived. Mayfair handed her a twenty, and she took it and their bill back to the bar.
He looked at them more suspiciously, perhaps because she hadn’t answered.
“You don’t seem like you’re under twenty-one. What am I missing here?”
“A purpose,” Donna quipped.
Corliss laughed.
He looked like he was between laughing and getting angry. He turned to Mayfair. “Just in case we meet again, my name’s Leo, short for Leonardo.”
“Where are you staying?” Mayfair asked him.
“A motel about four miles toward Palm Springs.”
“Just in case. My name is Mayfair, short for Mayfair,” she said.
He laughed and stood when the waitress returned with her change. She put a tip on the table.
“How long are you staying?” she asked him.
“I have no pending appointments, so it depends on you,” he replied.
Mayfair looked at the other two and laughed. “Then it’s a mystery, I suppose,” she said. “Girls?”
“Why is it I feel like I was just in a game of tennis?” he asked. He was smiling, but he looked a little stunned.
“It’s more fun, don’t you think?” Mayfair replied. “More of a challenge for you. Later you’ll thank us.”
They all rose and started out. He didn’t follow them. He returned to the bar. Mayfair looked back at him, but he didn’t turn their way. Was he feeling blown off? She felt an unexpected dread sink to the base of her stomach. Corliss and Donna looked at her and walked faster.
“You guys are acting quite frightened. Should I? What am I missing?”
Corliss stopped. “I just thought we wouldn’t want him to follow us.”
Mayfair looked back. “I doubt he will.”
“He liked you,” Donna said. “He spoke to us, but it was as if we weren’t there.”
They all walked slower toward the exit.
“He was interesting,” Mayfair admitted.
“Maybe a little too interesting?” Corliss posed.
“If someone drifting through his life is interesting,” Donna said, “then he’s interesting.”
“Isn’t that us?” Mayfair countered.
No one spoke again until they were around the mall and heading for the path back up the hill.
Corliss paused and looked back. Then both Mayfair and Donna did.
“Maybe our smart-ass answers blew him off,” Mayfair said. “It was three against one.”
“Regrets?”
They started up the hill.