She almost did just that when she reached Olaf’s microbrewery restaurant, because she looked in and didn’t see Leo. She hesitated a moment in the doorway, glanced at her watch, and then entered and went to the same table she, Corliss, and Donna had taken before. The same waitress, in fact, came over to her. This table was probably part of her assignment. She obviously remembered Mayfair.
“Lemonade?”
“Do you have Perrier?”
“Perrier?”
“Mineral water?”
“Oh.” She thought a moment and nodded. “Onion rings?”
“No, nothing else for now.”
The waitress smiled and headed off. Mayfair sat back and took a breath. It had been so long since she had been anywhere by herself at night. Men had it better when it came to being alone. They attracted little attention, but at one point or another during the next five or six minutes, everyone in the place had glanced at her, some gazing longer than a glance. One woman was obviously annoyed with her escort, her boyfriend or husband, because he stared at Mayfair too long.
The waitress had brought her a small bottle of mineral water and a glass. She looked like she was going to stay to talk to her, but someone signaled and she walked off. Mayfair filled the glass and sipped at it.
Why am I doing this? she wondered. Is it simply because those two decided I shouldn’t?
She sat forward and hovered over her glass, looking down at the table to avoid eye contact with anyone else. Minutes seemed to take longer than sixty seconds. When she looked at the clock on the wall across from the bar, she saw that she hadn’t been here more than seven or so. She began to plan her return. For now, she would rather that neither Corliss nor Donna knew she had gone back to the mall and the brewpub. There would be that damn I told you so look that was practically a mask worn by everyone at Spindrift at one time or another.
She took what she expected to be her final sip of the mineral water and looked up to find the waitress. Instead, he was standing there smiling down at her.
“Lost some weight, I see,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“Your bodyguards aren’t here.”
She stared up at him. He didn’t change expression. Then she smiled and shook her head. “They’d beat your ego to a pulp if they were here and heard you refer to them as bodyguards.”
He looked around as if he were terrified. Then he put his hand on the chair across from her. “Okay?”
He sat before she said yes.
“Maybe you’re the undercover agent,” he said, and signaled to the waitress. When she approached, he ordered a beer before turning back to Mayfair. “Want those onion things?”
“No.”
“We’re fine for now,” he told the waitress, and she left.
“What kept you here another day?” she asked him.
“Truthfully?”
“Yes, for a change, why not?”
“Hoping to see you,” he said.
She shook her head.
“What?” he asked with a feigned look of indignation.
“Did it take you a long time?”
“To do what?”
“Get around the block. You’ve obviously been a number of times, I bet, to develop that smooth a come-on.”