“You’re not?” Her demeanor brightens.
“No.”
Terry fishes a pen out of her apron pocket. “Would you mind giving him my number then?”
Something surges into my gut. A feeling I don’t like. That need to lash out.
But I came in here to apologize to this woman. She clearly deserves an apology from me. However, that doesn’t mean I want to give Leif her number.
“Sure.” I say.
“Really? Great.” She writes her name and number on her pad, rips off the page, and hands it to me. “I appreciate that.”
“Sure. No problem.”
“You guys have a great rest of your day.” She smiles. A big wide smile on her ridiculously pretty face.
“Thank you. You too.” I leave the restaurant, shoving the piece of paper into my purse.
“Did you apologize?” Leif asks when I meet him on the sidewalk.
“Apologize? I went to the bathroom.”
“Nice try. I watched you. You walked right past the bathroom.”
“Maybe I went to the back.”
“Did I not tell you this is one of my favorite places? I come here a lot. I know exactly where the restrooms are, and there isn’t one in the back.”
“Fine. So I apologized.”
“Good. I’m proud of you.”
I scoff. “Proud of me? Just who are you to be proud of me?”
“God damn. You know what? I take it back. I take it all fucking back.” He stands out toward the street to hail a cab.
When a taxi slides across the lanes stops for us, Leif doesn’t wait for the cabbie. He opens the back door, and I get in. He gives the cabbie my address, and then he closes the door without getting inside the cab.
“Wait!” I yell.
But the cabbie drives off, leaving Leif standing on the sidewalk.
19
LEIF
I need a break from her.
Honestly, I don’t know if she apologized to Terry. She said she did, but if she’s telling the truth, her apology was probably trite and condescending. I go back into the restaurant, because Terry deserves a real apology.
I didn’t do anything wrong, but I can’t leave things the way they are.
I walk through the dining room, but I don’t see her, so I waylay another waitress. “You know where Terry is?”
“I think she just went on break,” the server says. “You can probably find her in the break room.”
“Where’s the break room?”
In the back, she nods. “By the restrooms.”
“The restroom is in the back?”
She laughs. “Yeah. We have two sets of restrooms. You didn’t know that?”
“I do now.”
Damn. So Kelly was telling the truth. She did go to the restroom. But she also lied. She didn’t apologize to Terry.
Christ…
I head toward the back, dodging the servers and customers, until I find—yes—another set of restrooms and an open doorway leading into another room with a couple couches and small tables.
Terry sits at the table, looking at her phone.
I clear my throat. “Terry?”
“Yes?” She turns and looks over her shoulder, and then she smiles broadly. “Oh, hello.”
“I’m Leif,” I say.
“Yes, I know. Your name was on your credit card. What can I do for you?”
“I came to apologize for my…er…companion. She’s been going through some stuff. She shouldn’t have treated you the way she did.”
She lets out a nervous laugh. “I’ve been treated a lot worse by paying customers.”
“Not by paying customers who accompany me,” I say. “I’m sorry for her behavior.”
“That’s kind of you. But she already apologized.”
I stop my eyebrows from flying off my forehead. “She did?”
Damn, she told me the truth, and I didn’t believe her. My bad.
“Yeah, she came in right after you guys left,” Terry says. “She apologized. And she told me you weren’t together.”
“No. We’re not a couple.”
“I know.” Terry blushes. “I was very glad to hear that. I hope you didn’t think it was too forward that I gave her my number to give to you.”
Again, I stop the eyebrows. “Oh, no, not too forward at all.”
“I hope you call me sometime.”
“I’m only in town for a little while,” I say.
“Oh.” She looks down but a second letter she meets my gaze with a sultry smile. “Well, maybe we could get together while you’re here. I’ve lived here a long time. Do you need someone to show you around?”
She’s not really my type. She looks too young, first of all, and she’s a little flirty for my taste. But maybe I should go out with her. I’m incredibly attracted to Kelly, but she is clearly not interested. Will never be interested. And as beautiful as she is on the outside, inside she’s ugly as a hag.
“How about tonight?” I ask Terry.
“That’d be great. I get off at four thirty.”
“Awesome. You want me to pick you up here?”
“Sure. But I have to go home and change.”
“Okay. I’ll pick you up at your home then.” I nod to her pad. “Write down your address for me. Put down your phone number too.”
“Don’t you already have that?”
“Right.” I turn and glance toward the entrance. Kelly’s long gone, if she even still has the number. “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe.”
She smiles, scribbles on her pad, and then hands the paper to me.
“What time are you usually done cleaning up after work?”
“It doesn’t take long. Could you pick me up around six?”
“I’ll be there.” I smile. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too. See you tonight.”
I turn, walk back out of the restaurant.
Terry isn’t a woman I’m interested in, but going out will be good for me. Maybe I’ll find out I like her. You never know.
I hail a cab. When I’m back at the building, back on the fourth floor, I stop at Kelly’s door and knock.
I’m being paid to see first to her safety, I want to make sure she got home okay.
So I knock.
And I knock again.
And then, I panic.
Shit. I just put her in a cab. New York cabbies are notoriously honest, but still… What if I put her into the one cab that meant her harm?
And Reid Wolfe is paying me a shit ton of money to see to her safety.
I grab my wallet out of my pocket. Shoved underneath my driver’s licenses is something Kelly doesn’t know I have. The key card to her apartment.
Reid gave it to me in case of an emergency, and even though I’m not sure right now is an emergency, I can’t take the chance. Her safety is my responsibility. The Wolfe family trusts me, and I cannot betray their trust.
Of course, entering Kelly’s apartment without her permission may well be breaking her trust.
But right now, her safety is more important than that. It trumps everything.