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Ayala shook her head. “All I can handle is one glass, Hailey, so unless you’re prepared to polish off that bottle yourself, we should probably stick to single drinks.”
“You’ve been in Syria too long. You used to be able to drink us under the table.” Hailey wrinkled her nose. “But if you’re opting out, I’m not going to order a whole bottle for myself.”
The waiter approached their table. “Can I get you something to drink?”
Hailey ordered a glass of cabernet, Ayala ordered a martini and Joe stuck with a beer.
When the waiter left, Joe offered the basket of bread to Ayala. “Tell me about your experiences in Syria. Think of it as prep for the speech you owe Hailey.”
Ayala waved off the bread. “I’ve been working out there for about three years. While I was at a symposium in Florida on emergency room treatments, I—I ran into a few nurses who had been working at some of the refugee centers. The work sounded incredible and I was stuck in a rut, so it was perfect timing for me.”
“And for them.” Hailey ran a fingertip up the outside of her water glass. “The need couldn’t be greater right now.”
“It’s so dangerous, though, as you both found out. Do you feel safe there, Ayala?”
“Most of the time. What happened to us—” she glanced at Hailey from beneath her eyelashes “—that was an aberration. A onetime thing.”
“I know it put a damper on the peace negotiations. Have both sides recovered from the damage that bombing caused?”
The waiter appeared with their drinks, and Ayala sank back in her seat and took a long pull from her martini glass before he and Hailey even had their drinks in front of them. He’d have to steer the conversation in another direction. Either the violence bothered Ayala more than she let on, or she didn’t want to talk business tonight.
Once they ordered their food and all had their drinks in hand, Hailey raised her glass. “To my bodyguard and keynote speaker and a successful fund-raiser.”
They clinked glasses and Ayala took another big sip of her drink. “Keynote? I’m saying a few words, right?”
“As many or as few as you like.” Hailey swirled the ruby wine in her glass. “I think I mentioned already that our keynote speaker is Dr. Nabil Karam-Thomas. You remember. He visited us at the refugee center.”
Ayala raised her napkin to her face, covering the lower half. “I—I do remember. He’s much more eloquent than I am.”
“You don’t have to speak at all if you don’t want to, Ayala. I was joking about earning your keep at the house.”
“I know you were, and I really don’t mind talking. I just don’t like going into the graphic details or the political landscape.”
Was that directed at him? He’d definitely be changing the topic, but if he were involved in such a selfless endeavor, he’d want to tell everyone about it. Maybe Ayala thought he was trying to glean information from her about Denver. At the house, Ayala had suggested Hailey stay as far away from the inquiries into Denver’s involvement in the bombing as possible, and it seemed as if she were taking her own advice.
Joe took a sip of beer through the thick head of foam. “Where do you live in Florida, Ayala?”
Ayala preferred talking about Florida to Syria and seemed to finally open up and lose her reserve—or maybe that apple martini she’d been guzzling had something to do with it.
When the food arrived, both women ordered a second round of drinks while Joe nursed his beer. Someone would have to drive home.
Hailey tapped Ayala’s empty martini glass. “Looks like we could’ve finished that bottle of wine together.”
“Oh, this?” Ayala pinged her glass. “It’s sour apple. It doesn’t taste like alcohol at all.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “Like I said before, you’ve been in Syria too long. Those are the most dangerous kinds of drinks. Right, Joe?”
“I wouldn’t know.” He curled his fingers around the handle of his mug. “I’m a beer guy.”
By the end of dinner, Joe knew a lot about Florida and San Francisco but very little about the two women who lived in those cities. Ayala kept her conversation surface level, and while Joe wanted to know more about Hailey, he didn’t want to make those discoveries with an audience.
