I pressed my lips together, not entirely sure I wanted to answer that.
"Mary, were you here when the guy came in?”
"Yeah..."
"And what did he look like? Was he local?"
"No, he was a tourist, I think," she replied, screwing her face up as though casting her mind back to the encounter. "He had blond hair, kind of tan..."
I nodded.
"Yeah, I know who this is," I muttered to my mother, and her eyes widened even further.
"Who? Who was it? That man you went out to dinner with the other night-"
"Mom!” I hissed at her, shooting a look over at Mary to remind her that we were still very much in a public place. I had mentioned the dinner to her in passing, trying to convince myself as well as her that it was nothing more than casual, but right then, I was regretting ever making mention of it at all.
"Yes, it was that guy," I told her, lowering my voice as I turned away from Mary, who I could feel giving us a hard look from the other side of the register. "He...I don’t know, I guess he was just trying to get my attention."
"He paid for all this stuff?" Mom replied, craning her neck back towards the groceries like she could barely believe it. I could see why she was distracted by that part; with all the penny-pinching we’d had to do over the years, it must have been kind of a shock to be faced with someone so willing to pay the bills. But she didn’t know the full story, and frankly, neither did I. If this was nothing more than his attempt at a kind gesture before heleft town, that was one thing, but if he expected me to go to him to thank him personally...
"I think so."
"Well, he must be a pretty generous guy!” she exclaimed. "When are you seeing him again?”
"Uh, I’m not."
"But you-"
I looked past her. Mary was already bagging everything up, though I wanted to tell her to hold off just a little while longer. Maybe I could pay for it all myself, clear the cash he’d put on our account, so that I wouldn’t owe him anything. Even if that wasn’t how he had intended this, that was sure as hell how I saw it.
"Look, Mom, can we talk about this afterwards?" I asked her. I just wanted to get out of there. I could see Fiona over in the fresh fruit section, but her head was tilted slightly towards us, as though she was listening in on our conversation.
"Sure," she replied, still sounding a little dazed. "But you must tell me all about this guy. And I can keep my coupons to use for next time! Oh, this is even better than I thought..."
I watched as she pushed the cart down to the end of the register to finish packing up, and I felt a pang of guilt for second-guessing this gesture at all, seeing how happy it made her. Maybe I just should have been touched that he had done something like this, and leave it at that, let my mom enjoy this little break from the weight I know she was always carrying...
I shook that thought off swiftly. No, I wasn’t going to let him leave town before I’d had a chance to get even with him financially. As kind as this was, I knew that nothing came for free, and I didn’t like the thought of owing anyone.
And perhaps, whether I was willing to admit it to myself or not, there was a part of me that wanted to see him again, too.
Chapter 5
Felix
The phone buzzed on the bedside table next to me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin as it cut through the quiet I had been getting so comfortable with in here. I stared at it for a moment as it continued to let out that shrill cry, and then reached over to answer it, wondering who it could be. As far as I knew, nobody was really aware of where I was staying unless I told them...
"Hello?”
"Hi, is everything okay?"
"There’s someone at reception who wants to see you," the woman on the desk told me. "Dina. She says it’s urgent."
I raised my eyebrows. Urgent? I had to admit, I was kind of surprised to hear that she was at the hotel at all, given the way she had brushed me off when I came to the diner. But I guessed something must have gotten through to her, because here she was, ready to pick up where we had left off. Or, at least, so it seemed.
"Sure, tell her she can come up," I replied, and I hung up the phone, quickly heading to the mirror to run my hands through my hair and make sure I didn’t look like too much of a mess. I had stopped by the Plot Twist book store the day before and picked up a few new novels, and I had planned on spending today hanging out at the hotel and working my way through them. Just something to keep my mind busy.
I opened the door and stood there as I watched the elevator at the end of the hallway. It opened after a few seconds, and there was Dina; I couldn’t read the expression on her face from where I was standing, but she made her way towards me quickly, as though whatever was going on was of the utmost urgency.
