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He shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”
We went inside and found Mimi holding court, surrounded by young people whose backpacks suggested they were students at the nearby university. She was berating a waitress for bringing the wrong kind of creamer for her coffee.
“Jackpot!” I whispered. “Now what do we do?”
“That box should be ready soon, so we might as well wait and watch. She can’t get out of here without going past us. Are you hungry?”
“Starving,” I said, my stomach seconding the motion with a rumble. We’d done so much running and fighting, and the late lunch was hours away.
We took the table nearest the door, and Owen ordered coffee and pie for both of us. The waitress gave us a funny look. I figured we didn’t look much grungier than any of the other late-night patrons, so long as no one noticed the blood on Owen’s leg, but we also didn’t exactly look like reliable, upstanding citizens. Owen put enough money to cover the bill and a generous tip on the table, and that seemed to ease the waitress’s concerns.
I winced at the sound of breaking crockery as Mimi forcefully rejected whatever they’d brought her. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” her waitress groveled, backing away. Mimi’s court of students rushed to do anything she demanded. One stood behind her, picking the leaves and twigs out of her hair. Another knelt under the table, washing her feet and lower legs.
“She’s got ultimate power, and she’s using it to boss around waitresses and college kids,” I said, shaking my head.
The waitress brought our coffee, and Owen took a long sip. I couldn’t tell if it was the fluorescent lighting in the cafe, but he looked awful, his face a sick, greenish pale color. “What would you do if you had that kind of power?” he asked.
I sipped my own coffee while I considered his question. “I don’t know. It must tap into your basic personality rather than your plans. I doubt she’d have thought she’d be so petty with it. She would have wanted to rule the city social set, to be the Mrs. Astor of the twenty-first century. With me, it would probably be something pathetic like getting people to give me their seat on the subway and hold doors for me.”
“That’s not pathetic. It’s nice that you’d only use that kind of power for making people treat you with common courtesy.”
“But it means I’ll never rule the world,” I said with a melodramatic sigh.
“Ruling the world is overrated. It would really cut into your leisure time.”
I laughed. “Do you even know what leisure time is?”
He gave me a wry smile. “I once translated the definition from an ancient dictionary in an arcane tongue.”
The waitress brought our pie, and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to inhale it. “What about you?” I asked after a few bites, mostly to pace myself.
“I’d probably use the power to make people leave me alone.”
The sound of coughing made me turn slightly in my chair. The cougher at the next table looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. It was probably just one of those Central Casting regulars who seem to be required by law to inhabit every coffee shop. I waved over our waitress to ask her to bring him some water to help ease that cough.
When I returned my attention to Mimi, she was up and heading toward the door. As annoying as Mimi might have been to the staff and other patrons, things would likely get much worse if she got back out into the city.
Under my breath, I said to Owen, “We’ve got to keep her here. Follow my lead, and don’t overreact.”
He’d just started to ask, “Overreact?” when Mimi reached our table and then walked past without even noticing me.
Although it went against all the survival skills I’d developed while working for her to draw her attention to me, I called out, “Oh, hi, Mimi!” She stopped and turned to glare at me. Her cluster of sycophants moved to surround our table, looming threateningly over us. I fought off an instinctive shudder and forced my voice to remain bright and cheery. “Imagine seeing you here. This isn’t your usual sort of joint. I never thought I’d see you in a place that doesn’t take reservations.”
“You’re following me!” she accused.
“Yeah! Following her! You shouldn’t do that!” her groupies chorused.
“I’m eating pie,” I countered, pointing to the evidence with my fork. “It has nothing to do with you.”
“I’m getting tired of your games. I fired you. Now stay away from me.”
“You’ve never fired me. I quit because I got a better job. And I wasn’t working for you tonight.”
“You were stealing my brooch. That’s what you were doing, and I won’t let you do it again.” She executed a sharp turn that would have delighted my high school band director, gestured for her court of admirers to follow, and headed for the exit.
Motioning for Owen to stay in his seat, I jumped up and ran to block the doorway. “I’m not done with you,” I said, barely suppressing a giddy giggle from living out the kind of scenario I used to dream about in staff meetings.
Mimi and I stood nose-to-nose as her groupies clustered behind her. She arched an eyebrow. “What could you want with me? You were just some underqualified secretary who dragged me down.”
