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“How about avoiding this mess by getting a bite to eat? Or do you have plans?”
“No plans, so I guess it’s all right.”
A freeway exit was ahead and Jordan went off with a string of other vehicles. He seemed to know where he was headed and soon turned into a restaurant parking lot.
“I eat here often,” he said.
Nicole made sure to get out before he had a chance to walk around to the passenger side. She had a feeling the restaurant was a place where he normally took a date. If they were observed, she wanted this to appear to be what it was, a simple business dinner.
“Mr. Masters,” the maître d’ greeted him, “how nice to see you. Did you have a pleasant trip to Fiji?”
“Excellent. I didn’t make a reservation, but we were stuck in traffic and stopping for dinner made more sense than sitting in gridlock. Is there any possibility of getting a table?”
“It’s before the rush and there’s always room for you.” The man’s gaze shifted to Nicole and he bowed slightly. “Ms. George, isn’t it? I read that you had moved to Seattle. Welcome.”
“Thank you,” Nicole acknowledged. The restaurant was the sort of high-class establishment where the staff expected to see people from the news. As time passed, she’d be recognized less often and become more anonymous. Agents simply didn’t have the same public profile.
With Jordan there to interview and probe her transition to a behind-the-scenes agent, she was asking herself the kind of questions he might have asked, such as…how would she feel about becoming a face in the crowd?
Being human, the answer was complicated. Part of her would miss the attention. She recalled reruns of an old television series she’d seen as a kid. The theme song had said something about being in a place where everyone knew your name. Undoubtedly it was nice to be recognized in certain situations.
“What are you thinking about?” Jordan asked as they were seated at a discreetly secluded table.
“Honestly? About what it will be like when waiters don’t recognize me any longer. It isn’t as if I’m known everywhere I go, but for a while there will be restaurants like this one, where I’ve never eaten and I’m still greeted by name.”
“Will it bother you if people forget?”
“It’s inevitable they’ll forget, so there’s no ‘if’ about it. I bet even the most famous actors and actresses walk into places where people don’t recognize them. And once they move out of the public eye, they’re naturally recognized less often.”
“You sound pragmatic about it.”
“There isn’t much point in being anything else.”
His intense brown eyes studied her. Jordan had the same rugged good looks as a man like Matt Damon, only his coloring was dark. No doubt Jordan had sat in this restaurant many times with a woman who’d felt fortunate to enjoy his attention for the evening. She might have felt the same…if she didn’t know every word from her mouth could end up in print.
“You still haven’t said whether it will bother you to be unknown,” he prompted.
“I don’t think it will, but no one can say for sure how they’ll react as time goes on.”
“You aren’t a diva.”
“And you sound surprised by that.”
“I’m always surprised when I look in the rearview mirror and see my preconceptions lying in pieces on the road.”
Grinning, Nicole sipped from the goblet of ice water the waiter had brought. Jordan wasn’t the only one whose beliefs had been run over by current experience.
“It’s odd,” she said, “when you realize how many alternate realities are possible in life.”
“How do you mean?”
“If certain things had been different, we might have become friends, the way you and Emily were. I know you and Em are the same age, but you were only two years older than me and we lived close to each other.”
“So what would have had to be different?”
“I’m sure it would have helped if I hadn’t seen you as an arrogant egotist and you hadn’t seen me as a brain-dead puppet.”
He grimaced. “You knew I called you that?”
