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She hung up without any closing salutation, and I did likewise.
I went back to the table and my half-eaten food, and pulled a ten-dollar bill out of my pocket. “This ought to more than cover everything of mine,” I said, and my friends nodded.
“Yours and a tip, too. You heading out?” Jamie asked.
“So soon?”
“Yes, Benny. So soon. That was Dana on the phone. We’re going to compare notes. And I think maybe we’ll talk about regular stuff, too. Give me the pictures, would you, darling? She’ll want to see those too. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t sulk. I’ll bring them back. She’s alone here, you know. She could use a friendly ear, and we’re the closest things to friends she has in town. ”
“Poor woman,” Jamie said, but whether he meant to be funny or not, I couldn’t tell.
“You want us to hang around? Do we count as friends, too?” Benny asked. He wanted me to say yes, but I wasn’t comfortable enough with the situation to give him that.
“Why don’t you give us an hour or two, then meet us over at Greyfriar’s? We’re just going there for coffee, unless she wants something stronger—and I wouldn’t blame her if she did. ”
The compromise satisfied him, and Jamie too. I left them there and tiptoed down the curly ironwork stairs, back down to my car. I could’ve walked; the Chattanoogan was only half a mile away as the crow flies—if that. But I drove it to be prompt, and when I got there, Dana was sitting on the street curb instead of in the lobby inside.
I almost didn’t recognize her.
She hadn’t slept, or if she had, it hadn’t done her any good.
“That was fast,” she observed, rising to her feet and dusting her rear end off with her hands.
I popped the locks on the Death Nugget and leaned over to open the door for her. “I told you I wasn’t far away. Climb in. Coffee’s on me. ”
Dana Marshall settled herself into the seat and dragged the seat belt across her chest. “Thanks. I could use some, I think. ” She pulled down the visor mirror, but flipped it quickly back into place after catching her reflection. “I look like hell. ”
I thought about arguing with her for form’s sake, but didn’t. “So what? You’ve been through hell. ”
“So what, indeed. I don’t give a damn if you don’t. ”
I didn’t.
The downtown area proper isn’t very big, and my caffeine-hole of choice was only another three or four blocks towards the river. We reached it in as many minutes, delayed by construction and stoplights.
I parked down the street, across from a barbecue restaurant and a bus stop. “You hungry?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think I could keep anything down right now. ”
“All right. The ’Friar’s is right here. ”
“What do you recommend?” she asked, stepping past a hippie with a guitar and reaching for the door.
“It’s all good. Get whatever you like. I’ll cover it. ”
Inside the door, a gently fr
umpy man with a French accent discussed a game of chess with one of Karl’s friends. I didn’t know either of their names, but I nodded at them because I knew them on sight, and it would have been rude to ignore them. Dana meandered to the end of the counter with the ORDER HERE sign and kept her eyes on the menu board mounted on the wall behind the counter.
“Can I help you? Oh, hey, Eden. ”
“Hey,” I returned. “Hook her up with whatever she wants. It’s on me, okay? I’ll be right back. ”
I poked my head around the corner, checking out the back hall. The bathrooms, office, and roaster’s room were a series of closed doors on either side; and the narrow, two-person bistro tables were unoccupied except for a dark-haired guy working on a laptop. He didn’t glance up when I stepped into his field of view, and the muffin-sized headphones he wore implied that he wouldn’t bother us even if he noticed us.
I dropped my purse onto the table farthest to the back, and I shrugged out of my light button-up sweater, hanging it on the back of the chair.
When I rejoined Dana, she’d decided against anything fancy and requested the largest cup of black coffee available. The girl on duty had given her a latte mug and told her to help herself to the air pots on the counter.
