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“You’re real fired-up about this, aren’t you?” said Alex.
“Damn right I am!” I said, as I slapped my glass down on the bar. “IfThe Blue Orchidcloses then where am I gonna go? What am I gonna do?”
“How are you gonna keep yourself in shoes and afford trips to the zoo, you mean?” said Ale.
“Ha ha.”
“You can work somewhere else,” said Alex. “But if an owner screws up…his career is over. No one wants to come eat at a crook’s restaurant, do they? Face it, Lola. I’m done.”
“It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings!” I said. “What are they charging you with, anyway?”
“It’s a long story,” said Alex.
“So enlighten me, bigshot,” I said. “You think I’m not some kind of legal expert? Lola Ryder, Attorney-at-Law! Special Victims Unit.”
“You’re pretty funny,” said Alex.
“You could use some cheering up,” I said.
Alex paused, and looked out of the window. We were up so high that mostly the view from here was just darkness. “Someone,” he said, with a heavy sense of irony, “forged my birth certificate. My original, not the copies I used when I applied for liquor licenses. They think I’m…not who I say I am.”
“What? Not who you think you are?”
“Yeah. Kind of.”
“That’s hard. That’s devious,” I said. “If you can make someone doubt themselves, you can make them doubt the truth.”
“Yeah,” said Alex. “Yeah.” He peered at me as we leaned against the bar together. “You know, you’re kind of smart.”
“Kind of?” I frowned.
“Pretty smart.”
“Pretty?”
“You’re also pretty,” said Alex, chuckling. I hoped he didn’t notice how much I shivered with pleasure at that. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean…”
“It’s fine,” I grinned.
“Hey,” said Alex, finishing his drink. “You wanna see a better view than this one? I could show you the view from my living room.”
I felt uneasy at being invited back to his apartment, but I didn’t want to leave him alone. I knew that now Alex was facing fraud charges, there was no way I could tell him about Macy. Maybe when all this was over there would be time to talk.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Can’t we stay here? It’s probably far to go and I need to get home soon. I shouldn’t keep Sara waiting.”
“We’re in my building.”
“What?”
Alex gestured. “This is my local. This is my building.”
“What? Where do you live?”
“Top-floor penthouse. Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you.”
***
“This is insane,” I whispered. “Completely insane.”
