“Why were you in that bar?”
“Because Robert asked me to find you on your sixty-second birthday.”
“What?”
“He left instructions.”
“For you to seduce me?”
Daniel looked horrified.
“No.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
“What exactly did Robert expect?”
“For me to give you the photograph and the key. That’s all.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Daniel’s face reddened.
“Because when I saw you, you weren’t the woman Robert had described.”
“What does that mean?”
“He always talked about you like you were…” Daniel searched for the words. “Like you could walk into a room and make everybody else seem less interesting.”
I stared at him.
“He told me you were fearless. Funny. Stubborn. That you once threw a toaster out a window because it shocked you twice.”
I blinked.
“I
did.”
“I know.”
Despite myself, I smiled for half a second.
Then remembered the hotel.
