“He’s not that subtle. I don’t think any guy that tall could ever be accused of beingsubtle.”
At Patrick’s Irish Pub, they sat outside in the garden area. The window boxes topping the fence around the restaurant’s patio held greenery this time of year. Even though it was February, the sunlight on the top of Dree’s head felt like home.
Aiden sat a few tables away from them.
They perused the menus, and Dree plotted her interrogation.
“You said the Thai chicken salad was good?” Mairearad asked her.
“Everything is good, but the Thai chicken salad isgreat.”
The waiter took their order for two salads and two glasses of pinot grigio, and then Dree pointed out other restaurants on that street which were also good, as well as telling Mairearad about some others that she had to try. She also spilled the beans on all of Chiara’s best clothing boutiques.
By the time their salads came, Mairearad nodded along and looked Dree directly in the eyes again, which was a relief. Alienating the one other person from Phoenix who happened to be in Monaco would have been weird.
Dree asked her, “So, what do you do at Second Sun?”
Mairearad forked her salad, mixing the greens, chicken, and sauces. “Logistics, mainly. And I also get out in the field and do some work. I just returned from a month in Paris, helping people sign up for social services who needed it.” She took a bite.“Oh, my God.”
“Right?And wow, that’s great about Paris. How’d you get all the way to Rome from Arizona?”
“Everyone at Second Sun is someone Max knew from somewhere else, and then he poached them to come work for him. I knew Max from the job I had while I was getting my master’s.”
“Poached,heh. That’s what he said when I raided the palace staff to help me with wedding plans.”
Mairearad chuckled. “Right, that’s his word,poached.Evidently, that’s how he finds people to work for him. He said he stole a chef-slash-barista from the local café to be his cook when he lived in Rome full-time. Our IT gal was the computer science college student who installed the diocese’s computers when he was on a mission in Lagos. Half of the doctors on our staff are from one medical school hospital in Kinshasa where the orphanage he worked at brought their kids. And then he found me, of course.”
She must be referring to the tattoo parlor where Mairearad had worked in Arizona.
Dree nodded. “Oh, so Maxence, Arthur, and Casimir were patrons of the parlor where you worked in Phoenix.”
“Yeah, we had avariedclientele. I don’t work there anymore though.Obviously.”
“I worked so many jobs while I was in school.” Dree sipped her wine. “I was a waitress, a home health care aide, of course, and a bartender. There were a few times I thought I was going to have to dance on tables to make rent.”
Mairearad snorted into her wine glass. “Tell me about it.”
“What was the name of the place where you worked?”
“The Devilhouse,” Mairearad muttered, fiddling with the stem on her wine glass.
That was a cool name for a tattoo parlor. “That’s a great name. Did you do all three guys or just Maxence?”
Mairearad grumbled, “I really can’t talk about any of that. We’re covered by HIPAA.”
Oh, yeah. It made sense that HIPAA covered tattoo artists.
Dree waved her hands. “I’m a nurse practitioner. I understand all about HIPAA. You don’t even need to say any more.”
Mairearad’s sigh sounded like relief. “Thanks. A lot of people just don’t get it, and then I have to skirt around the issues and make things up.”
“Oh, I know all about what you did with Maxence anyway,” Dree said. “He and I were stuck in a tent together in Nepal for a month, so that was the first time I saw your work and asked him about it. And now, you know, we’reengaged,so I see him naked all the time. I don’t know how I could miss it.”
Mairearad nodded, her chin barely moving as she moved her head. “I did a lot of work on him.”
“I can tell. I mean, it’s all over his back and even goes down past his waistband and onto his butt.”
Mairearad nodded again, though her eyebrows drifted upward as she stared into her wine. “I’m not saying anything about Maxence in particular, but some clients want a lot of work.”
