“What waitress?”
“Never mind. I’d rather be kept in the dark than treated like an idiot.”
“All right, all right . . .” Mia sighed, wondering how to get out of this tight spot. “The film was a total bore, so I left, and so did the guy who’d been sitting next to me. We bumped into each other outside and ended up having a drink at a café. He left his phone by accident, I picked it up, and now I’m going to give it back to him. Now you know the whole story. Happy?”
“And what was he like, this guy from the cinema?”
“Not much to tell. I mean, he was okay. Pretty nice.”
“Okayandpretty nice!”
“Stop it, Daisy. We had a drink, that’s all.”
“Just a little weird you neglected to mention any of this when you came home last night. You sure were a lot chattier the night before.”
“I was bored to death and felt like having a drink. You can imagine whatever you want. I’m going to give him his phone back and that’ll be the end of it.”
“If you say so. Are you coming round to help out at the restaurant tonight?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. I just thought you might want to go to the cinema again . . .”
Mia stood up, put her plate in the dishwasher, and went off to take a shower without saying another word.
Paul was waiting on the pavement outside the opera house, which teemed with people. He recognized her face as she climbed the stairs out of the métro. She was wearing sunglasses and a head scarf, and carrying her purse on her arm.
He waved to her. She smiled back shyly and moved toward him.
“Don’t ask me how it happened, I have no idea,” she said by way of greeting.
“How what happened?” Paul replied.
“I don’t have a clue. I suppose it must have slipped in.”
“Tell me you haven’t started drinking this early in the day . . .”
“Hold on a second,” she went on, plunging her hand inside the bag.
She searched in vain, lifting one leg so she could rest the bag on her knee and continue her search, balanced somewhat precariously.
“Are you a flamingo?”
With a look of reproach, she produced the telephone with a flourish.
“I’m not a thief. I have no clue how it ended up in my bag.”
“The thought never even crossed my mind.”
“So we’re agreed that this time doesn’t count?”
“What do you mean, doesn’t count?”
“You didn’t call me because you wanted to see me, and I didn’t come because I wanted to see you. Your phone is the sole reason for this encounter.”
“Okay, fine. It doesn’t count. Can I have it back now?”
She handed him the phone.
