Elias shakes free of his deer-in-the-headlights look when a man comes in to buy beer and cigarettes. My mood shifts from enjoyment to alertness. I don’t like that Elias is here alone at night.
He’s alone in general. No friends except maybe the girl at the bookshop. No family that I could find.
The customer leaves and there’s no problem, but my mood has darkened. I return to the register. Elias is behind it again. His eyes widen on me. He’s still in shock. He doesn’t say anything about me being emptyhanded.
“I … this … doesn’t make sense,” he says.
“It makes perfect sense.”
“But … I’m nobody.”
I don’t expect the lash of my temper, but it’s so strong that it must show in my face. Elias, however, doesn’t recoil; he just looks confused.
“I just don’t understand,” he says.
“Do you remember what I told you when you asked me what I was doing here?”
His answer is immediate. “You said you were prospecting.”
It soothes my temper both because he remembered my words and because it proves me right about him. He’s attentive.
“And I have been,” I tell him. “But what I’ve been looking at is you.”
Red blooms across his cheeks again. He shakes his head in disbelief. “This just doesn’t … I don’t even know yourname. I don’t know what youdo.”
“My name is Andre Black. I own a hotel in SoHo. I’ll need you close by, so you’ll have to relocate there. We’ll go over the details tomorrow.”
Another headshake. “This is just … insane.”
Oh, he has no idea. “You haven’t said no.”
His attention sharpens. “You haven’t actually asked me.”
Is my smile wicked? “So you noticed that. Like I said: you pay attention to detail. Even while stunned.”
Elias misinterprets my smile. He thinks I’m being playful. When he huffs a laugh, I like it. Maybe Ishouldplay with him if he’s going to respond like that.
He’s calming down now, adjusting to the idea. But then he starts thinking, as though this is a problem to solve.
“But whyme?” he asks.
“I already told you.”
He frowns slightly like he can’t quite accept the things I said about him. That’s another thing we’ll have to work on—later. For now, I just need him to yield.
“Say yes,” I tell him, even though, as he pointed out, I haven’t asked him a question. I haven’t given him an option either. But I still want him to say yes.
“What about my job here? I have …things.”
Part of me hoped we wouldn’t have to go into this, but Elias is too responsible not to worry about it.
“I already talked to your employer this evening. We reached an understanding.”
I don’t tell Elias that I paid her a severance for him and that his job here is over regardless.
Wild confusion plays across Elias’s face. “What did Emmy say? I mean, what did you—”
“Elias.”
