His eyes lit up with what looked like excitement. He nodded but said nothing, understanding that this needed to be a secret and that acknowledging her offer verbally would be dangerous for her.
Smart man.
She liked smart people, but she had to remember that this wasn't about what she liked and why. This was about gathering information.
With a slight nod and a smile, she walked away to take an order from another table. Hopefully, she looked no different from before, just a waitress doing her job, but her pulse was racing, and she had a feeling that her cheeks were pink because they felt warm.
Time crawled by with excruciating slowness as Mattie took orders, delivered drinks, cleared tables, and smiled at customers who didn't deserve her smiles, all while being hyperaware of Dimitri sitting at his table and nursing his whiskey.
Occasionally, he would glance her way with an indifferent expression that she hoped was fake.
A little after ten o'clock, he stood, and for a heart-stopping moment, Mattie thought that he was leaving because he'dchanged his mind. But then he caught her eye across the room and gave her an almost imperceptible smile before leaving.
She had two more hours to get through before midnight.
Two hours to think about what might happen in the staff kitchen and what she was going to say.
Two hours to wonder if this wasn't a very stupid decision.
Still, even if she was making a mistake, it could never compete with the stupidest decision she'd ever made, which had been accepting Gabriel's invitation to have a drink with him.
This might be the second worst, though.
Stop it.It's just coffee and talk, not an acceptance of a marriage proposal.
She'd survived being trafficked. She could survive a coffee date with a Russian scientist who'd asked her out with the kind of nervous sincerity that suggested he was just as insecure as she was.
The bar began to empty as the evening wore on, and by eleven-thirty, there was no one left. She supposed the immortals had a curfew at midnight, otherwise they had no reason to leave so early.
"You can go," Anil said without looking at her. "I'll close up."
"Are you sure?"
He glanced at her left leg and winced. "You need to get off your feet."
Usually, Mattie would have argued, but not tonight. The half an hour he was offering her would give her time to freshen up before her date.
Not that she had anything other than uniforms and pajamas to change into, but a fresh uniform that smelled of laundry detergent rather than alcohol and cigarette smoke would make her feel a lot better.
The trick was doing that without waking up her roommates.
Sneaking into the bathroom, she did a scrub down with a washcloth instead of running the water in the shower and changed into a fresh uniform. Mattie thought she was in the clear when she reached the door, but then Nadia lifted her head. "Where are you going?"
"To grab a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Go back to sleep."
"This late?" Nadia looked at the clock hanging on the wall above her bed. "It's almost midnight."
"I know. I had a rough day, and I need to decompress before I can fall asleep."
"Okay." Nadia put her head back on the pillow. "Try not to wake me up when you come back."
"I will do my best." Mattie blew her an air kiss and went out the door.
The hotel at night was a different place from during the day. Quieter, emptier, and the sparse recessed lights were not enough to illuminate the stark, utilitarian corridors.
Despite her efforts to make as little noise as possible, Mattie's footsteps echoed on the concrete floor as she walked to the staffentrance. She pushed open the plain metal door that led out to the service area behind the building and stepped outside into the humid night air.
For a moment, she thought he hadn't come. The area was empty except for industrial bins and stacked crates, but then she saw movement in the shadows near the corner, and Dimitri stepped into the light.
