This last part in the last half hour Marcus had exercisedgreatly.
After we’d left my apartment, he’d opened the door of hisblack Mercedes for me (Ronald was not in attendance that evening; neither wasBrady).
He’d opened it again to let me out of his Mercedes.
He’d also done the same when he’d let us in the building andhe’d escorted me down the stairs and to our booth with his hand at the small ofmy back, light, warm, gallant.
He’d let me slide in first on the side I wanted, sliding inright beside me, and he’d asked me what I wanted to drink so he could order itfor me when the waiter arrived.
He’d done the same with my meal.
I couldn’t hack this.
I didn’t know what to do with this.
It wasn’t that this was a surprise.
It was just with what happened in that parking lot meltingto take its place into a past with a lot of other stuff that wasn’t all thatgreat, precisely how it felt was only now hitting me.
And what that was, was the fact that Miss Annamae wouldadore Marcus Sloan.
She might look askance at whatever he did to be able to buyhis Mercedes.But I had a feeling she’d overlook that simply with the way he’dmurmured sweetly, “Watch your feet, darling,” as I’d lifted them into his car.
“Daisy.”
I turned my gaze from my glass to him.
He was watching me closely.“Are you all right?”
No.
And hellyes.
I didn’t give him either of those answers.
I told him, “I’ve never been here.”
“Excellent steaks,” he murmured, still watching me closely.
“It’s very nice.”
Marcus made no reply.
“Did you, uh…” I tipped my head to the side, “ask mesomething?”
He turned more fully to me, shifting his bourbon and branchcloser to the edge of the table in my direction, his long-fingered hand wrappedaround it.
“I’d like you to tell me something good,” he said.
“Okay,” I replied readily and launched in.“You look realnice in that suit, sugar.And you got a good haircut.I like it.”
His lips curled up.“Thank you, honey, but what I meant was,about you.”
“About me?”
“About your life.”
I tipped my head to the side even as I dipped and twisted mychin, my eyes drifting away from him.
