But Steve was already shaking his head. ‘No, really, I saw it fall out of your bag. This isdefinitelyyours,’ he insisted, smiling.
She stared at the book for a beat longer and looked up to meet the guy’s eyes. ‘You said you saw it fall from my bag?’ she asked dubiously.
He shook his head with conviction. ‘Absolutely. Fell right out of your bag. Right onto the subway grate.’
Beth thought about what he was telling her. She knew without a doubt that the book didn’t fall from out of her bag. For one thing, she didn’t have a book in there, and for another, she guessed this must be all part of the treasure hunt.
She was suddenly on high alert. What with Lin on the boat and the assistant at Tiffany’s, this wasn’t the first time someone had known to expect her at a location. This bellhop might be part of the plan, too.
In any case, Beth felt at a loss for what to say. OK, so this book – wherever it came from – definitely didn’t belong to her, but how was this a piece of the treasure hunt?
‘But, I don’t understand. I mean…’
‘You don’t have to understand. You just have to have faith,’ the bellhop said then, smiling.
Beth stared at him intently, her brain synapses firing all at once, as the nerve endings beneath her skin tingled with recognition. Where had she heard those words before?
‘Faith in what?’ she asked, feeling as if she was reading from a script – or at least working to ad lib a script that she hadn’t yet been provided with.
Steve shrugged happily, as if she had taken his cue exactly the way she was meant to.
‘Destiny,’ he said simply.
Beth sucked in her breath.Destiny?She accepted the book without further hesitation and opened it quickly, without looking at the title. A five-dollar bill was tucked inside.
‘Hold on, there’s money in here. This must belong to you,’ she said in confusion, but Steve was already shaking his head.
‘No, that wouldn’t be possible. After all, you dropped it, remember?’
‘OK,’ she said absently, feeling a little like she’d stepped into a scene from a movie herself, it was all so surreal. She picked up the banknote from where it sat, folded, between the book’s pages.
On it there was writing in pink marker. It said, ‘23’.
Heart pounding, she looked excitedly up at Steve, wondering what would happen next. ‘This is a clue, isn’t it? It will point me where I need to go next. Is there anything else?’
Steve gave her a wink. ‘I think it might, but that’s all I can say… Beth.’
She smiled broadly. ‘You know my name. Of course you do. And you’re Steve.’
‘How did you know that?’ he asked, frowning suddenly.
Beth pointed to his jacket. ‘Your name tag. On your jacket. Where do you work?’
‘Oh.’ With some relief, Steve looked down at where she indicated. But suddenly he seemed eager to get away. ‘Speaking of which, I need to get to work. Good luck.’
And then he was gone, walking off in the other direction from where she’d come.
Beth was left standing on the corner of Lexington and 52nd Street with a book, a five-dollar bill and a mysterious number: 23.
How to put it all together? Then she closed the book, caught sight of the title for the first time, and suddenly knew exactly what it all meant.
Love in the Time of Cholera.
Beth thought back to what she had said earlier, when Ryan had suggested they head to this area for lunch, and her eyes widened.
Serendipitous indeed.
Chapter 18
