Chapter 6
Gabe hadn’t forgotten Misty’s birthday. He just wasn’t sure what to do about it. He had to work the day before, but he’d be off at six that night. He should call her. At least he could take her out to dinner—or something.
Instead, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called Jayce. The wind was bracing, so he ducked into one of the nicer hotel lobbies. Looking around, he felt like he should dress up just to stand by the window.
“Hey, buddy, what can I do for you?”
Sometimes, when someone called him “buddy,” he thought of his long-lost, floppy-eared, mixed breed puppy. A little knife would jab his heart, and he’d have to push it away until the next time.
“I need to know what restaurant to take someone to. It should be nice but not impressive.”
Jayce was quiet for a moment, then asked, “You mean like a chain? Like Applebee’s?”
“No. Something, you know, different.”
“No, I don’t know. What’s it for?”
“A birthday.”
“Just any old birthday? Or something special, like thirty or forty?”
“It’s nothing special. Twenty-three.”
“So why are you calling me?”
“Because you know all the restaurants around. Before you met Kristine, you dated half of Boston.”
Jayce laughed. “You’re exaggerating.”
“Not by much. How is she, by the way?”
“She’s doing good, trying to keep her honeymoon tan with that bottled stuff.”
“How’s that working out?”
Jayce chuckled. “Not great. She looks a little like a tiger.”
Gabe grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing we have olive skin and kind of a permanent tan.”
“Yeah. That’s what I’ve been thinking. So, you need a restaurant for someone’s twenty-third birthday.”
“I know there must be a thousand of them, but I was hoping you could help me narrow it down.”
“Do you know what she likes?”
“You mean, like Italian food? Or Chinese? And by the way, what makes you think it’s a woman?”
“Because if it were a guy, you’d just ask him where he wanted to go.”
Gabe had hoped this wouldn’t turn into an interrogation, but it looked like it might. Glancing around, he found a comfortable armchair that wouldn’t show a stain if his uniform was a bit dirty.
“So,” Jayce was saying, “is this young woman about five foot five, with long dark hair and big blue eyes?”
“Shit.”
A handsome couple stepped off the elevator at that moment and cast him a look that said,You don’t belong here, heathen.
He rose and moved through the revolving door back onto the sidewalk while his brother laughed.
