Mary’s gaze stayed on Quaddra for a few more seconds before her eyes moved to her cellphone screen. It stayed there for a second, before going back to Quaddra.
‘Please, Mary, just do it.’ He nodded at her firmly.
‘Fine,’ she said before unlocking her phone, calling up her browser app, and typing his name into the search box.
‘Make sure you spell Quaddra with a double “D”,’ he reminded her.
‘I have,’ Mary confirmed, as she tapped the ‘go’ button on her screen.
The reception inside the restaurant was pretty good, and a result page loaded almost instantaneously.
Quaddra sat back on his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and allowed his stare to settle on Mary’s face.
Right at the top of the result page, next to the words ‘showing results for Quaddra Buckner’, Mary could see a portrait photo of the man sitting across the table from her. In the photo, he looked to be a few years younger, but not many. His hair was a couple of inches longer, with the ends curling out in all different directions, just like on the first night she met him.
Mary’s eyes moved down to the first result showing on the page. She didn’t even need to click on it to understand why Quaddra had lied about his real name.
Forty-Three
While Mary typed his name into the search box on her cellphone’s browser, Quaddra assumed a more relaxed position, but his full attention was on her. As she hit the ‘go’ button on her browser, he saw her eyes widening at the screen, followed by her lips being tightly pressed together before she rolled them into her mouth for an instant. He was sure that she was starting to understand.
Mary read the title link of the topmost entry on the returned results’ page…
Young billionaire entrepreneur, Quaddra Buckner, acquires two new businesses, including a second film production company in Los Angeles.
Her eyes moved to the second topmost result… then the third… then the fourth, which would redirect her to a Wikipedia page. Every time Quaddra’s name was mentioned, it was accompanied by the word ‘billionaire’.
‘Back at the Legion,’ Quaddra explained, finally collecting back his credit cards and his driver’s license, ‘when I told you that there are a lot of con artists out there, Mary, I wasn’t referring only to the sort of con artists that come to me with a business pitch.’
Mary kept on scrolling down on the results page.
‘Searching for someone’s name on the wide web,’ Quaddracontinued, ‘right after meeting them for the first time, has become common practice nowadays. Everybody does it, including me. I’ve even seen people do it in the bathroom, just minutes after meeting someone at a bar, a club, a restaurant, or anywhere really.’
Mary’s gaze finally returned to Quaddra. She’d seen it happen too… plenty of times actually.
‘Which is completely understandable,’ Quaddra said. ‘You can find a lot about someone online and by doing so, save yourself a world of hassle.’
Mary wasn’t about to argue with that logic.
‘With such an odd name like “Quaddra”, you don’t even need to know my last name to come across dozens of online articles about me.’
Mary finally stopped scrolling. ‘So, you thought that if I knew who you really were, I’d maybe try to scam you?’ She sounded more hurt than offended, but her tone wasn’t aggressive. ‘You approached me, remember?’ She paused and thought better of her words. ‘Actually no,’ her eyebrows lifted at him. ‘Youchasedme – you didn’t have my number or my address, so you tracked down Betsy, turning up at her place of work so that you could drop off that painting, together with an invitation for tonight.’
‘I know,’ Quaddra agreed. ‘But still…’
‘Still?’ The hurt lingered in Mary’s tone.
Quaddra pulled a face at her. ‘C’mon, Mary. I know that I barely know you, but I can tell that you’re an intelligent woman. I’m sure that you can easily imagine the kind of extra attention that the word “billionaire” would generate… even on those who aren’t con artists.’
He’s got a point there,the voice inside Mary’s head commented.
Quaddra’s eyes moved to his empty wine glass and Mary could tell that right then he really wished he had ordered another bottle.
‘The truth?’ he asked.
Mary’s head tilted slightly to one side. ‘Nah, the truth is sooverrated. Can I please have the bullshit instead? That always works out much better, don’t you think?’
Quaddra lifted both hands in a surrender gesture.
