Chapter 24: I Mind

The Kestrel Room still put a single rose on every table.

Friday night, the waiter led us to the table by the window.

Desmond pulled out my chair before the man could.

I wore the green dress.

He wore the dark blue tie I had picked.

He had knotted it himself and gotten it very slightly wrong.

I decided not to fix it.

"You look nervous," I said.

"I'm terrified. The last time I sat in this room, the night ended with me telling you to get out of a car."

"It was a good tie that night too."

"It was a terrible tie."

"It was fine," I said. "You just wore it badly."

He laughed, and the couple at the next table turned to look, because nobody laughed in the Kestrel Room.

We ordered the sea bass.

I made him eat half of mine, and he made me taste his wine.

Halfway through the first course I forgot the rose and the room around it.

I told him about the publisher who had called that week about the fox book.

He told me Cedar Row's director had asked him to sit on the board.

He had said yes only if I approved.

"Do I approve?"

"I'd like to know."

"Yes," I said. "As long as you wear a name tag."

"Done."

"I mean it."

"I know you do."

We were splitting a lemon tart when a woman crossed the dining room toward us.

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