Chapter Six

Wrong Turn

Adrian comes out five minutes later, fully dressed, his close-cropped hair dry and his glasses straight again. He stops in the doorway and looks at Jack, still standing there, still faintly sheepish.

“I was about to get brunch,” Adrian says. “Unless hotel security has somewhere else they need to escort you.”

“I think I’m cleared to move around unsupervised now.”

“We’ll see.” But he’s smiling as he says it, locking the door behind him. “Come on. There’s a place two blocks down. You can tell me about your sister on the way.”

“There’s not much to tell. Sam’s married to a good guy — doesn’t say much, but he’s about the only person who’s ever managed to make her sit still for an entire dinner.”

“That sounds like a fairly high compliment.”

“It is.” Jack shrugs. “Fifteen years. She deserves something decent. Not just decent — she’d know if it was just decent.”

Adrian glances sideways at him, and doesn’t say anything for a second.

“I think this matters more to you than you say.”

“I’m invested in not getting yelled at.”

“Of course.” Adrian smiles.

The place is small, with mostly outdoor seating, the kind of spot that does a good business in eggs, toasted bread and double espressos. They sit across from each other at a table too small for the amount of tension currently at it, and for a minute neither of them says anything. The last twenty minutes still feel oddly present between them.

“So,” Adrian says eventually, stirring sugar into his double espresso long after it has dissolved. “How long were you standing in that lobby, actually? Before you worked up the nerve?”

“Longer than I’d like to admit.”

“That bad?”

“I rehearsed what I was going to say. In the car. Out loud.” Jack shakes his head at himself. “Like an idiot.”

“And yet you still got in the elevator.”

“Apparently I was motivated enough.”

Adrian’s eyes stay on him a beat longer, as though he’s noted the word and filed it away for later.

“You could have just asked for my number last night,” Adrian says. “Would’ve saved you the whole ordeal.”

“I know that now.”

“You knew it then.”

“I was distracted.”

Adrian’s raised eyebrow lasts about half a second before his attention drops rather abruptly to his jacket pocket.

“Before you involve any more hotel employees.” He holds out a hand. “Give me your phone.”

Jack hands it over. Adrian types something in, quick and efficient, and hands it back.

“There. Now you can ask me about wine without triggering a security response.”

“Good to know that’s the only thing I’m allowed to ask about.”

“I didn’t say that.”

The food arrives, and the conversation settles into something easier. Jack asks about the walking, whether Adrian always wanders around cities with no destination, or whether that first afternoon had just been a fluke.

“Not always,” Adrian says. “Sometimes I just need to be somewhere nobody expects anything from me. No crew, no passengers, no schedule. Just — walking.”

“And when you’re home?”

Adrian turns the cup once on its saucer. “Back home I have a schedule for almost everything. Maybe that’s why I walk when I’m away.”

“Because there’s no schedule?”

“Something like that.” He gives a small shrug. “Nobody needs me for an hour. That’s nice.”

“And you ended up in my garage.”

“Apparently I took a wrong turn.”

“Didn’t look wrong from where I was standing.”

Adrian glances up at that, holds Jack’s eyes for a second, then looks back down at his plate.

“So how much time do I have before the airline takes you back?” Jack asks.

“I fly out the day after tomorrow. So tonight’s really my only night to have a few drinks. Tomorrow night I need to behave. I can’t show up to work hungover.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Is it?”

“Depends what you were planning to do tonight.”

Adrian doesn’t answer right away. He takes a sip of his espresso instead, watching Jack over the rim of the small cup, letting the silence do some of the talking.

“That playlist in the garage, the first day,” Adrian says, changing the subject just enough. “Was it yours?”

“You came in because of the music?”

“The music made me stop.” Adrian says it lightly, but his eyes drop to his espresso almost immediately. “Everything after that was your fault.”

Jack laughs, a short, surprised sound. “I’ll take partial credit.”

“You can have full credit. I was perfectly happy walking past.”

“Sure you were.”

“I was very committed to my walk.”

“Until you weren’t.”

“Until I wasn’t.”

Jack pays before Adrian can reach for his wallet, waving off the protest that comes immediately.

“You came for wine advice,” Adrian says. “That doesn’t make this your treat.”

“No,” Jack agrees, standing. “But coming back tonight does.”

Adrian doesn’t say anything to that. He just picks up his phone from the table, and there, already sitting in his messages, is a new one.

Jack: Now you have mine too. No security required.

He looks up. “Very efficient.”

“I’m learning.”

They stand there for a moment on the sidewalk, neither in a hurry to be the one who leaves first.

“I should actually go buy that wine,” Adrian says eventually. “Properly, I mean. There’s a decent shop not far from here. I saw it on my walk. I’d rather choose the bottle myself. Otherwise I’ll tell you what to look for and spend the evening worrying about what you might come back with.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.” Adrian says it simply, like it’s not really up for discussion. “It’ll give me something to do with my afternoon. And I’d rather actually help your sister than just tell you what to buy.”

Jack looks at him for a second, more pleased by that than he expected.

“I’ve got about six things at the shop I’m behind on. Guy’s supposed to pick up his truck by four, and it’s nowhere close to ready.”

“Then we’re both busy.”

“Looks like it.”

Neither of them moves.

“Tonight,” Jack says finally. “Seven-ish? I’ll text you where.”

“Seven-ish.” Adrian nods, his answering smile easy and warm. “I’ll be the one who isn’t answering the door in his underwear this time.”

“Shame,” Jack says before he can stop himself, and immediately feels heat rise at the back of his neck.

Adrian just laughs, delighted, already turning to go. “Goodbye, Jack.”

“Goodbye, Adrian.”