“I heard enough.”
Christopher rubbed his hand across his mouth.
“I didn’t realize who you were.”
Steven became very still.
“I came here for coffee,” he said, “and because I wanted to meet the man my daughter plans to marry.”
There it was.
Victoria was Christopher’s fiancée.
Christopher looked at me again.
And suddenly I was no longer the old woman taking up valuable space with an unattractive dog.
“Please,” he said quickly. “Sit down. Mary can bring your coffee, and we’ll get you something to eat.”
He actually pulled out a chair for me.
Ten seconds earlier, I hadn’t been worth one.
Mary placed the water in front of me.
“Thank you, dear.”
Then she leaned slightly closer.
“There isn’t a thirty-dollar rule.”
Christopher heard her.
“Mary.”
She looked directly at him.
“There isn’t.”
Something settled inside me.
He hadn’t been enforcing a policy.
