Traffic was light on the boulevard that long after rush hour, but the few cars made up for the light volume with excessive speed. The rain hissed under their tires as they passed. Ted silently cursed the Uber driver for not making the U-turn and depositing them in front of the door.

“Ready to make a dash?” he said. “The light’s about to change.”

“I can’t get these shoes wet.”

“Shall I carry you?”

“No. I’ll fly across on my broomstick.”

The light was a block away. It turned red. They waited until a delivery truck rumbled by, brakes squealing as it approached the intersection, and then they ran.

“I specifically asked for that table over there,” Kenzie said, exhibiting a pout that would have melted the heart of any man.

The maître d’ shrugged. He had no heart.

“There’s no one sitting there,” she said. “It’s an obvious mistake.”

“Reserved,” he said.

“By me,” she said.

He shrugged again. The action perfectly communicated the thought: he didn’t give a rat’s ass what they wanted, or what they had requested, or even if they walked out in high dudgeon. On a tired Tuesday night, he still had a line of people waiting for a canceled reservation. Ted considered tipping him a dollar for the pure pleasure of pissing him off but decided he would rather remain forgettable.

“Just send a waiter over.” He held Kenzie’s chair for her.

“We’re not going to be able to hear a thing,” she said.

Kenzie’s sources had told her that the LBC people had a long-standing Tuesday night reservation for the large round table in the corner of the middle dining room. The fireplace and a wainscoted wall provided privacy on two sides. An aisle cut off the big table from all but one deuce. She had asked for that two-top, claiming it was where her husband had proposed, and been assured by the woman on the phone that she could have it. If the request had made it into the reservation book—which Ted doubted—the maître d’ had ignored it.

“It’s so noisy in here we wouldn’t have heard much anyway,” Ted said. “At least from here we can stare without being obvious.”

The table they’d been given was across the room, tucked behind two four-tops that were already occupied. They wouldn’t be invisible, but they were partially shielded.