16 ONE NIGHT TOGETHER 02 (2/2)
He'd nodded toward the counter. ”To check in.”
”Oh.” She'd smiled again, then picked up her luggage and moved to the counter. She looked over her shoulder at him as he waited in line.
The board changed; all flights were cancelled. It was going to be a long day in O'HARE, Andrew realized. But maybe, just maybe, the woman would smile at him again. For some reason he felt like they were in this mess together.
~-----------------------~
ANTIQUES were a mistake. He realized it too late, after Rose disappeared into a building crowded with aisle and aisle of old stuff. He'd just given her the perfect way to avoid him.
Andrew tried to keep up without knocking anything over. He got hung up when he tripped on a box of tools that were sticking out into the aisle, but caught up with her when she paused in front of a set of china, the kind of stuff that looked like it would break if you tried to cut a piece of beef on it. He watched as she gently picked up a teacup and turned it upside down to examine it closer.
He managed to stand beside her but stayed back from the table. ”What are you looking for?”
”The manufacturer,” she said, holding the cup toward him. ”See?”
”Limoges,” he read. ”Is that important?”
”It can be.” She set the little pink and white cup on the table filled with all sorts of china. ”If that's what you like.”
”Do you?”
”Sometimes. It depends on the colors.” She moved to a display of dish towels, fingering each one. He wondered if she was trying to avoid him, since no one could be that interested in old towels, could they?
”So Francisca was right,” he said, stepping over a copper bowl filled with dried flowers. ”You do like old stuff.”
”I love it,” she murmured, moving on to a shelf filled with glassware. Andrew watched as she checked the prices on some pink colored sets of goblets, then ran the tip of her finger around the rims in a delicate motion.
”You never know what you are going to find,” she said.
”Yeah,” he said, hoping he sounded like he knew what she was talking about. He figured there wasn't much point to shopping unless you knew what you wanted to buy in the first place.
Rose looked like she was having fun, had maybe even forgotten she was supposed to be chaperoning her lively little niece.
”What were you doing in Chicago, by the way? you never told me.”
She didn't take her eyes off the display of crystal.
”Chicago didn't happen.”
”Our night in Chicago didn't happen, the wedding isn't going to happen. Has anyone ever told you you are not very realistic?”
”I have a firm grip on reality.”
He didn't look convinced.