Page 97 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

“You look very worried.”

“I’m not. I’m only just... This is outside my experience.”

“It won’t be. Not in a couple of months.”

Months. Two months of this.

“No.” But it would be over then. Of course. That was the truth of it.

Her mouth filled with a metallic tang, and she chose to ignore it.

They walked up into the restaurant, and were ushered into a glorious, well-appointed corner. It was an old-style place, dark inside, rather than bright and modern like so many of the newer restaurants tended to be. It had a classic British menu, and she found herself charmed by it.

She found herself forgetting that they were on display.

What if she just pretended? What if just tonight she pretended that she was on a date with a beautiful man. What harm could it do? Anyway, it would allow her to be all that much more natural.

“I really never dreamed that I would travel the world,” she said.

Sometimes it still shocked her to realize that she had. Sometimes she would count through all the countries she had been to—many of them since she had started working for the constantly in motion Matias—and she had to pinch herself.

“You didn’t?”

“No. I’m from a small town. People don’t really travel. I mean, sometimes they go to Disneyland, because it’s not a very long drive. Only twelve hours.”

“I forget how intrepid you Americans are with driving.”

“The West Coast particularly is big. The states I mean. They’re quite vast. So if you want to go to another state you have to drive.”

“Like countries here.”

“Yes. True.”

“Where you from?”

“Oregon,” she said.

She looked around. People were making conversation in the restaurant, and there was music. No one would be able to hear exactly what they were saying. They simply looked like they were engaging in conversation.

“A place I have never been.”

“You should go. It’s beautiful.” She thought maybe it was a little bit of a silly thing to say to a man with a private jet who could fly absolutely anywhere. But she did stand by that. She had been to so many places now, and she still thought her home state was one of the most beautiful places she had ever been to. Someday, she would probably go back and live there. Someday.

It would be different to live there if she wasn’t stuck.

“It is cold there, isn’t it?”

“Not as cold as some places in the US. And if you’re thinking of all the rain, you’re thinking of the northern part of the state. It actually gets very hot where I’m from.”

“That would work for me,” he said. “I’m used to Spain and I did a significant amount of business in London.”

“Do you prefer London to Spain?”

“You would have to be a fool not to prefer Spain. In my opinion.”

“You don’t spend a ton of time there.”

“I have memories there that are far too complicated.”