Specific.
Lenora’s expression softened slightly.
“Thank you.”
Meredith nodded.
No forgiveness performance.
They returned to business.
The meeting ended at 10:48 p.m.
No signatures.
NorthStar executives left for the hotel.
Peter went upstairs to call his banker.
Catherine ordered bourbon.
Martin Fields looked twenty years older than when dinner began.
Lenora took the elevator down alone.
Darius was near the host stand.
“Done?”
“No.”
“Bad?”
“Complicated.”
“Business word for bad.”
“Usually.”
He looked toward table fourteen.
“Your wine is still there.”
Lenora smiled.
“Cold?”
“Probably terrible now.”
“Perfect.”
She returned.
Sat.
The restaurant had thinned.
Meredith appeared ten minutes later.
No handbag again.
She stopped six feet away.
Lenora looked up.
Meredith pointed toward the empty chair.
“May I?”
Lenora considered.
“Yes.”
Meredith sat at the table she had tried to reclaim.
Neither spoke for a moment.
Then Meredith looked through the window.
“Thomas loved this view.”
Lenora took a sip of warm wine.
“My father hated it.”
Meredith looked surprised.
“He did?”
“He said a restaurant this high made him feel like customers were paying to forget sidewalks existed.”
Meredith laughed.
“That sounds like Isaiah.”
“You knew him?”
The question was not accusatory.
Meredith thought.
“Not enough.”
Lenora waited.
“I met Thomas in 1992.”
“Three years after opening.”
“Yes.”
“Isaiah was already married.”
“To your mother.”
“Angela.”
“Yes.”
Meredith nodded.
“We had dinners together.”
“Holiday parties.”
“Once we rented a house in Martha’s Vineyard.”
Lenora frowned.
“I don't remember that.”
“You were maybe thirteen.”
Lenora thought.
A house.
Rain.
Bikes.
A blonde woman sunbathing.
Thomas teaching Caleb to swim.
Maybe.
Meredith continued.
“Your father was funny.”
Lenora smiled.
“He thought he was.”
“That too.”
They both laughed.
Then Meredith became quiet.
“I remember him arguing with Thomas about the Miami restaurant.”
Lenora looked up.
“What argument?”
“He thought expansion was too fast.”
“That sounds right.”
“Thomas said Isaiah was afraid.”
“My father was afraid.”
Meredith seemed surprised by the easy admission.
Lenora continued.
“He had two children.”
“A heart condition.”
“A house with a mortgage.”
“Thomas liked risk more.”
“Neither trait made one man better.”