Page 69 of The Kidnapped

“I have this weird thing that I’m usually cold, but when I get nervous, I get extra cold. I don’t know what causes it.”

“You’re nervous?” Hollis asked.

“For my first date in half a decade? Yeah, I’m nervous. Are you not?”

“No, I am,” Hollis said, smiling.

“Right this way,” the hostess told them to follow her as she carried two menus and walked them through the rows of tables.

“Raleigh, hey,” a man wearing a tie and a button-down light-blue shirt with his sleeves rolled up said as he approached them once they’d arrived at their table. “I thought I saw you out front.”

“Hey,” Raleigh replied.

“I haven’t seen you in here in forever.”

“It’s been a while, yeah,” Raleigh said, sitting down.

“I’ll send an appetizer your way. What do you want?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m here with someone, so give us a minute to look over the menu.”

“It hasn’t changed much,” he noted.

“I know. But my date hasn’t been here before,” she said, nodding in Hollis’s direction.

“Sorry,” the man said, looking at Hollis. “Taking the hint. It’s good to see you.”

He walked away, leaving Hollis wondering what that had been about. When they sat down, the hostess handed them their menus, wished them a good meal, and left.

“So…” Hollis said.

“I used to work here,” Raleigh explained. “In college, for a couple of years. That’s the owner. I waited tables at first and then moved behind the bar where the tips were better.”

“I’ve managed to take you to a place where you used to work? You’ve probably had everything on this menu a hundred times.”

“I haven’t been here in years.” Raleigh smiled as she opened the menu. “I think the last time was one of those last-chance dates with Millie.”

“Last-chance dates?”

“Oh, you know, the ones where you already know it’s pretty much over, but you put in the effort one more time. We did that a lot. We had last-chance dates all over town.”

“You really wanted it to work,” Hollis said softly, opening her own menu.

“We were together for years – you don’t just give up when you once thought that this person was the person,” Raleigh replied. “Now I know that she wasn’t, but back then, I couldn’t see how our relationship could end. It seemed particularly awful because we still loved each other. Millie was miserable about something neither of us could control or help, and that made me miserable, which meant I wasn’t always nice to her. It was this vicious circle of sadness turning to anger, turning to apologies, and back to sadness and anger.”

“I’m sorry,” Hollis offered in response.

“Don’t be. She’s where she should be.”

“And you?”

“I’m trying to move on,” Raleigh said.

They ordered an appetizer and drinks first before the waiter came back and took their entrée order. Hollis had gone with sparkling water since she’d driven, but Raleigh had ordered wine that she’d offered Hollis a sip of.

“Dylan texted that she was able to eliminate one of the women in the pictures.”

“Yeah?” Hollis asked, looking down at her salad.

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