"You should do whatever is best for you and your career."
"I'll miss being able to annoy you."
"I'll miss being annoyed. You know, I'd like to call you sometime in Philadelphia."
They both were silent.
Then he said, "This is really a surprise. May I see you now?"
She wondered what it would lead to, if she saw him tonight. She wondered if that was what she really wanted. She hadn't wanted to get too close to Chip, while her brother was in jail. But now she was leaving and would be off stage. Chip was the most appealing and solid man she had ever met. She knew him well enough to know they would begin with an embrace this evening and end with a distressing goodbye in the early hours tomorrow. Of course, there would be a brief epilog, she imagined, of subsequent long distance calls and e-mails that would lessen and eventually give way to the daily substance of their separated lives. That would be how it ends.
"Why don't we meet at Raymond's apartment in one hour?" she said with some hesitation. "You know where it is, you tore it apart."
"Okay, one hour it is. Where are you now?"
"The Jardin, I'm in my car in the parking lot. I was checking on Elena's story. I wanted to know if this was a love thing or a sinister plot. I just saw her mother inside. She said she couldn't talk inside because someone is always watching her. She told me to go on outside and wait."
"Her mother? What the hell? Sandy, I want you to drop that part of your digging. Don't go to see any of that family or even nose around. Drop it right now. Let me handle it. You're playing with the big boys there. Where are you anyway?"
"In my car in the parking lot out at the Jardin Café. I met with the mother inside for a couple of minutes. She's really shook, Chip, really shook. Thought I was police when I first walked up and jumped a foot. Said she couldn't talk inside because someone is always watching her or something like that. She told me to go on outside and we could talk. I'm going to shake something loose one way or another. I'm waiting for her to come out now."
"Sandy, get out of there! You're sitting alone in a dark parking lot in that little plaything you call a car. You've probably got the top down."
Then, over to her left, she heard an engine roar and saw a huge vehicle swing into the lot. It stopped abruptly in the middle of the driveway. The vehicle stayed where it stopped, motionless. She sat there harshly illuminated, targeted in the headlight's glare.