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ELAINE’S, LATE

Stone Barrington sipped his third Wild Turkey and resisted the basket of hot sourdough bread that the waiter had just placed on the table Callie was to have been there an hour and a half ago, and he was very, very hungry She’d called froround and on her way, but that had been an hour ago It just didn’t take that long to get to Elaine’s frolanced at his watch: He’d give her another three

He had been looking forward to seeing her They’d spent soether in Palm Beach a few months before, on the yacht of his client Thad Shames She was Shames’s majordomo—assistant, cook, social secretary, whatever he needed—and she moved when Shames moved, back and forth between Pal with Stone, and he missed her when she ay

“Give me a menu,” Stone said to Michael, the headwaiter

“Giving up on her?” Michael asked

“I am If I drink anyto have to send me home in a wheelbarrow”

Michael laughed and placed a ?”

“He should be here in a while; he said he had to work late” He opened the menu, and Michael stood ready, pad in hand When Stone was this hungry, everything looked good He’d ained three pounds, and he needed to get it off, but noas too hungry “I’ll have a Caesar salad and the osso buco,” he said, “and a bottle of the Amerone”

Michael jotted down the order, and as he reached for the h the front door He rose to meet her She looked wonderful, as usual, in an Arave him a short, dry kiss and sat down

“I’d given up on you,” Stone said “I just ordered”

Michael handed her a menu, but she handed it back “I’m sorry, I can’t stay for dinner,” she said

Stone looked at her, stupefied She had kept hi to have dinner?