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They found a quiet corner table in the restaurant.
The food was delicious.
"This is amazing. How did you find me?" James
asked.
Sue grinned. "I didn't. I had a job along the
street last night doing data entry work. I'm trying
to get some money from them." She shifted uneasily.
"They fired me."
"There's a lot of that about."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Some of my friends got fired today," he
said. "I might be next on the list."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
I need to get out of this job. It isn't making me happy.
But we're trying to buy a house so I'd like to stay
another six months. Debbie would kill me if I lost my
job now."
"Debbie?"
"My wife."
"Uhuh," said Sue, in a tone that James wasn't
entirely sure he could interpret.
"Wish I could be a fly on the boardroom wall right
now. They laid off a quarter of our workforce this morning.
I've love to know what's really going on."
"It's that bad?"
He nodded. "Pretty desperate."
On impulse James took a business card from his pocket
and tried to write on the back. Every time he moved
the pen the card moved with it. "Can you hold this
for me?" A tiny voice in his head cried "No!"
but he ignored it. Susan pinned the card to the table
while he wrote his cell phone number.
"If you'd like to have lunch again will you call
me? Please?"
She read the back of the card and then the front. "I'd
like to."
"I'm very pleased we met again."
They looked at each other in silence. Finally Sue broke
the ice.
"I got another job."
"Already? You're quick."
"Trust me, the sort of jobs I take aren't very
hard to find." She grinned cheerfully. "I'm
a student. I'm supposed to get crummy jobs."
"Don't tell me," James joked. "Waitressing?"
She nodded. "In a bar downtown. They tell me the
tips are good." James smiled. He knew it was wrong
but he found her enchanting.
He put his pen back into his jacket pocket. When he
looked up he noticed that Kath was standing at the counter
waiting to pay for her meal.
"Oh, shit! Shit!" He began to panic, wondering
whether she had already spotted them.
"What?"
"The woman over there in green. She can't see
me with you."
He began to get up. "I can't explain. Look, pretend
you don't know me. Pretend we were just sharing a table.
I'll try to act like I just got here and I went to the
bathroom before I ordered, and..."
"No." Sue grabbed his arm surprisingly firmly
and pulled him back into his seat. "It's OK. Trust
me. Just eat your lunch and stay cool. Let me handle
this." Sue was thinking fast.
"You don't understand," James protested but
then the strangest thing happened. He looked over at
Kath and saw that she had spotted him. He smiled and
waved and then turned back at Sue, but she was gone.
James was stunned. He looked behind him.
Kath left the line and came over to his table. "Eating
alone?"
How could he say yes? Sue's food was still on the table.
"Erm. I bumped into an old colleague. Will you
join us?"
"Where is he?"
James was beginning to regain some composure. "Well,
he's there," He gestured towards Sue's tray. "So
why don't you sit here?" He shuffled over to leave
space for Kath.
"He's where?" Kath was looking confused,
staring at the empty seat.
James looked too and realized that now there was no
sign of Sue's tray.
"Umm." He looked towards the food counter.
"That's a good question. Where is he?" He
stood and looked around the restaurant. "He was
here a moment ago? Where did he go?"
Kath took a seat and began to unwrap her chop sticks.
She was watching him carefully.
"Hey, well. He'll show up. He works on Wall Street.
I guess he might have been paged," James explained,
hoping the suggestion didn't sound as lame to her as
it had to him. "Or something."
"You know, soldier," Kath said, slowly and
suspiciously. "We need to talk about that bump
on your head."
A few feet above them Sue hovered. She was tired so
she lay in the air with the tray resting on her belly,
her legs crossed at the ankles. While she ate she eavesdropped
on James' conversation. At first she was sure the woman
was James' wife, but it gradually became clear that
she was not. So why he was so eager to keep her hidden?
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