Page 8 of Love Among the Ruins
He sped up his footsteps in his haste to follow her, and to put a distance between him and the idiot Ioannis. He walked in and saw other servers busy refilling their trays, but the waitress was taking food from a half empty serving tray and putting it into a container which she then quickly slipped into a drawer.
He watched, puzzled and fascinated. The young woman glanced at the others in the kitchen as if she were in danger of being caught. He observed her as she calmly repeated the exercise with another half empty serving tray. Scooping up the few remaining canapes, she put them into a napkin and then into another plastic container. When she glanced around, she caught him watching her.
He moved out of the way to let the servers pass and walked towards her. Caught in the act, she threw her hands palms up, dismissively. “They throw the food away, and I hate seeing it go to waste.”
She was honest, if nothing else.
“I’m not judging you.”
“Are you lost?” she asked, without a shred of guilt.
“No.” He walked closer, saw another tray that was a quarter full of canapes. “Don’t let me stop you.” He nodded his chin indicating for her to resume her activity.
Her hands moved to the countertop, but she didn’t touch the tray. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”
“Clearly.”
“It’s not stealing if they don’t want it.”
He didn’t care what she took, and she was right about it being wasted. “It’s still stealing if it’s not yours.”
Asshole. Shut up. Let her take it.
“Ifyoutook it, then it wouldn’t be stealing?” There was a quiet challenge in her eyes, and he was momentarily thrown by her question.
“I’m a guest, I’m invited. Those canapes have my name on it.”
“You really believe that?”
He snorted. “It’s true.”
“When companies take land because they need to make hotels and they force the locals off, is that not stealing?”
He jerked his head back in surprise, assessing her as if a mask had been lifted. “Activist?” Because she sure sounded like one. Uppity little smart ass.
“Human.”
He tried to suppress the amusement that caused the corners of his mouth to lift. “Human. Yes, I can see that.”
“Not too different from you.” She wiped her hands on a napkin and moved to the other end of the kitchen where she started to fill a clean serving tray with canapes. “Why are you here?” she asked when he followed her over.
“I’m bored.”
Her face registered alarm at the comment and she stopped plating the canapes.
“Not for any reason,” he said quickly, remembering the way Ioannis had spoken of the other female party guests. He had a feeling someone looking like she did would attract a lot of attention. “I don’t reallywantto be here. I don’t like parties, or people, or mingling, so I followed you to get away from the guests.”
This time her brown eyes grew larger. “Why would you do something you don’t want to do?”
He opened his mouth then hesitated. It wasn’t usually a problem talking about business, or the company. In the US people knew the Steele name, knew who he was, but here, someone like this waitress wouldn’t, and it didn’t matter. He sensed this woman didn’t have much time for people with money. “I had to show my face. Make an appearance.” He shrugged. “I was killing time, waiting for a while before I left.”
“Hmmm.” She folded her arms and leaned back against the countertop, assessing him as if he were a curious specimen. “That’s peculiar.”
“Why?”
“Do you want me to tell the truth?”
“It hasn’t stopped you so far.”
