Page 15 of Captain Santiago and the Sky Dome Waitress
The screen went blank. Barney returned. He studied her. “What? I thought you’d like that.”
“There’s public data, and then there’s stuff thatshouldbe private,” Lucie said. “You need to figure out the difference, Barney.”
“I know the difference,” he said. “But it’s you, Lucie. That makes it a special case.”
“It’snot!” She slapped the bed. “I happen to be wearing her DNA and that’s all. Inside, I’m me. It shouldn’t make any difference what I look like, Barney!”
“But it does, doesn’t it?” Barney said softly. “He hurts when he looks at you and you hurt because you can’t help doing that to him.”
“Yes,” Lucie admitted, wheezing out the word. She plucked at the bed cover. “Did you see the way he smiled at her? He looked….”
“Happy,” Barney finished, with a nod.
“Have you ever seen him look like that before?”
Barney hesitated, and Lucie knew he was running through every image, every second of footage with Santiago in it, comparing the evidence to the Santiago in the video they’d just watched.
“Nope,” Barney said. “Santiago has never looked like that since I’ve known him. Longer than that.”
“Since Blake died,” Lucie finished.
“Yeah,” Barney said, and blew out breath he didn’t have.
~ 6 ~
On Lucie’s fourth day, a very tall woman with impressive musculature and elongated neck tattoos that shimmered whenever starlight touched them had come in for breakfast. She sat at one of Lucie’s tables, lingering to finish an entire pot of coffee.
The woman had been pleasant, which made her very nearly forgettable in the rush to serve everyone quickly. Her height and her neck tattoos made her memorable. And her very low voice, which was nearly masculine.
She came for breakfast every day after that, too.
The sixth day was a public holiday on Charlton City. Freedom day, which marked when the last of the refugees from the Periglus-claimed systems had been rescued and every last jump gate had been blown, removing for centuries any chance of the Periglus claiming another human-settled system.
As a result of the public holiday, the restaurant was jammed to overflowing, with people waiting in a line outside the door for the next available table. The rush wouldn’t drop off shortly after standard work hours began, either, Edme had warned. “They’ll wander in for a late breakfast, or brunch, or lunch or a snack. This’ll go on all day, hun!”
Lucie nodded and kept moving. There was no point resenting how busy it was. That wouldn’t change anything. She concentrated, to get every order correct. Having to deal with incorrect orders and customer complaints would slow everything down.
The tall woman asked for her usual. The largest breakfast platter and a carafe of house blend.
Lucie nodded. “Coming right up!” And she kept moving.
She delivered the woman’s plate and coffee along with the next table’s order, and hurried to collect the next meals.
Lucie had just reached the next tables with their platters when the tall woman let out a yell that made everyone jump.
Lucie turned around, her heart strumming.
The woman held up the carafe of coffee and pointed at the fat middle of the heated carafe. “What thehellis this?”
Lucie moved over to the table, and kept her voice down. “That’s our house blend. Freshly brewed, too—as we’re so busy.”
“I saidharicot blend!” the woman shouted. “This swill is fit for nothing but cleaning drains!” She had a low voice, but she was projecting with amazing effectiveness. Lucie thought that the people in the far back kitchen corner had probably heard her.
She glanced around. Cancel that.Everyonehad heard. The entire restaurant was watching them.
Lucie made herself smile at the woman. “You’ve come in for breakfast six days prior to today—” Screw being imprecise. Now was the time to beexact. “Every morning you have ordered house blend, but—”
She had been about to say that if she had made a mistake this morning, she could correct it right now, no problems, just give me the carafe….
