CHAPTER NINE
He watched her out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to draw attention to himself.
She was on a date at an upscale restaurant in West Hollywood, and it looked like it hadn’t gone well. As he sat on the covered patio of the coffeehouse across the street, he watched through the giant street-facing windows of the restaurant as she stood up, said something to the man across the table, and headed in the direction of the restroom. That all seemed normal.
But then the coffeehouse man noticed that, after walking toward the back of the restaurant, she suddenly veered left, going around the back of the bar. Then she returned to the front entrance, which was out of sight of her date, who had his back to the hostess stand.
She spoke to the hostess and handed her something that he thought might be cash. Then she came out front and gave her ticket to the valet. She glanced back in the direction of her table nervously as if concerned that her date might start to wonder where she was.
As the coffeehouse man continued to watch, he stood up, too. If Evelyn Channing was leaving, that was his cue. This had gone better than he’d expected. He assumed he’d have to sit around all evening, waiting to see if Evelyn would go home alone or with her date. If it was the latter, the plan would have to be delayed. But it looked like he’d be able to go through with it after all.
He adjusted his baseball cap, making sure the brim was low enough to cover his eyes. It was probably overkill. The chances that the police would check surveillance video of the coffeehouse across the street from the where Evelyn ate were small, but he was still going to take appropriate precautions.
As he wandered out of the place, he kept half an eye on Evelyn. She was as beautiful as ever. He remembered the first time he saw her at an event, across the dark but crowded room. Statuesque, with long blonde hair that reached her lower back and a curvy but athletic frame, she was hard to turn away from.
He remembered the mix of longing and resentment he felt that first time he laid eyes on her as he watched her pair up with a guy who looked like a male model. It was clear that they were hitting it off in all the ways that mattered. Watching Evelyn with her date tonight had initially created the same churning pit of desire and malice in his gut.
But as she watched the valet pull up in her silver BMW, the feeling settled slightly. She wasn’t going home with her date. The coffeehouse man briefly wondered what the date had said or done to turn her off so quickly. She’d barely been at the table fifteen minutes when she stood up and he’d noticed that she never even took a sip of her drink.
Now, as she handed the valet a tip, she glanced back at the hostess inside the restaurant’s main door and nodded. The hostess nodded back at her before walking over to Evelyn’s date and leaning over to speak to him as she placed something on the table.
As the coffeehouse man hurried to his car, parked on the street in front of the place, he noted that the hostess had put cash down on the table. It occurred to him that Evelyn was paying for the drink she hadn’t sipped and wouldn’t finish. Unfortunately, it took her date a few extra seconds to figure that out. By the time he stood up and started looking around, Evelyn was in her car and pulling away from the curb.
Her date might not be going home with her tonight. But someone would. The coffeehouse man got into his own car and eased into traffic behind Evelyn. He already knew where she lived, but he wanted to follow her anyway.
To him, it was like foreplay.