Chapter Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Seven
Outside the museum building, Mary quickly crossed the open courtyard, where the laser lightshow was still going on, and hurried past the improvised bar at the impressive arched entrance.
On the red-carpet ramp, she had to zigzag her way through several arriving guests before finally making it down to the road.
‘Mary.’ She heard someone call from the ramp behind her, just as she reached the street.
She didn’t slow down or look back. Instead, with her cellphone in hand, she headed across the road to the circular fountain with the colored light show.
She was about to order an Uber when a city yellow cab pulled up by the fountain to drop a couple of guests.
Mary returned her cellphone to her handbag and rushed towards the cab.
‘Mary, please, give me just a minute.’ Thomas caught up with her just before she managed to reach the taxi.
‘I can’t right now,’ Mary replied, barely glancing back at Thomas. ‘I’ve really got to go.’
‘Please!’ Thomas pleaded, as he stopped running after her.
‘One minute, that’s all I ask.’ Instead of reaching for her arm to try to stop her, as most men would’ve probably done, Thomas kept his distance and simply raised his hands in a surrender gesture.
‘After that, if you want, you’ll never hear from me again. I promise you.’
Maybe it was the fact that he never put his hands on her to try to stop her from getting away, or maybe it was the sincerity that Mary could hear in Thomas’ tone, but something about the respectful way that he’d approached the moment made Mary hesitate and slow down.
‘One minute,’ Thomas tried again, a little out of breath. ‘That’s really all I ask.’
Mary finally turned to face Thomas.
He breathed in a lungful of oxygen before recomposing himself. ‘What just happened in there?’
‘Nothing,’ Mary replied, she too had to take a second to catch her breath. ‘I just remembered that I have somewhere else that I’ve got to be, that’s all.’
Thomas’ head angled slightly to his left, while his left eye narrowed a touch.
‘Mary, we both know that that’s not true.
Something spooked you in there.’ He threw his right thumb over his right shoulder.
‘And it wasn’t that witch with the caldron.
Either you saw someone who you didn’t want to see, or I said or did something that completely rattled you. ’
‘No,’ Mary insisted, giving Thomas a firmer headshake. ‘Nothing like that. I just really remembered someth—’
‘Mary, please.’ Though Thomas cut her short, his tone was non-challenging…
almost apologetic. ‘I promise you that I’m not as stupid as I look.
We both know that you don’t really have somewhere else that you need to be right now.
That was just the first excuse that popped into your head because something happened in there…
something that frightened you. I saw the shift, Mary.
I saw it in your eyes… on your face… on your demeanor.
I heard the change in your voice too. And that shift… that change… was fear.’
Mary moved her weight from one foot to the other.
‘And I get it,’ Thomas continued. ‘If I were in an exhibition, or a party, or wherever, and something spooked me, I’d also come up with a quick excuse and just leave.
That’d be the most natural reaction for us all.
I just want to understand it because I really don’t think that option one is the correct one here, which leaves me with one single option – I either said or did something that completely rattled you.
’ Thomas, once again, lifted a finger to pause Mary before she had a chance to say something back.
‘Whatever that was, Mary, I’m truly sorry for it.
Whatever that was, I did it without realizing that it would upset or scare you.
I just really don’t have the slightest clue of what that was. ’
While he spoke, Mary had been observing Thomas – his posture, his facial expressions, his mannerism, and once again, she failed to pick up any signs that could lead her to believe that he was lying.
‘Could you please just help me understand what was it that I did or said that got you so on edge? That’s all I ask. After that, I promise you, I’ll walk away and you’ll never hear from me again.’
Through the corner of her eye, Mary saw the yellow cab take off, but she didn’t panic.
Instead, she held Thomas’ stare one more time.
The sparkle in his eyes had vanished once again, this time substituted by what Mary read as confusion and sadness, but even then, despite the tense moment, the silence that followed didn’t feel at all awkward.
Thomas waited, hoping that Mary would say something, anything that could help him understand what he’d done wrong, but she said nothing back. He allowed the moment to fade before giving Mary a sad nod, signaling that he understood that he should just go.
‘For what it’s worth, Mary,’ he said, as he finally gave up and turned to walk away, ‘tonight was one of the best nights I’ve had in a very long time.
’ His smile was shy, but truthful. ‘Once again, I’m sorry for whatever I did wrong.
It was never my intention to upset you.’ He waved her goodbye.
‘Take care of yourself, OK?’ And with those words, he turned and walked away.