“To the house on the river?”

“That’s what I heard. Security for some big meeting. They were talking about it. When you tend bar you’re just part of the furniture.”

“They say why?”

Kelly looked at him curiously, as if she was seeing him in a different light.

“Security. A meeting. You think it has something to do with the girl?”

The words had no sooner escaped her mouth when she realized how naïve her question must have seemed to the man across the bar. It wasn’t about the girl. He wasn’t about the girl.

Simonjaq thought it was time to lighten the mood, so he held his hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Simonjaq." When her hand met his he noticed that it was soft and a bit damp from her work, but the grip was firm.

"With no first name that you use. I heard. I'm Kelly, with no last name that you need to know."

"It's Arthur.”

She preferred Simonjaq. "Last beer? she asked.

He had already had three, with a shot of adrenaline as a chaser, and the combination was not doing anything good for his mood. He thought he should leave, but Kelly had already moved away and was filling a new glass. The empty bar was curiously intimate, and after she sat the glass down on its paper coaster, she stood watching him. Reading her gaze, he asked the question.

"What time do you get off?"

"In time to go to bed, cowboy. Alone," she responded, with a playful smile that included her gray-green eyes.