slender. His hair was cut short and his thin mustache was carefully trimmed. His pale beige linen suit was stylishly loose. His shirt was an off-white, his tie was a shiny beige silk, and his shoes were light tan with pointed toes. His skin was the color of coffee with milk. Talk about color-coordinated.
'So you still haven't told me,' April said, 'what you're doing here in town.'
'Patricia Utley called me, told me you'd left and she couldn't find you.'
'She knows where I am,' April said. 'I talked with Steven.'
'When he found you.'
'I'm a big girl now,' April said. 'I don't have to tell everybody everything I'm doing.'
'That's true,' I said.
'So why are you here?'
'Well, at first I came down to find you, in case something bad had happened, but now I get here and you're okay, I just wanted to make sure you'd made a wise career move.'
'I know what I'm doing,' April said.
'That puts you one up on me,' I said. 'How come you decided to make the change?'
She poked at her eggs with the points of her fork. She made a small shrugging motion, like a bad habit almost broken.
'How'd you hear about Tiger Lilies?' I said.
'A guy I know,' April said.
'And the minute you heard the name you were enthralled,' I said.
She poked at her eggs some more, her shoulders frozen in their semi-shrug.
'I've got to be a part of it, you said. Tiger Lilies are my life, you said.'
April shook her head. 'No,' she said. 'You don't have to make fun of me. It wasn't like that.'
'So what was it?'
'Like I told you, it was a guy I knew.'
'He wanted you to work for Tiger Lilies?'
'He said it would be good for me,' April said.
'Was he right?'
April nodded vigorously.
'Will it be good for you next year?'
April frowned. 'Of course,' she said.
'How can you be sure?'
'He says so.'
'How do you know he's right?'
'He loves me,' April said. She looked straight at me. 'And I love him.'
'What could be better,' I said.
'You're in love,' she said.
I nodded.
'Well, I am too. You think a hooker can't be in love?'
'With a guy who wants you to keep hooking?' I said.
'He's a musician. He's studying at Juilliard. As soon as he starts making money, I'll quit. Right now it's something I can do for him.'
'Juilliard?' I said.
'Yes. You don't know what Juilliard is? It's just the best music school in the world.'
'I know what Juilliard is,' I said.
'And what I do when I'm hooking is just my job. It's not anything like what we do.'
'You and the musician?'
She nodded hard. 'That's right. What we do is love.'
'What's the musician's name?'
'Why do you want to know?'
'I hate calling him the musician,' I said. 'What if I have to give the bride away?'
She paused. Her eyes flickered toward the counter. A woman wearing a lavender cape and a huge hat came in, paused on the platform, then swept down into the restaurant. It was like watching The Loretta Young Show.
'His name's Robert,' she said.
