In the restaurant compartment, the atmosphere was cheerful. Left Ear, Handsome Rob and Napster had each a glass of champagne in their hands and discussed wildly about what they would do with that gold. Charlie was laughing at their conversation but when he saw her, stopped and asked her whether she liked a glass. She agreed and he want to the bar, taking two glasses. They cheered to John Bridger, father and friend as Charlie said. The champagne tasted like victory and the guys just continued feeling triumphant. Stella took it easy on the alcohol and watched with amusement the guys get deeper and deeper into foolishness. They talked of the gold and only the gold. But at one moment of the evening, somebody thought it smart to bring up old robberies. Handsome Rob mentioned the one in Budapest. They knew about three gold statues privately owned by a Hungarian billionaire. It had been a piece of cake. The mission was risky because the safe was located in a cellar extremely guarded by several cameras. But they had managed and split the profit. They made sound it a lot more adventurous than it really was, thought Stella. She was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Charlie changed seat and went to sit down beside her. The rest mocked them and laughed teasingly at them before they returned to talking nonsense.
Charlie ignored them and caressed her hair. He looked at her with attention and she smiled at him with half-closed eyes.
" How are you?"
" I'm okay. It is just that I wasn't as energetic as I thought I was. I don't know how you can support all this pressure but I'm so tired." She laughed and shivered. " I think I will go to bed."
" This has been an eventful day for you, for us all. We are more used to this than you are but I can understand what you feel."
" So you mean that I'm more tired than you because I have less experience? Thank you for portraying me as the weakest one." She turned away angrily and shacked off Charlie's hand off her hair.
" It wasn't what I…"
He didn't have to finish his sentence because Stella was already out of the room. Fatigue made some women little irritable and Stella was one of them. But Stella wasn't a stereotype. She was unique. He would make sure to excuse himself. Later.