"Fancy seeing you here. What's the occasion? Not a social visit surely?" Hadrian asked as Cara walked into his office.
"Someone brought in a virus and it's taking down all the computers. I'm here to check yours. Are you doing anything? Can you save it?"
"No, I'm not working on it now. Go ahead." He got up out of his chair to let her sit in it while she worked. "Did you talk to Maddie?"
"No, I haven't seen her. She's been laying low, avoiding me. With good reason, I suppose." She shrugged. "Have you seen her?"
"No. Do you think she'll come this week?"
Cara shook her head. "Not if she can figure out another way to get out of it. Not only will she think she's getting in the way, she'll probably still be avoiding me."
"Do you want her to come?"
Cara turned from her survey of the computer to look at Hadrian. "Of course I do! No offense, but it doesn't look good for me to be going out to eat with you alone." She turned back to the keyboard. "Why? Don't you want her to come?"
"Well, she hasn't been much help."
"You could find another person to give you an opinion. It would be much more appropriate that way. For that matter you could find several other people. I'm not essential either."
"You've been giving me very good information –" he protested.
"That any one of the other computer support people could give you." She waved off the comment with one hand and continued typing with the other. "Ask one of them."
"But they aren't so entertaining at lunch."
"I see. You prefer people you can steal forks from." Cara felt more and more prickly the more he insisted on lunch.
"Tell you what. I'll talk to Maddie about Friday, okay?" Hadrian said, trying to coax her into a better mood so she would agree to come.
"Whatever. Your computer is clean. Let me know if you don't find someone else for Friday, so I know whether to bring my own fork."
.….
"Cara? This is Hadrian. I was just calling to tell you to bring a fork with you tomorrow."
"Who's coming?" she asked warily.
"Maddie. I told her you would hunt her down if she didn't."
"I thought you said she wasn't very useful?"
"She's useful enough. I have plenty of time to get more information if I need it."
Cara sighed. "All right. I'll see you tomorrow."
.….
When Cara got to the lobby at lunch the next day, Maddie was waiting there with Hadrian.
"Whose car are we taking this time?" Cara asked.
"Mine," Maddie volunteered.
"Then, let's go." Cara started walking. "Where are we going?"
"I thought that hamburger place on Fourth would be good," Hadrian said.
"You're dragging me along on this and you want to go to a fast food place? Cheapskate," Cara said.
"Then where do you want to go?"
"Not Chinese. How about Italian?"
"All right," he agreed.
They reached Maddie's car and Cara claimed the back seat. She opened the door and pushed over the dry cleaning sitting on the seat. Remembering Maddie's excuse from the first meeting, she wondered how long Maddie's dry cleaning usually sat around before making it to the cleaners.
They arrived at the restaurant and ordered. The conversation remained solely on work until Maddie dripped tomato sauce down the front of her blouse.
"You'd better go rinse that. Let me come help you," Cara offered.
"No, that's all right. I can do it myself. I'll be right back."
Cara watched Maddie make her way to the ladies' room then turned back to her lunch.
"What's this I hear about a party for the holidays? Maddie asked me about it earlier."
"It's just a holiday party. They have it every year for Christmas and New Year's. Is she after you, too? She started bugging me about it just after Thanksgiving. This hiding from me has to be killing her. She can't pester me about it every day."
"She only asked me if I was going and who I was going with."
Cara nodded. "And are you?"
"Going? I don't know. I certainly haven't asked anyone yet. What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Are you going?"
"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I try not to think about it more than I have to," she answered in a tone that stated she was not going if she had any say about it.
"You should go."
"Why?" Cara asked.
"Why not?" he asked back. "We could go together. Kill three birds with one stone. Neither one of us would have to worry about looking for a date and Maddie would be sublimely happy."
As if conjured by the mention of her name, Maddie reappeared at the table still splotched with a tomato stain. "I'm going to have to run home and change," she said as she grabbed her coat. "You guys stay here and finish your lunch. I'll come back to pick you up. I'll be as quick as I can. Could you get the rest of mine in a to-go box for me to eat later? Thanks."
Cara watched her leave again, thinking, "How convenient," then said to Hadrian, "Are you sure that making Maddie sublimely happy is an incentive?"
"Spreading joy is always a good thing. 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Or, if that doesn't suit you, what about 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?'"
"I only wish I would get some of the done unto back once in a while."
"Maybe you should start trying to set Maddie up with people. Maybe that's what she wants and why she's always trying to set you up."
Cara barked a short laugh. "She's got a boyfriend. She's always talking about him."
"Have you ever met him?"
"No, why would I?"
Hadrian shrugged. "If you haven't seen him, he might not exist. She might be making him up."
"If she isn't making him up, it would be in poor taste to try to set her up with someone else." She cut off a bite of manicotti. " Besides I don't know anyone to introduce her to."
"It was just a thought. Maybe I know someone I could introduce her to."
"I'm sure she'd love that."
"First, we have to determine if there really is a boyfriend. Is she going to the party?"
"I assume so."
"Good. Then she'll bring him along as a date. We'll see then." He resumed eating his veal parmigiana with an air of satisfaction.
"We?"
"Of course. You have to go to see. We'll go together."
"I never said I would. Don't you have a girlfriend you can bring?"
"No. I'm completely available." He grinned widely. Cara thought he looked too pleased with himself, as if this was the perfect solution to a difficult problem. A solution he had engineered?
"Mm-hmm. And what is Maddie doing for you to put you up to this?"
"Nothing. Maddie has nothing to do with this other than the fact that she was the first one to mention the party to me," he said earnestly.
Cara tried to read his face to catch him lying, but could detect nothing behind his green eyes.
"Honest. I just want you to go to the holiday party with me," he insisted.
"I doubt it, but let's see what you're up to," she thought. "Oh, all right I'll go with you," Cara relented. "Maddie will flip when she hears this." Cara hoped she would not regret this.