I chose a small restaurant three blocks from my office that had no impressive exterior
and no particularly famous name, which I knew would register with Adrian the moment
we arrived. He had a habit of reading environments before entering them, not snobbery
exactly, just the particular attentiveness of a man who had spent twenty years understanding
that rooms told you things if you paid attention.
He said nothing when we walked in. Which was its own kind of comment.
Inside it was warm and close, lit in the way that made everything feel slightly more honest
than it might otherwise. Corner table. I had made the reservation three hours ago and
chosen this place specifically because I had eaten here once, alone, two weeks after
flying back to New York, and the food had been exactly wha
