"Hoffman-HomeForChristmas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hoffman Abbie)

"Good. 'Bye, Bud. Got to be getting home."

"Wait. There's a reward." He pulled out two fifties and handed them to her. "And
you let me take you to dinner? And drive you home afterwards? Unless you have
your own car."

She folded the fifties, slipped them into the battered leather card case she
used as a wallet, and thought about this odd proposition. She squinted at the
empty glass on the bar. "Which number are you?" she muttered to it, "and what
were you?"

--I cradled an old-fashioned,-- said the glass, --and from the taste of his
lips, it was not his first.--

"You talking to my drink?" Amusement quirked the comer of his mouth.

Matt smiled, and took a peek at his dreamscape. She couldn't read thoughts, but
she could usually see what people were imagining. Not with Plainfield, though.
Instead of images, she saw lists and blueprints, the writing on them too small
and stylized for her to read.

He said, "Look, there's a restaurant right around the corner. We can walk to it,
if you're worried about my driving."

"Okay," she said.

He left some cash on the bar, waved at the bartender, and walked out, leaving
Matt to follow.

The restaurant was a greasy spoon; the tables in the booths were topped with red
linoleum and the menus bore traces of previous meals. At nine on Christmas Eve,
there weren't many people there, but the waitress seemed cheery when she came by
with coffee mugs and silverware. Plainfield drank a whole mugful of coffee while
Matt was still warming her hands. His eyes were slightly bloodshot.

"So," he said as he set his coffee mug down.

Matt added cream and sugar, lots of it, stirred, then sipped. "So," said
Plainfield again. "So," Matt said.

"So did you learn all my deep dark secrets from my wallet? You did look through
it, right?"

"Had to find out who owned it."

"What else did you find out?"

"You carry a lot of cash. Your credit's good. You're real worried about your
car, and you're an architect. There's two women in your life."