Eleanor stepped onto the pavement wearing her beige coat and carrying the same old brown handbag.
Richard watched her pay the driver.
She thanked the doorman as she entered.
When she saw Richard waiting near the reception desk, she stopped.
"Mr. Halston."
"Mrs. Grant."
The hostess approached Eleanor quietly.
"Mrs. Grant, Mr. Halston has asked whether you might be willing to speak with him. You are under no obligation to do so."
Eleanor looked at Richard.
"Is that right?"
"Yes," he said.
She considered him for a moment.
"Would you like to have dinner?"
Richard had prepared several sentences during the drive.
He had rehearsed an explanation of his behavior, an acknowledgment of the misunderstanding, and a proposal to discuss the matter privately.
He had not prepared for that question.
"Yes," he said. "If you don't mind."
"I don't mind."
Eleanor turned toward the dining room.
"Then let's eat first."
They were seated at Table Twelve.
Richard noticed the significance immediately.
The table he had once questioned was now the place where he had been invited to sit.
But Eleanor did not make a point of it.
She simply placed her handbag on the chair beside her and opened the menu.
Richard studied his own menu without reading it.
Finally, he spoke.
"I owe you an apology."
Eleanor looked up.
"All right."
He waited.
She waited, too.
Richard realized that she was not going to make the apology easier by reassuring him.
He took a breath.
"I judged you by your appearance. I decided that you didn't belong at this table because your clothes did not match my idea of the people who should sit here."
Eleanor listened.
"I told myself that I was protecting the restaurant's standards. But the truth is that I was making an assumption about you without knowing anything about you."
He looked down at his hands.
"I was wrong."
Eleanor remained silent for a moment.
Then she asked, "What made you decide to come here?"
Richard looked up.
"Because I realized that my behavior was wrong."
"Only that?"
He hesitated.
"No."
She nodded.
"Please continue."
Richard swallowed.
"I also discovered that you have a connection to the restaurant's founding trust. That information made me reconsider the situation."
Eleanor's expression remained calm.
"Why?"
"Because I realized I might have insulted someone with authority over the place."
She looked at him for several seconds.
"That is honest."
Richard felt a brief sense of relief.
Then Eleanor continued.
"But it is not yet the answer I hoped to hear."
His relief disappeared.
"What do you mean?"
"If I had been an ordinary woman with no connection to the restaurant, would you still have come to apologize?"
Richard opened his mouth.
He wanted to say yes.
He wanted to believe that the answer was obvious.
But he could not be certain.
He remembered how he had spoken to Daniel. He remembered the way he had demanded information from the manager. He remembered the irritation he had felt when employees refused to treat his money as a reason to ignore their obligations.
He had not gone home that night thinking about the harm he might have caused.
He had gone home thinking about who Eleanor was.
"I don't know," he admitted.
Eleanor nodded slowly.
"That is the most important answer you've given me."
Richard looked troubled.
"I wish I could give you a better one."
"So do I."
A waiter approached.
It was Daniel.
He looked between them.
"Good evening. May I take your orders?"
Eleanor smiled.
"Soup for me, please. And the roasted vegetables."
Daniel turned to Richard.
"And for you, sir?"
Richard glanced at the menu.
"The same."
Daniel wrote down the order.
"Certainly."
He began to leave.
Richard stopped him.
"Daniel?"
The waiter turned.
"Yes, sir?"
"I owe you an apology as well."
Daniel looked surprised.
"For what?"
"For the way I spoke to you last Thursday. You were doing your job, and I treated you as though your responsibility was to satisfy me rather than follow the restaurant's policies."
Daniel was quiet.
Richard continued.
"I was rude. I tried to pressure you into disclosing another guest's private information. You were right to refuse."
Daniel glanced at Eleanor, then back at Richard.
"Thank you for saying that, sir."
Richard nodded.
Daniel returned to the service station.
For several moments, neither Eleanor nor Richard spoke.
Then Eleanor said, "That was a good start."
Richard gave a small, rueful smile.
"I seem to be collecting apologies."
"Perhaps you have been giving people reasons to need them."
He laughed despite himself.
It was a brief, uncomfortable laugh, but it was genuine.
"I suppose I have."
Dinner arrived.
For the first time since they had met, Richard allowed the conversation to move away from his own discomfort.
He asked Eleanor how long she had been associated with the restaurant.
She told him about Samuel, the original investors, and the founding agreement. She explained that the Grant Hospitality Trust had been established to preserve certain principles of the business, not to give her unlimited authority over every operational decision.