That was what bothered him.
He had spent much of his adult life learning how to identify the emotional weaknesses of the people around him. Fear made people predictable. Greed made them negotiable. Ambition made them vulnerable to promises. Pride made them easy to provoke.
But Maya Bennett seemed to offer him nothing.
He decided to create an opening.
"Tell me something," he said, reaching for his phone. "Have you ever been to Japan?"
Maya glanced at the device, then back at him.
"No, sir."
"Do you know anything about the language?"
"Some things."
"Some things." Adrian smiled. "That's an interesting answer."
She waited.
He unlocked his phone and opened a banking application. The balance displayed on the screen was substantial enough to make most people stare. He tilted the device toward her, angling it so the other guests could see the figure.
One million dollars.
Not a photograph of money, not an edited image of a check, but a balance visible inside an application bearing the name of his private investment account.
Of course, a displayed balance alone could not prove that a stranger would actually transfer the money. Adrian knew that. But he had never found proof necessary when intimidation and spectacle could accomplish the same purpose.
He held the phone between two fingers and smiled.
"One sentence in Japanese, I'll give you a million dollars."
The room fell quiet.
Even Miles stopped smiling for a second.
Maya looked at the phone. Her gaze rested on the number long enough to establish that she had understood what Adrian was offering. Then she raised her eyes to his face.
He expected surprise. Perhaps disbelief. If he was fortunate, she might even ask whether he was serious.
Instead, she asked a question of her own.
"You really want me to answer in front of them?"
The words were so simple that Adrian almost missed their significance.
"What?"
She glanced briefly toward Richard, Miles, and Eleanor.
"You said you would give me a million dollars for one sentence in Japanese. Do you want me to answer in front of everyone at this table?"
Richard lifted his head.
Eleanor's expression sharpened.
Adrian felt a flicker of annoyance. He had intended to make the waitress the center of an amusing little performance, but she had somehow made the arrangement sound like a formal agreement.
He laughed.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"
Maya inclined her head slightly.
"I wanted to make sure."
"Make sure of what?"
"That you meant what you said."
Miles burst into laughter.
"Adrian, I think she wants a contract."
Adrian smiled, although his jaw had tightened.
"A contract? For a sentence?"
"A promise is easier to keep when everyone understands the terms," Maya replied.
Richard coughed into his napkin.
Eleanor looked directly at Maya for the first time, and something resembling interest appeared in her eyes.
Adrian slowly lowered his phone onto the table.
"You're taking this rather seriously."
"You offered a serious amount of money, sir."
"Do you have any idea how much a million dollars is?"
"Yes."
"Really?" He lifted his cognac and swirled the amber liquid. "Then perhaps you understand why this is amusing. A million dollars is more than you would earn here in years. Maybe more than you will earn in your entire life."
Maya did not answer immediately.
She had heard variations of that speech before. Not always from men wearing expensive suits, and not always in rooms with velvet curtains and crystal glasses, but the underlying assumption was familiar: that a person's financial circumstances revealed the limits of their intelligence, that a uniform determined the boundaries of their knowledge, and that a stranger's wealth gave him the right to define someone else's worth.
She had learned long ago that arguing with such people rarely changed their minds.
The better approach was to let them hear themselves.
Adrian took her silence as uncertainty.
"Come on, girl. Don't tell me you're suddenly nervous."
"No, sir."
"Then say something."
She looked at him steadily.
"Are you certain you want to make this offer in front of your associates?"
The question annoyed him because it sounded less like hesitation and more like a warning.
He set down his glass.
"Girl, you couldn't even point to Japan on a map."
The words landed with deliberate contempt.
Miles laughed again, louder this time. Richard looked uncomfortable. Eleanor's mouth tightened, and for an instant she seemed ready to intervene.
Maya did not move.
She had expected the insult. Men who made public offers they never intended to honor often needed to humiliate the other person before anyone could mistake the exchange for a genuine promise. If she failed, Adrian could laugh. If she succeeded, he could claim the challenge had been a joke.
Either way, he had arranged the situation so that he believed he would win.
He had not considered the possibility that she understood the game better than he did.
Maya drew a slow breath.
Then she stepped toward the table.