“You know me?” I asked before darting around the table. Completely forgetting myself, I grabbed his arm firmly. “How do you know me? Who are you?”

“Miss, calm down,” the woman said. “Your name tag.” She pointed to the tag on my shirt. And surely when I looked, there was my name tag—Ellis—pinned right above my heart. I looked back at the gray-eyed man, who seemed flushed with embarrassment. Embarrassment for me. How could I have been so presumptuous?

“I’m so sorry. I had thought… I’m sorry.” I released my grasp on the gray-eyed man’s arm, feeling utterly disappointed.

“It’s all right,” he answered in a low voice, as if he did not want to draw any more attention our way.

“No, I apologize. I just thought… Gee, I’m not doing very well, am I?” I was worried that they might complain to Jenny. I simply could not afford to lose my job.

“It’s fine. Really,” he said reassuringly. The others just looked on, mortified.

“Ellis!” Jenny hissed from behind me, and slowly I turned around to see her standing by the dining hall entrance with her arms crossed; I was in for it now.

After excusing myself, I reluctantly approached Jenny by a wide column a good distance from the patrons.

“Elliiiiis?” Jenny dragged out my name. “What on earth is going on here?” Her questioning eyes darted back and forth between the customers and me. I stood where I was, not knowing what to say. “I’ll wait this table now. There are some others coming in just now that you can wait on.”

While I served the new influx of patrons, I kept thinking about how I could sneak back over to the other table to properly apologize. However, as I was masterminding a clever scheme to do so, I managed to spill coffee all over myself. At least I managed not to spill it on customers.

By the time I finally finished serving the customers I’d been assigned, the businesspeople had already left. For the rest of my workday, I tried not to let what happened with them affect my overall mood, but it did. I knew that I was completely out of line and worried about what they might have said to Jenny about my behavior. Whatever they may have said, it was out of my control now.

***

My shift was finally over for the day and to say that I was glad to have the next two days off would be an understatement. The week had been rather rough with the increased frequency of visions, and I was ecstatic that I could finally relax for a couple days.

I was also looking forward to the weekend because Martin, Katie, and I made plans to visit Hemley Park. Sure, Dr. Lin might have advised against it, but no one was going to inform her of it. Perhaps, with Martin accompanying me, I would find more clues about how I had ended up at the park that night.

I moseyed out into the lobby and froze in my tracks when I saw the gray-eyed man, leaning against the banister of the staircase. This was probably the last time I would see him again, so I had to seize the opportunity to apologize.

Only, Jenny stood in my path.

“Are you heading home, Ellis?” Jenny rested a hand on her hip.

“Yes.” I hoped that Jenny wouldn’t stall me for long.

“About what happened earlier on—I spoke to them at the table.”

“Oh?”

The shorter my response, the less time she’ll take up.

“Well, they said everything was all right and the service was fine. But then they appeared to be in a hurry to leave and barely touched their meals.”

“I see.”

“Did you happen to say anything that would have caused them to leave?” Jenny raised an eyebrow.

“Did they say anything?” There was an awkward pause and I held my breath.

“Hmm, I suppose if they said everything was fine, then I guess it was.” She quipped to herself, answering her question. “You’ll be in on Monday for the early morning shift?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t be late.”

“I won’t.” I smiled weakly and hoped that Jenny didn’t sense the restlessness in my tone. As soon as Jenny walked away, I scanned the staircase, but, to my disappointment, the gray-eyed man was already gone—again.