fork across the table. “You are a part of this now.”
“I’ve never placed that level of monumental importance on my campaigns,” I said earnestly. “I can’t function under that kind of pressure, the kind where the world ends if my candidate loses. Now the stakes feel so much higher. No one knows about Stoner Halbert but me. No one knows that he is only running the campaign to cause trouble.”
Gabriel smiled back with a glint in his eye. “It only takes one person to change the course of something,” he said, pausing to ask for a dessert menu. “Besides, no one knows about you either. Ç’est la même chose. ”
“Do you really think I will make a difference in this race?”
“Yes, I do,” Gabriel said. “Campaigns are unpredictable things. Your intuition and ability to read people will be invaluable.”
I nodded, feeling more confident. It was getting late, but I had one more question I needed to ask. I waited until our sorbet arrived and then I pounced.
“What are you?” I asked, taking a spoonful of chocolate sorbet.
“You already know, but you didn’t ask me if I am a witch,” he said.
“How do you do that?” I asked, “read my thoughts so quickly?”
Gabriel took a spoonful of lemon sorbet and paused for a moment. “I am a witch,” he said. “One of many from a family that can trace its roots back to the dawn of France. More recently, the Laurent family hails from Aix-en-Provence, where we settled in the sixteenth century.”
“Do you mind if I ask how old are you?” I asked, watching Gabriel’s bemused expression. “Pardon, what I mean is, are you actually aging, or are you like Elsa?”
Gabriel smiled at me, a slight sadness in his voice. “Regrettably, I am aging,” he said. “Even I do not possess the ability to stop time.”
“Can you walk through time like Elsa?”
He nodded, but turned to the waiter to ask for two glasses of calvados before he said. “I can, but it’s not my main skill. My skill is telepathy.”
Now it all made sense. “So can you read all my thoughts,” I asked, an image of William popping into my head. I wondered if he had the skill too.
Gabriel let out a snort. “Olivia, when you push them to the front like that, then, yes, I can hear everything. Curiously, there are times when I feel like you are trying to send me your thoughts directly. Is it possible you are also telepathic?”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I believe my mother would have told me if she thought the trait ran in the family.”
“Hmm, it’s something for you to think about,” Gabriel said, signaling for the check.
We sat in amicable silence for a moment or two as he looked over the bill and placed his credit card on the table. “By the way, about this man you’re seeing…what does he do…Ç’est ton ami? Qu’est-ce qu’il fait?” Gabriel asked. “You know you are driving Elsa crazy.”
“I’m not sure yet,” I said, as we walked out of the door to our waiting car. “It’s a work in progress. What about you? Do you have anything to say about William?”
Gabriel raised his hands to his chest in surrender. “Rien, mademoiselle!” Not a thing.
From the restaurant the driver drove straight to my house. As I turned to walk to my doorway, Gabriel called out to me.
“Olivia, remember what I asked. Please do not go into the park alone.”
“Yes, I promise,” I said, and thanked him once again for dinner.
****
CHAPTER 22
When I awoke the next morning, my first thought was that I would be seeing William that evening. We had been texting each other every day, but tonight would be our first opportunity to be alone since I tracked him down at the nightclub. The days had passed quickly, the campaign occupying an ever-greater portion of my attention. Now that Lacy was entering the race, I knew the pace of the campaign would accelerate, as we were forced to respond to any criticisms she might level against Levi in the press.
In anticipation of the deluge, my day was booked solid with meetings with our opposition research team to comb through her records and our own. Clients are often shocked that I ask them to pay for the privilege to dig up their own dirty laundry, but it is always better to know what your opponent will find before they find it.
I pondered these details for a few more moments as I got dressed and walked