ZenithRising Read Online Free PDF Page A

from invisible strings. She assumed the panels would
be opened later for a view of the real night sky.
    She had been penny-conscious for so long, it took a few
minutes for him to convince her to ignore the prices on the menu and just order
whatever sounded good. Unfortunately everything sounded good and the
prices were too inflated to ignore. “What are you having?” she finally asked.
    “In a restaurant of this caliber, I like to go with the
chef’s selection for the evening. I’ve rarely been disappointed that way and
sometimes I’m surprised by something I’ve never tried.”
    “I like your reasoning. I’ll have the same.” According to
the menu she had just selected chilled gazpacho with a dollop of sour lemon
cream, the house salad spelled with an “e” on the end, lobster thermidor and
wild rice with white truffles. She wasn’t sure what a truffle was but she knew
she could never afford to find out if she liked it on her own.
    Noah also ordered a bottle of wine not recommended by
the chef. There wasn’t even a price shown for that.
    As soon as the waiter left them, Maggie got a pen out of her
purse and opened her notebook. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
    His brows raised. “You do know you’re not on a time clock
with me, right?”
    “I was told to expect irregular hours, which is fine. I’m
just anxious to find out what I’ll be doing.”
    “Oh, okay then. Well, the first thing I want to do is
explore. Get the feel of the whole place.”
    “I brought a book about the hotel’s history and the bellhop
mentioned an informational notebook—”
    “Did you read any of it?” he cut in with a concerned look.
    “Not yet.”
    “Good. The walk-around is more effective when you use your
senses rather than someone else’s accounting of the facts. A good story is more
than just a plot and I’m expecting this place to trigger all sorts of ideas. At
this point I don’t want to know any more than I remember from my initial
research.”
    “How can I help?”
    “You’ll walk with me, monitor my recorder and generally be
there for me to bounce thoughts off of. And I’ll want to hear anything you
think of also. Hopefully we’ll have a few more experiences like I just had in
the room. That would be very cool.”
    “Cool?” she asked incredulously. “Are you sure you don’t
mean creepy?”
    He chuckled. “Honey, when you’re in my head, creepy is cool.”
    His casual endearment stirred a flutter in her tummy but the
rest of his statement made her smile. He had always had a peculiar sense of
humor. “Speaking of creepy-cool, there’s something—”
    Just then the sommelier came with the wine and two dainty
glasses. Conversation stopped for the tasting and pouring ritual. She knew very
little about wine but it seemed to her this bottle was smaller than the norm.
    Noah held up his glass for a toast. “To fate.”
    “And synchronicity,” she added and clinked her glass to his.
She took a sip then a larger swallow. “Wow, this is delicious. I’m not much of
a wine drinker but this could change my mind.”
    He grinned. “It’s a limited ice wine from Germany. I thought
you’d like it. The sweetness makes it more of a dessert wine and I’m sure the
chef was horrified over my asking for it to be brought out first but I remember
what a sweet tooth you had.” He waited for her to have another taste. “You were
about to tell me about something creepy…”
    She took one more sip and carefully set down her glass. “I
wasn’t going to say anything. I mean, I really thought it was just my imagination
but after what you think you saw, I’m not so sure.”
    He refilled her glass. “Even if it was your imagination, I
want to hear it. Remember, I’m in the idea-gathering phase of this book.”
    Her taste buds demanded another drink of the surprisingly
quenching wine before she began. “Before you arrived, I was looking in the
bathroom mirror and it got all cloudy.”
    He leaned forward, elbows