**** PART THREE ****
Nahla's head snapped up. "Your gain?"
He smiled and it transformed his features from handsome to drop dead gorgeous. "Yes. You can't tell me you're considering going back to him?"
"No, I'm not," Nahla replied, wondering why she was allowing him to stand there and play twenty questions with her.
''I noticed your man's departure interrupted your dinner, would you care to join me and get something to eat?"
Nahla was completely baffled. "I'm sorry, but I have a strict rule against having dinner with strangers, Mr. ?"
"Vitriani. Domingo Vitriani," he said, bowing his head slightly in greeting. "But my friends call me Dom."
'This was Vitriani??' Nahla thought to herself. This man didn't even come close to resembling the picture Operations and Madeline had shown during her briefing in the Perch. If she had been deceived about his appearance, what else had she been deceived about?
Suddenly it clicked what Mentz had been up to in the dining room. The entire scene had been staged to gain Vitriani's attention. But why hadn't they told her? You could bet that somebody had some explaining to do.
"And you are?" Dom asked, bringing her attention back to the present.
"N-Nahla," she replied with a slight stutter. Regardless of the fact that he was a target, she still got nervous when it came to talking to men, especially when that man was gorgeous.
"Well, N-Nahla," he said with a grin, "now that we've introduced each other, you can hardly say we're strangers. So what do you say to dinner?"
Trying to give him the impression she was considering his request, Nahla remained quiet for a moment before agreeing.
"Great!" he said, extending a hand to help her rise from the chair. Once on her feet, he tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow. "Shall we?"
Smiling shyly, Nahla nodded. As they approached the dining room though she came to a dead halt.
"What's wrong, having second thoughts?" he asked.
Nahla shook her head. "No, but I can't go back in there after what happened earlier."
Dom smiled. He hadn't found a gem like this one in quite a while. "Not a problem, the manager here is a good friend of mine, I'm sure I can arrange for a private dining room. If you don't mind waiting here for a moment, I'll go find him."
"Ok," she answered. The moment he was out of view, she heard someone clearing his or her throat. The sound caused her to glance in that general direction. Michael was seated in a chair a few feet away from her. She hadn't seen him as he'd had a newspaper open to hide his face.
She moved over to stand in front of the flowering plant situated on a table near his chair, acting as if she were looking at the plant and not speaking to the man next to it.
"Where did he go?" he asked.
"He went to see the manager about getting a private dining room. And why didn't anyone tell me what Mentz was going to do?!" she whispered
angrily.
"Your reaction had to be genuine," he told her. "How are you holding up?"
"Fine so far, but then we haven't gotten down to the nitty-gritty yet have we?"
"Nahla."
"I know I know, don't lecture me, not right now."
"Michael, wrap it up, Vitriani's on his way back." Roarke chimed in through the Comm unit.
"Return to where you were standing, he's coming back." Michael told her.
"How.?"
"Go!" he ordered.
"Alright alright, don't bark at me!" She had just made it when Dom came back into view, accompanied by a man whom she assumed was the manager.
The manager led them to a simple yet elegant private dining room adjacent to the main dining hall. Over the next hour, Dom's charming personality helped Nahla relax and begin to enjoy his company. They spoke on several subjects, finding they had many things in common. By the end of the meal, the line between what Section had told her of this man and what she was seeing for herself was blurring.
As the dishes were being cleared from the table, Nahla stifled a yawn behind her hand.
"Am I boring you, Nahla?" Dom inquired.
"No, of course not! It's just been a very long day and I guess it's finally catching up with me," Nahla replied. A moment later something caused her to frown.
"What's wrong?"
"I just realised that I don't have a place to stay tonight."
"Not a problem," Dom said, smiling. "I'm sure there are plenty of open rooms, you forget I know the manager."
"That's true, but all my things, including my purse and wallet are upstairs in a room. And I don't want to face *him* in order to get them." Nahla spoke with a hint of despair in her voice.
"Now now, my dear, that can be easily remedied. Since we're finished here, why don't we take a stroll up to the main lobby and let me see what I can do."
Not knowing what else to do, Nahla agreed. Once they arrived in the lobby, Dom left Nahla seated on a couch while he went to speak with his friend.
"It's all taken care of," he said upon his return. "I have a room for you and the manager is on his way upstairs as we speak to personally retrieve your belongings."
"But how do you know which room it is?"
"Ah ah ah, a man never reveals his secrets." Dom replied with a sly grin, waving his pointer finger back and forth. "Trust me."
Nahla really didn't have any other option but to do just that.
"Why don't we go into the lounge for a night-cap while your belongings are getting retrieved?"
"Ok," Nahla agreed, hoping that maybe a good stiff drink might ease her nervousness.
"If you're ready to call it a night, I can take you up to your room?" Dom offered nearly forty-five minutes later.
Nahla nearly panicked, the moment she had been dreading was suddenly here. Was he going to simply bid her goodnight at the door, or was it going to require something more? "Thank you, I'd appreciate that."