Free One Night by Marsha Qualey

laughed.
    “What’s funny?” he said, clearly not amused.
    What could I say? Without the suit, he looked so young. The boy who would be king. “You look great,” I said. The truest words I’d spoken all day.
    He was pleased. He held up his clothes and the glossy shoes. “What about this stuff? Can we get a bag?”
    “Leave it all, especially the suit. They’ll clean it up and someone else can use it. Someone who needs it”
    “It’s custom-made.”
    “Then some laid-off, dead-broke dad will look terrific and feel confident when he puts it on for a job interview.”
    We dropped our discards in the donation bin and I deposited some cash in the Pay What You Can box at the front counter. The clerk looked up from folding shirts and nodded thanks.
    There was a crowd outside the building. A sign advertised a free concert and people were gathering. In our discount duds, we blended in.
    “What else goes on here?” Tom asked.
    “Soup kitchen, literacy classes, twelve-step meetings, job training, you name it.”
    “Dakota City looks like such a healthy, wealthy place. All this is needed?”
    We dodged a bus as we crossed the street, then stood still a moment to let a pack of skateboarders dodge us. “It’s all needed very much,” I said. “No city’s ever that healthy. Do you have anything like it in Lakveria?”
    “Refugee camps is what we have. There’s a war going on, remember? The Red Cross runs them.”
    “Well then, Prince Tom, when there is peace and when you are the king, you know what you can do to help.”
    He paused and looked back at the crowd outside the center. His eyes blinked as he studied it all. You could almost see the gears shifting, see the lights going on.
    “They feed people here?” he asked.
    “That’s what the soup kitchen does.”
    “Health care?”
    “A free clinic, open seven days a week. Whatever it is, if someone needs help, this is the place.”
    Tom nodded. “When I am the king.”
    *
    We headed back to the heart of Midtown. I supposed it would have been smarter to go to some other neighborhood, but this was the only one with decent restaurants, and right now food was what mattered most. Tom wanted to eat Korean, I felt like Indian, we agreed on Thai. It was a good decision.
    Tom pushed back from the table. “That was excellent.”
    “I ate like a pig,” I said, then signaled the server. I wanted dessert.
    We’d been given a window table and I was sitting with my back to it. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to hide, but with our change of clothing we blended in. Besides, the parked cars and sidewalk traffic blocked us from cruising patrol cars. Still, I’d noticed how all through the meal Tom’s eyes drifted to the outside. Either telling him about the cop had made him nervous or he was bored with me. Fifty-fifty, I figured.
    We ordered some Thai cakes and tea. His eyes settled on me. “This is maybe an embarrassing thing to admit,” he said, “but it’s been one of the best days I’ve ever had. Simone Sanchez. The library. Evading your police and missing my boring dinner. This incredible meal.”
    “Life’s not too exciting, then?”
    “And being with you. That’s been very nice.”
    “Definitely not exciting.”
    He smiled. “What’s the best day you’ve ever had, Kelly?”
    This I didn’t want: questions. Always good with evasion, I said, “Hard to answer that one.”
    His eyes held mine. “Easier to list the bad ones?”
    How true. I nodded.
    “Me too.” He looked up and smiled at the server who’d just arrived with the cakes and tea. As soon as she left, he leaned forward. I poured tea for us both. “The worst day of my life was the day I arrived at the hospital and saw Natalia after her attack. Until then I’d been able to hope that she wasn’t as badly injured as they’d told me.”
    “Not when your parents died? I would’ve thought that would rate.”
    He gave a sharp laugh. “Not nearly. They were both so lost to me by then. By the