The young woman in the professional suit walked down the avenue at as fast a clip as she could manage, painfully, even frightfully aware of how much attention she was bound to draw, dressed as she was in a business suit and carrying an expensive leather briefcase. Why in the world had she agreed to this meeting, under these circumstances?

"Because I'm desperate idiot, that's why!" She came to a sudden stop, reconsidering her options. Keep going? Turn back and hope she made it safely back to the car? Hail a cab? What would Jake do if she didn't show up? She turned and looked back down the sidewalk in the direction from which she had come, and glimpsed a man in a pork pie hat leaning against the wall in the shadows not 5 feet from where she was standing. "Is he looking at me? I can't tell. Better keep moving." Tightening her grip on the leather case, she stepped out again in the same direction she had been heading, trying to ignore the way her heart was pounding in her chest.