“You’d only arrived in New York when I met you,” Phil reminded Arlene. “How did you happen to stop at the Plaza Central?”
“Because you told me I had a reservation there,” returned Arlene, “or if you didn’t, someone else did. I don’t just remember.”
“But why did you come here at all?”
“Suppose I ask you that same question?”
“Good enough,” retorted Phil. “I came here because I was promised a good job. I was in the army, you know, so I suppose I ought to have a job.”
“And so should I,” countered Arlene. “I was in the Waves.”
Arlene looked ready to give Phil a wave right then, since they were entering the Chateau Parkview. Expecting such a dismissal, Phil parried it.
“It won’t matter if we chat a while,” he said. “If some bashful party is meeting you, he or she will probably wait. But there’s one thing I almost forgot” - Phil was looking at the lobby clock - “and that’s a phone call I have to make. Don’t vanish again while I’m gone!”
When Phil went to the phone booth, Arlene crossed the lobby and took a place out of his sight. Her lilacs immediately gained results, for a bellboy approached with a message in an envelope, evidently singling out Arlene because of her flowers.
Reading the message, Arlene took a quick look for Phil; not seeing him, she circled to an elevator and rode up to the top floor, where she found the door she wanted and knocked.