Damian chose the location carefully.
Not the café on Mercer Street — that was Alehandra's space now, associated with a different conversation. Not the coffee shop six blocks from the bookshop — that was his and Kendrick's. Not anywhere near the bookshop itself.
He chose a park.
Specifically: a bench near the east fountain in Calloway Park, which was public and open and had three visible exits and no enclosed spaces and was, on a Saturday morning, full of ordinary people doing ordinary things that had nothing to do with designation law or counter-challenges or the specific weight of a meeting between two people who had been on opposite sides of a legal proceeding.
He texted Elliot the location and time at nine on Friday morning.
Eleven o'clock Saturday. The bench near the east fountain.
The reply came in six minutes.
*I'll be there. Thank you.*
Two sentences. Nothing added.
He showed the exchange to Lena when she stopped by the shop on Friday afternoon.
