“I wish I had thought to dress,” I murmured to Kalvin. “This is a pretty classy place. I’m surprised they let me in without a tie.”
The Djin shot me a look.
“I don’t know how to say this, Skeeve, but you are dressed, and you are wearing a tie.”
“Oh! Right.”
I had forgotten I had altered my disguise spell in the taxi. One of the problems with the disguise spell is that I can’t see the results myself. While I’ve gotten to a point where I can maintain the illusion without giving it a lot of conscious thought, it also means I occasionally forget what the appearance I’m maintaining really is.
I plopped down in the chair being held for me, but waved off the offered menu.
“I understand you serve dishes from off-dimension?”
The Pervect gave a little half-bow.
“ Yas. Ve haff a wide selection for the most discriminating taste.”
I nodded knowingly.
“Then just have the waiter bring me something Klahdish . . . and a decent wine to go with it.”
“Very good. Sir.”
He faded discreetly from view, leaving me to study our fellow diners. It was too much to hope that coincidence would lead Aahz to the same dining room, but it didn’t hurt to look.
“You handled that pretty smoothly.”
“What’s that, Kalvin? Oh. The ordering. Thank you.”
“Are you really that confident?”
I glanced around at the nearby tables for eavesdroppers before answering.
“I’m confident that I couldn’t even read the menu,” I said quietly. “Trying to fake it would only have made me look like a bigger fool. I just followed the general rule of ‘When in doubt, rely on the waiter’s judgment.’ It usually works.”