Not long ago, this would have made me nervous. My recent excursion to Limbo, however, had gotten me a bit more used to notoriety.
The next time they glanced over, I looked directly back at them, then gave a brief, polite nod of acknowledgment with my head. This, of course, caused another hurried huddle and burst of giggles.
Ah, fame.
“What are you smiling at?” Aahz said as he set my wine in front of me and slid onto the bench across the table, cradling his own outsized drink.
“Oh, nothing,” I smiled. “I was just watching that table of girls over there.”
I indicated the direction with a tilt of my head, and he leaned sideways to scope them out himself.
“Kind of young for you, aren’t they, partner?”
“They’re not that much younger than I am,” I protested, taking a long swallow of wine.
“Don’t you have enough problems already?” Aahz said, settling back. “Last time I checked, you were suffering from an overabundance of women . . . not a shortage.”
“Oh, relax,” I laughed. “I wasn’t figuring to do anything with them. Just having a little fun, is all. They were looking at me, so I let them see me looking back.”
“Well don’t look now,” he grinned back, “but at least one of them is doing more than looking.”
Needless to say, I looked.
One of the girls had stood up and was approaching our table. When she saw me looking in her direction, she seemed to gather her courage and closed the distance in a rush.
“Hi,” she said brightly. “You’re him, aren’t you? The wizard from the castle?”
“That’s right,” I nodded. “How did you know that?”