One less for lunch

‘Are you ready to order ladies?’ the waiter asked.
Every Thursday six old friends met for lunch in the town’s most fashionable eatery. But right now there were only five.
‘Not yet, we’ll just give Olivia a couple of minutes. She’s not normally late. I hope she’s alright.’
The restaurant was filling up, and instead of the usual contented mumbling there was an air of excitement about the place. Something must have happened and it was clearly the talk of the town.
The friends noticed that people were furtively glancing towards their table. Things were being whispered behind hands. What was going on?
A man walked through the door. He looked around. Seeing the friends, he walked over to their table.
He introduced himself as Olivia’s PA from her office. They could tell from the pained expression on his face that something was seriously wrong.
‘Olivia met ....a man last night’ he started. ‘You are not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. I hardly believe it myself’
He sat down and helped himself to a glass of wine. His hand was shaking.
It seems that Olivia had met this man before. She had been charmed by him on many an occasion, but last night she had given in to his seductive ways. When she woke in the morning he was gone.
What happened next was totally unbelievable. Early that morning she went looking for him, and burst into his office where she produced a gun from underneath her cloak. All it took was a single shot and he was no more.
In no time at all the police arrived and she was taken away and placed in a cell at the station.
Minutes later a gang had rushed the police station and taken Olivia away at gunpoint.
He dropped his head into his hands and took a few deep breaths. He suddenly composed himself, sat bolt upright and told them that Olivia had been found left for dead on some waste ground just outside the town. She was rushed to the hospital where they fought to save her as she became weaker and weaker.
‘She had asked to see me’ he continued. ‘I was just in time. With her dying breath she gave me this message to bring to you’
‘Miss Olivia regrets she’s unable to lunch today’
Loosely based on the lyrics of the 1934 Cole Porter song ‘Miss Otis Regrets’

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