"Your smug face certainly shows confidence, so let's hear it," said Lydia to Elara, "what sort of plan do you have brewing in your head?"
"Okay, hear me out. I called it the 'Misdirection.'"
Lydia chuckled. "You even have a name for it? You really seem to enjoy this situation, aren't you?"
"What? No... What makes you think that?"
Lydia slowly shook her head. "For starters, you have a big grin on your face."
Elara scratched her head. "Well, you got me there. I mean, this is kinda fun, no? I feel like we're in a mystery movie."
"Elara!"
Elara put both of her hands up. "Okay, okay, I know, jeez. Calm down. Anyway, as I said earlier, the plan is for me to do something that might distract him so that you can coast through the front door without him noticing."
Lydia paused for a second. She leaned back and crossed her arms. "And how do you propose to do that?"
"Well, I have a couple of ideas. How about I accidentally spill a drink or bump a waiter? You know, just to make some noise."
"Yes, but that would also attract the attention of the other customers in this restaurant, don't you think?" Lydia let out a big sigh. "How could I silently move if all eyes are on us?"
Elara fell silent for a while. "Ah, you're right. Well, how about this? How about I walk directly to his seat and flirt with him? While he is busy talking to me, you could comfortably walk out of here. I may not be the sexiest girl in the world, but I can be pretty irresistible when I want to, you know?"
"Elara, he is a famous actor. He'd seen girls much prettier than us on a daily basis. If you try to rizz him up, you'll only end up annoying him. He might even call the security on you." The princess slumped in her chair.
"Okay, so we throw that one out of the window. Hey, don't look so down, I still have one other plan that I think you might like, my dear princess."
"I'm all ears, Ms. March." Lydia closed her eyes.
Elara leaned forward and slowly explained her ultimate escape plan to Lydia. The princess was unsure at first, but the more she listened to her friend's idea, the brighter her expression became.
"So? What do you think? Not too bad, eh?" asked Elara with a pompous smirk on her face.
Lydia chuckled. "I gotta say, Elara, that was the craziest plan I've ever heard. Ironically, that one also has the highest chance of success compared to your other plans. I think."
"So we'll do it?" Elara offered a handshake.
Lydia shook Elara's hand firmly. "Let's fucking do it!"
From their seating position, in order to reach the entrance, they would need to walk straight first, turn right, and then make a beeline for the door. Adrien sat about two meters away from the entrance, with his back against the door. This meant he had a perfect view of everybody who wanted to exit the restaurant.
But if they walk straight ahead instead of turning right, they would arrive at a T-junction. A small sign near the ceiling pointed left toward the restrooms, while the kitchen entrance to the right was half-hidden behind a swinging door.
Elara grabbed Lydia's hand. "As planned, I will go to the restroom first. You wait here for five minutes, and then follow me, alright?"
Lydia nodded. "Got it!"
Elara stood up from her chair. Before she walked, she looked at Lydia and pointed to their boxed foods. "Don't forget to bring the sandwich. Okay, here goes nothing."
Elara walked confidently toward the T-junction. She peeked to the right to see Adrien. The actor was still busy on his phone. Once she arrived at her destination, Elara looked around for a while. She took one of the aprons that was hanging outside the kitchen, and then she entered the restroom.
Five minutes felt like an eternity to Lydia. She could feel her hands growing sweaty by the second. Once the time came, she straightened her back, stood up as elegantly and as normally as she could, gently picked up the boxed sandwich, and walked toward the restroom. Inside, Elara had been waiting with an apron on hand.
"Okay, Lydia, here's the apron. You remember the plan, right?"
"Soon, you would make a commotion outside," said Lydia as she wore the apron. "I would wait until you drew as much crowd as possible, slipped through the chaos by pretending to be one of the waiters." She twisted her hair into a bun. "And then walked through the front door as if I've been working in this establishment for years."
"That's right, you must get out after you hear the commotion," said Elara as she helped tie the Apron on Lydia's back, "because otherwise, the other waiters would recognize you and the whole plan would fail. So wait inside one of these cubicles."
"Got it. Okay, let's go."
Elara took a deep breath. She looked back at Lydia, nodded, let out another deep breath, and walked out the door. Elara knew that in order for Lydia to walk unnoticed, she had to attract Adrien's attention to the left, because the door was to his right. So, just a couple of steps outside of the restroom, Elara took out the water bottle that they had ordered alongside the sandwiches, gently poured it out on the floor while being as careful as she could so that nobody would notice, and then put the empty bottle into the trash bin near the restroom. She took another deep breath and then let her body fall to the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs in the process.
Lydia was waiting patiently behind the closed door. She could hear Elara's uncharacteristically high-pitched scream and the sound of people who started to gather and clamoring outside the restroom. As instructed, she waited for ten seconds and then opened the door. The princess gently pushed and weaved through the crowd of people until she was freed from the hordes. She could see the path to escape laid out in front of her. She checked Adrien for a second. The man was standing, trying to figure out what all the fuss was about.
As a precaution, Lydia already wore a facemask that she found inside the front pocket of the apron. Certain that no one would recognize her, she walked as calmly as possible toward the front door, with sandwiches in her left hand and car keys in her right hand.
Lydia finally managed to walk right past Adrien. She was just a couple of steps away from freedom. But then, Adrien turned toward Lydia and said, "Excuse me, miss? What happened back there?"
Lydia froze. A thin sheen of sweat crept along her temples. Since her voice would instantly reveal her identity, she didn't have any choice but to keep walking. Once she was outside, she sped up until she reached their car, opened the rear passenger door, and collapsed on the seat.
"Holy shit!" said Lydia as she opened her mask and put her hand on her forehead, "that was so fucking close!"