OUTSIDE CHEZ ROUGE:

Anna sighed as she stopped outside the sign for Chez Rouge and waited for the valet to retrieve her car.

She had come back to Salem in hopes of putting the past behind her once and for all, an idea that seemed plausible back in London when she and Carrie dreamed it up but not so much when that past was staring her in the face in the personage of her ex-husband Tony Dimera.

And her ex-husband Roman Brady, who nearly knocked her over as he brushed against her walking purposefully to the restaurant's front door.

"Hey, watch where you're going," Anna said with a laugh.

"Anna? Anna! I'm so sorry! It's so good to see you," Roman said sheepishly while offering her a friendly hug. "When the hell you'd get back in Salem? And how long you staying?"

"I just got back recently, Roman," Anna said. "And I'm not sure how long I'll stay. At least as long as it takes to complete the Countess Wilhemina relaunch. I just joined up there to head their new fashion division."

"Wow. That's great," Roman said wistfully. "You know I can't tell you how nice it is to see you. Finally some good news on what's been a truly awful day."

"What happened?" Anna asked. "What's wrong?"

"Oh hell I don't think it's fair to dump all my troubles on you yet," Roman said. "I was just coming here to pick up a cell phone I left behind but whaddya say I buy you a drink and then I tell you all about it. And you tell me all about what's going on with you. And how Carrie is doing in Europe. I hate that damn time difference and how the two of us can't have those father-daughter talks like we used to."

"Actually, Roman, I'd love to but I have to..."

"You have to have a drink with me because I'm not taking no for an answer, Anna," Roman said. "C'mon. One drink."

Under other circumstances Anna would have been loathe to turn down a free drink, especially with a kind man like Roman. But she got uncomfortable imagining walking into Chez Rouge with him and Tony seeing them together and getting the wrong idea. He might get jealous.

Just then the memory of that trashy tart Kate Roberts sitting in Tony's lap flashed in her brain.

Hmmmm, she thought, he might get jealous.

"OK, Roman, if you insist," she said plastering on a flirtatious grin and locking arms with him as the two of them entered the restaurant.

As the two of them walked through the crowd of the bar to take their seats Anna craned her neck to glance at Tony's table but other patrons and the restaurant's waitstaff obstructed her view.

Finally the sea parted and she got a good view of his table. And her heart sank.

Tony was gone.

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