Neither of them had known they were being watched. The new caption said, The waiter stayed after everyone else left. That photograph spread even faster.

Television stations called White Oak Manor. A lifestyle website offered Maddie money for an interview. A morning-show producer asked whether she and “the mystery waiter” would recreate the dance on camera.

Maddie declined everything.

“You could tell your side,” Dana said when she came over with coffee.

“My side is not public property.”

“But people are saying things.”