[He has a sneaking suspicion that the restaurant will, indeed, be closed and that means he would be shown up in front of John. Strangely, he doesn't mind that as much as he minds the rest of the world seeing his mistakes, and that's the issue... John is bound to post about it on his blog. So he shakes his head and heads towards the door.]

No, you stay here. Mrs. Hudson has already been panicking over the snow possibly causing a leak in the ceiling, at least one of us should be present to calm her down.

[Of course, they both know Mrs. Hudson is out of town. But the resulting confusion and moment of thought before John realises that, should be the time he needs to slip out alone.]