Simple question relating to an adult social situation when you have a toddler

This is more a "person with functional social skills" question than a parenting question, per se, but it relates to my almost 21 month old daughter, so I hope it's allowed. To be clear, I intend to actually use my words and ask, either way. The answer will effect how I bring it up and how I phrase the question, though, if you know what I mean? Sorry for the length.

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For level setting, my daughter has a severe speech delay, and can have problems with transitions and crowds and behaving in public settings (we have successfully had meals out before, including with other people, but more often than not we've left almost immediately because she's sobbing and can't be soothed).

I've been asked to lunch with two former co-workers, just to catch up. It's a black man in his late 60s, who I worked with on a daily basis for a couple of years, and a white woman in her late 20s, whom I know less well. Neither are married or have children, both very social (always going out with friends, day night all days of the week).

I'm friendly enough with them that we've done something like this multiple times, but we were in person working together at the time. They do these by themselves semi-frequently, but it's usually during the week - we're going on a weekend specifically as a concession to my schedule. We're probably going to the Sabrina's Cafe near the art museum (in Philadelphia), with the woman driving up from Wilmington, myself from not too far into South Jersey, and the man just from Manayunk. They know my daughter exists, has heard her in the background of work calls, they've asked casual questions about her, etc., but because she was born before covid sent us all permanently remote, they've never actually met her.

My question is, are they probably expecting me to bring her with me, or not? They know I'm a single parent and care for her full time. My instinct is to hire a babysitter so that we can relax and chat without worrying about if I'm going to have to cut and run, or be distracted by taking care of her. But I don't want to disappoint them if they were expecting to meet her or something, and my severe social anxiety is chiming in with 'will they think it's *weird*?' both when I think about bringing her and when I think about not bringing her.

Like I said, I intend to actually ask the question. But how I bring it up in chat will be a lot more straightforward and talk about a babysitter right away if people agree they probably are already expecting me to get one.