I could care less about what it says on the bathroom wall, that Lucky Day is one hell of a dame.
I watched Lucky maneuver the suspendered picker to a table and heard their conversation. Condolezza Rice? Mental note to ask 'MadameVoila' about that small fact that she happened to forget to mention, but I outwardly concentrated on my drink until Lucky returned. She raised one eyebrow and gave me a 'howja like them apples' look, and then pulled the cherry from her coke. Absentmindedly she chewed as she watched the picker. When she glanced at me, it was only to reveal the stem of the cherry tied in a neat knot on the tip of her tongue and to laugh her low laugh. God help the little man.

When Theet stood to leave, after a few Heinies too many, Lucky reverted to barmaid extrordinaire and put her arm around him to help him out the door. The pair stumbled along but the mission was accomplished, and when she returned, her face was pale.
"We should leave." she said woodenly.
"Where?" I asked
"Anyplace but here....ya want to get some dinner?"
I stood and helped Lucky on with her coat, and inadvertantly noticed the small piece of paper sticking from the front of her blouse. Yes, it was inadvertant, give me some credit here. As we reached the sidewalk, I slid my arm around her waist and she looked at me reproachfully, but I could tell something was up. She was worried.

We walked the few blocks to Chu Phat's oriental deli in a silence that was only broken once. Lucky turned back to glance at the limosine that was making a show of following us and asked me "Friend of yours?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing." was my reply.

Chu Phat's was as dingy a dive as you could find in these parts, but the food was excellent. We ordered, the waiter left, and then we looked at each other for a moment before speaking.
"You first." she said.
"Nope," said I, "Together."
I reached into my shirt pocket and retrieved the letter that had been slid under my door at the office, and Lucky reached into 'No Man's Land' for her letter from the picker. We read in silence, then passed each other our letters like in the time honoured ritual of sharing the little bits of paper from the fortune cookies. Only this wasn't "You will live a long and happy life".....this was more like "Shaping Up to Be One Hell of a Case"....