"Wait a sec, here comes our waitress..."

"Hey kid, how ya doin'?" the waitress asked Lucky
"Fine, and yourself?" she countered
"Oh, I can't complain..." said the waitress
"Yeah, who'd listen?" The two women laughed, and amazingly, the waitress went and put on a fresh pot of coffee....new water, new grounds, clean pot.
I gave Lucky an incredulous look, to which she laughingly responded, "Secret handshake of the Gum Chewing Waitresses of North America...Flo there is the president of the city chapter...of course, if you tell anyone, I'm required by chapter rules to skin you alive..."

"I'll take it with me to the grave." I replied. I thought it was funny, but Lucky gave me a dark look that told me otherwise. "Oh, come on? No smile? Fine then, down to business. I showed you mine and you showed me yours....Man....Still no smile?...I must be losing my touch...The question now facing us is what to do with what we've got. I'll go with you to meet Logos..."
"The note said no baggage, Madison. I think you qualify as baggage."
"You aren't going by yourself."
"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, oh mighty keeper of 'me', but I recall doing just fine without you this far..."
I wanted to argue the point further, but I knew a brick wall when I hit one. I'd picked her cinders out of my teeth a time or two before, she was no joke.

We finished our coffee in stilted silence, paid the check, and walked out into the falling night. It was starting to rain, so I went to the curb to flag a cab, but Lucky kept walking. Fair enough, I guess we were walking home. I walked up beside her and tapped her shoulder, "Hey, back in there...."
"It's all right, Madison" she said. "Forget it."
I stood for a moment more before she actually met my gaze and the smile crept across her face again. She reached down, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along behind her, dodging raindrops as we went. There's a lot to be said for a woman who will lace fingers with you. We walked for close to an hour before she stopped.
"Well, here's home. This is where I get off."
"Are you sure you don't want company?" I asked. She shook her head 'no'. "All right, just be careful, don't open the door to anyone, and I'll catch up with you tomorrow, okay?" She nodded, gave me a peck on the cheek, and darted up the stairs to her building.

I went to a convenient spot across the street, out of the rain, and waited. The lights in her apartment went on, and through the thin shades I could see her talking with her roommate and making a cup of tea. I waited. Eventually, the lights went out. I waited. A few minutes after lights-out, the door to her building opened, and Lucky came out in a baggy sweatshirt, jeans, and running shoes. I looked at my watch as I fell in step a short distance behind her, 12:01. Time for catching up.