Oh, I Think So

The rooftop restaurant was on the 8th floor, added when the store wanted to impress the hell out of everyone by building something closer to heaven than any other eating establishment in the region.  Now, ho hum, the 8th floor, but it would take a while to ride slowly down on the escalator.  When she got to the 7th floor, she realized the handsome man had not asked about the picture she took with her phone.  She popped the phone open and sent it to her email address.  Phone-to-email texts weren't included in her cheap data plan. "Worth it," she said aloud.  No one else was on the escalator so she didn't have to make a sweet, purse-lipped face that said, "Oops, ya caught me talking to myself," even though she was pretty sure everyone talked to themself at one time or another and those who didn't had lots of people around all the time or were solidly nuts, so into their own heads that dynamite could not have gotten them out. At the 6th floor, she tho...

The rooftop restaurant was stuffed with patrons at almost every table, even though it was past lunchtime.  There were windows on three sides, giving a great view of what must have been a view of the skyline at one point, but the surrounding area had been built much higher so now one had a choice of which building to look into.  The furnishings were very fine, seeming to be imported from Europe but, in reality, some fine examples of North Carolina furniture artistry.  The fabrics were lovely chintz, exploding florals like an eruption at a botanical garden had spewed the flower all the way downtown.  Tourists loved the place for its of-another-era style, and old ladies, gay couples, and nostalgic locals felt the same way.  Personally, she didn't like the place.   It was stuffy and the uniforms on the staff never seemed be quite clean enough.  It suggested the company knew it was going to close sometime soon and these uniforms would have to do until ...

Of course, she should have just ignored him, walking with the crowd and acting like she'd not seen him but she still would have gone into this building with the two side entrances. Which to take? "Screw it," she said aloud, but no one gave her a second look because it's a city, people are crazy in cities, and no one wants to get involved with crazy as it might be contagious.  She turned around and went out the front door and continued up the street to store with the nice handbags which she'd peruse before going to look at the coats in the other store.  It was two blocks and she knew the giant was long gone or would be by the time he got done dealing with one-way streets going the wrong way and nonexistant alleys. The giant might have been long gone but it was getting toward the end of the year and everyone wanted to use up their remaining personal and vacation time.  She found herself sharing the sidewalk with her soon-to-be-former boss. "Well, fancy ...

Because she'd neglected to buy a train ticket ahead of time in Mount Prospect, she had to pay a penalty along with the price of ticket.  Like the handsome man, her almost boss, she paid cash.  She stared out the window all the way back into town and because it was a non-rush hour, it was as local as local could be, stopping in places where sometimes no one got on or off, giving her a lot of time for staring and heavy-duty thinking. When the train pulled into the station, she had already decided that the first thing to do would be to find Mr. King and tell him what happened.  In his former career, Mr. King was a military policeman in the Army and he was very good at scoping people out.  He'd once told her he made a particular loop of the public area's of the building looking at everything that needed to be seen so if she went in the area where he walked, he would eventually come by.  Fortunately, it didn't take long. "Hey, stranger," he said.  "I thoug...

It was pretty stupid, saying gezundheit when a bottle of liquid makes a rude noise, but they both laughed like it was hysterical. "Now I'm a lemon foundry, too," said the boss and sat back in his chair, then asked her, "So what have you noticed today?" "You do business like you're a spy or a hit man.  In the restaurant you wanted to face the door and not be too close to the restroom.  You don't deal in names -- you never asked me my name, you didn't tell me yours, you didn't tell me the giant's name ..." "The giant!  That's rich!" he interrupted her to exclaim. She immediately jumped back in. "You didn't tell me the giant's name and when Mr. King asked if he should be worried, you both shook his hand and looked him in the face but you didn't offer him your names either.  Like you weren't concerned that he was seeing you because he'd never see you again so it didn't matter.  You pa...