He sighed and sipped his Coke and stared into her liquid eyes. 'The truth?'
'What else is there?'
'I don't have any colour sense. Don't know what goes with what. Long as I wear black, I'm safe.'
'You really care about that, huh?'
He sat without comment for a minute, then nodded. 'I guess I do,' he said, and his cheeks began to colour.
'Why, Couns'lor, I do b'lieve you're blushing,' she said, and snickered. 'You're somp'in else, Flay.'
He laughed away the colour. 'And you're loaded.'
'My embarr'sing you?'
'Never.'
They stared across the table for a long moment, then she cast her eyes down. 'Think we… I… could get outta here with't fallin' on m'face?'
'I'd never let you fall on your face, Hotshot.'
'Ho'shot's'cute, I like it.'
'Want to go for it?'
'Go f'r th'gold.' She snickered. 'Jus' one min't.'
'How about a cup of coffee?'
'Yuck!'
'Okay, we'll just sit here until you get it together.'
'Ma'be Steamroller c'n get us a cab? Think?'
'Wait right here.'
'Nooo, I'm gonna wait waaaay over there,' she said, pointing across the room, and had a sudden fit of the giggles. The waiter got the cab and Flaherty helped her to her feet and put his arm under hers and pulled her against him.
'Make believe we're snuggling up, nobody'll pay any attention to us,' he said, tilting her head against his shoulder and leading her towards the door.
'Sng'ling up, that what they call't in Boston?'
'Yeah,' he said. They made it to the front door without incident, but as they walked outside a frigid blast of air swept off the river.
'Wow!' she said. 'Wah' was'at?'
'Fresh air.'
'I th'nk m'legs're goin',' she said, sagging as he led her to the cab. He slid her into the backseat.
'Flay?'
'Yeah?'
Th'nks.'
'For what?'
'List'nin''t'me.'
'I'll listen to you anytime,' he said, sliding in beside her.
'Really?'
'Sure.'
'Th'n lissen caref'lly 'cause… I'm gonna try't'remember… what m'address is.'
She got the address right on the third try and slid down in the seat and put her head on his shoulder and stared at him through her one eye and said, 'Tell you secret, Mist Flar'ty. I have cov'ted you from afar ev'since th' first time I saw you. That okay?'
He put his arm around her and drew her closer.
'I think it's great,' he whispered, but did not tell her that he, too, had coveted her for just as long.
'Good,' she murmured, and a moment later was sound asleep.
She lived in a second-floor apartment on the corner of West Eugenie and North Park, a two-storey brick building with a pleasant nineteenth-century feel to it. Flaherty paid the cab driver and found
