Seattle is so dreary during the winter.
Minnie’s mind wandered as she watched the sprawl pass by the window of the taxi taking her back to Gino’s.
Has it really been only a day?
The past twenty four hours had by far been the busiest and most exciting if perhaps not quite the most terrifying of her twenty years. She’d discovered that a boy she might actually come to like might like her back and she’d witnessed just how amazing that boy could be in his own element. She’d learned the man who had done the most to shape her over the past decade had feet of clay and was now trapped in a cell…assuming something hadn’t changed when Dona Valentine vanished from view. And oh what she’d learned about that frightening woman. Things she would never repeat and barely understood. Still, Minnie seemed to come out of their interaction with the grand woman’s respect if not affection. Although what that might mean now that they all were persona non grata Minnie hadn’t a clue.
Then she’d saved her and Athos’ life and put her dear Nagisa’s in danger. By itself, breaking out of that building would have been the most changing single event in her young life. But things didn’t stop there.
Strawberry.
The compelling woman’s image came to mind. Her heart…and many other things…warmed as she mused about the mysterious redhead. Strawberry was what Minnie wanted to be when she grew up. Confident and self-assured. A commanding presence that compelled respect even of Yakuza and Mafia bosses. But gentle and kind, ruling not through force but through persuasion. If she didn’t have other responsibilities, Minnie could imagine no better existence than as Strawberry’s disciple. There was so much she imagined she could learn from the more experienced elf. So many things she wanted to master.
But, alas, she did have other responsibilities. And those responsibilities were calling loudly as the little taxi swung to the curb just outside Gino’s. Minnie paid the driver, tipping him not only with UCAS dollars but also a warm smile, and turned to face the familiar eatery. It was right about one O’clock in the afternoon and the lunch rush was only beginning to subside. More patrons were leaving than were entering the old place as mostly sararimen and low-level corporate execs made their way back to whatever drudgery defined their daily existence. Minnie slipped in and took possession of a recently vacated table for two.
One of the hostesses came by to clear the table, making the previous patron’s tip quickly vanish. She gave Minnie a skeptical look, suggesting maybe that the young girl didn’t belong here. Minnie just smiled and slipped the woman a note wrapped in a UCAS five dollar bill. She’d composed the note before she had left Strawberry’s domain. “Please give the note to the cute boy at the bar,” she directed the woman with a quick glance at Jimmy across the room. “The delivery fee is yours.”
The woman’s skeptical look shifted into ambivalence as she pocketed the cash and moved on to a few other tables before ending up at the bar. Minnie watched as Jimmy gave the woman a quizzical look as the note was delivered, then looked across the room at Minnie. Minnie just smiled and tried to give her best flirty look. Jimmy’s expressive brow furrowed in clear confusion and his lips formed a slight scowl as he opened the note and read the contents. To the boy’s credit, his expression didn’t betray the recognition. His face just settled into a neutral expression. He looked up at Minnie just a moment and simply nodded before returning to his work.
Part one of the mission accomplished, Minnie hopped back out of her seat and walked calmly back out the front door of the restaurant. Next stop, the old park two blocks away with a water feature that actually still worked. In the late December drizzle, she was confident it would be bereft of people. A perfect place to have a private conversation when Jimmy’s shift was up in another hour.
