Vincent Bortelli, or Vince as he was called by his coworkers and friends, was not in a good mood. He was having a terribly shitty, no good day; for a Friday.

It all started when his alarm didn't go off this morning, making him have to take the fastest shower in history in order to make the morning meeting on time. He slid in the door just as Tank called the meeting to order and began, which technically made him late in Tank's eyes.

Then by the time he got to the break room for breakfast, Ella was cleaning up and there was nothing left. At least there was a minimal amount of coffee dregs in the carafe, or he would have given up on the entire day and went back to bed, saying the day was a total lost cause.

Ella must have felt sorry for him because by the time he finished his nasty cup of 'bottom of the pot coffee', she had shown back up with a plate of fluffy pancakes for him. But when she pulled a container of his favorite raspberry syrup from behind her back, he just had to give her a resounding kiss on the cheek.

Now full of Ella's delicious food, he made his way to the fifth floor to see what was on his schedule for the rest of the day. Tank kept the daily schedule posted up on the main bulletin board at the front of the room. Vince scanned the list of duties for his name, then gave a huge audible sigh; he was paired with Binkie for the day. What the hell was Tank thinking? Binkie still had a hole in his shoulder from last week's battle with the mole. Vince was still pissed off about that, fucking traitor Manny!

A few hours later, they were sitting at one of his favorite diners for lunch before they had to go pick up two skips. Vince still didn't know how much help Binkie was going to be with a hole in his arm, even though he was off the pain meds now. Well, Vince supposed that Binkie still had one good arm at least.

After they perused the menu for a few minutes, they had made up their minds on what to order; greasy cheeseburgers with fries and chocolate milk shakes for both of them; screw the temples today!

When their waitress arrived at the table to take their orders Vince took in her appearance; short stature, around five foot four, brown medium length hair, decent figure, (not screaming for a sandwich like one of those rail thin models, and gorgeous jade green eyes. Her name tag read 'Daphne'.

Vince decided at the last minute to add another cup of black coffee to his order, since the first tasted like swill. She jotted down what they wanted and told them before she walked away, "I'll be right back with your coffee and shakes."

The next couple of minutes they discussed a plan for the first take down. Vince would be taking the lead, of course.

By this time the waitress had returned with a tray laden with both of their shakes and Vince's coffee. She placed their shakes on the table first, but the resulting imbalance of the tray caused her to juggle it to keep from dropping it. Unfortunately, that did not keep the cup of coffee from turning over and spilling … right into Vince's lap.

Binkie roared with laughter while Vince glared at him, though that didn't keep Binkie from shaking with glee. All the while the waitress was apologizing profusely.

Tired of hearing Binkie's uproarious mirth, Vince reached over and smacked him, hard, right on his injured shoulder. That finally shut him up!

"Damn man, that shit hurt. You know I still got a bullet wound," Binkie whined miserably.

"And now my crotch is on fire. It serves you right for laughing at my pain, fucker," Vince replied through gritted teeth.

He rose from his seat. He needed to visit the restroom to try and dry his pants out the best he could and also to find out if his dick was still there; or at least not burned raw. It was hardly burned at all, just a slight pink tint to the outside. He had suffered a lot worse before so he would be fine. He would also have to remember to ask Brown for some burn ointment, that would help enormously, or would it only add to his mortification he wondered. He would change when he got back to the Rangeman building.

Arriving back with drier pants; at least somewhat drier; Vince reclaimed his chair and glared across the table at Binkie.

"Feel better?" Binkie chanced to inquire.

"Not completely dry, but it will do until we make it back to Rangeman."

They finished their meal in relative silence, Vince was still in a sour mood and Binkie knew better than to bother him at the moment. After his food was gone Binkie spoke up.

"I'm gonna hit the head. Be right back."

Vince grunted in reply, still pouting. As soon as Binkie left the table, the waitress came up again with their check and an apologetic look on her face. "I'm really sorry about your coffee. I hope you didn't get burned," she uttered almost beneath her breath.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean to do it. I'll live," Vince told her with a charming smile.

She let out the breath she had been holding, looking extremely relieved by his answer. It was then that Vince noticed how lovely she was when she smiled after. 'This could be an opportunity too good to pass up', Vince thought to himself, but spoke these words aloud.

"So, Daphne is it? Why don't you agree to a dinner and movie date with me to make up for it?"

Her smile brightened even more as she picked up the check again and started writing on the back of it. Once she was done, she slid it over to Vince and responded, "Yes. Call me later with the details," then she walked away, her hips swiveling enticingly.

Vince grinned as he thought to himself, 'I still got it.' He looked down at the paper in front of him and picked it up. Daphne had signed her name followed by, "This meal is on me," and her phone number. This information seemed to make his day to begin to turn around and get better. That fact was made clear by the goofy grin that was currently on his face. Of course, this was when Binkie arrived back at the table. Vince immediately dropped his blank face into place. No need to give information to the enemy, Binkie would not let him hear the end of it with his teasing if he knew what was going on with Vince.

"You ready to go? Give me the check and I'll go pay."

"I got this man, my treat," Vince countered. Binkie just shrugged, wisely still not wanting to disagree with Vince's foul mood.

Vince told Binkie to head to the truck while he took care of the bill, when really he just wasted a minute or so entering Daphne's name and number into his phone. That done, he destroyed the evidence, the bill, and tossed it away. Hopefully he would have plans for this evening.

And that's what turned his day completely around for the better, he called Daphne when he got off work at 1800 and agreed to go out with him the next evening. What started out as a shitty day from hell, ended up being one of the best Vince could remember having in a long, long time. ##########