Chapter 7
"Tiddler, did you write this note?" Kenny demanded the next morning.
Tiddler looked at the pink piece of paper Kenny was waving in her face.
"No. What is it?" She reached for the paper but Kenny snatched it back.
"What does it say, Kenny?"
"It's a note asking for a date from a secret admirer. It's not funny, Tiddler."
"Kenny, I swear, I didn't write it!"
"I know what you do, setting up people . . ."
"No, I've given that up," replied Tiddler. "I figure, if it's meant to be it will happen. Like Spike and Lynda. One day, it will all just come together."
"So who . . . ?" Kenny stared at the paper.
"Maybe you do have a secret admirer. Maybe somebody does want to go on a date with you. Have you considered that possibility?"
Kenny scoffed. "Who'd want to go on a date with a strawberry milkshake?"
"You might be surprised," said Tiddler enigmatically. "A lot of people like strawberry. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." She turned back to her typewriter so Kenny wouldn't see her grinning. As it was, he had already turned away and gone back to studying the note.
Kenny
Meet me in the back booth at Czar's, 5pm tonight.
Your secret admirer.
It was typed so in a roomful of typewriters, it would be pretty hard to narrow it down by that alone. There was a hand-drawn heart on the bottom though. Pink paper, easily accessible in the stationery cupboard. He gave it an experimental sniff. Perfumed, just slightly, as though the writer might have been wearing perfume on their wrist as they drew the heart.
"I should be a detective," he thought to himself, scanning the room. Nobody was watching. He checked his watch. 4.45pm. Well, what was the harm in ducking down to Czar's, keeping an eye on the booth and seeing if anyone showed up?
Entering the smoky café, he was surprised to see the back booth already had someone sitting there, back to him, with a large hat on.
He walked to the table in a daze to find Sam sitting there patiently.
"Hey, you made it," she smiled.
"You're my secret admirer?" he asked.
"I didn't think it was that much of a secret," Sam grinned. "Well, aren't you going to sit down?"
Anastasia, the waitress, came up to take their order.
"I'll just have a Coke," said Kenny, still in a daze.
"And I will have . . ." Sam paused and fixed Kenny with a meaningful stare. "A strawberry milkshake."
END