A whole week went by before he saw her. She had to take the subway to work every morning, and before that she liked to visit Collins, so she left early. On Wednesday she was carrying groceries up the stairs when he was coming down. Her hair was down and she looked so calm, he had his bike on his shoulder so it wasn't like he could stop and talk. Stopping to open the door, she looked back at him and smiled. As she walked in he tripped over his feet and fell down the remaining four steps. Getting up he cursed himself for being so damn clumsy and ran his errands. How are going to ever get near her if you're in a fuckin body cast!

That Friday they all met up at Life Café for their usual get together. He got the nerve up to ask her, with several shoves by Roger. One conversation for example went something like:

"You should ask her." Roger was sitting on the couch reading the Voice.

"She would only say no." Mark was cleaning out an old camera he found at thrift mart.

"Why?"

"She and I are different." As he took off the lenses to check out the scratches.

"How?" Not even looking up.

"She is in college. She has money, for God's sake! Did I tell you what she gave me on that first night?"

Finally looking up from his article, "What?"

"A hundred dollars, she had bet Collins fifty and gave him twenty, and gave me a Benjamin. She just has money, she is different from us."

"A hundred dollars? Where did she get that?"

"I don't know. Like I said, she would probably get a long better with Benny than me."

"That explains the books Mimi was unpacking…"

"Huh?"

"When she first came here Mimi was helping her and she had a bunch of business books in a box when I came in."

"See! We could never be together."

"Then why is she staying here?"

He approached her and Mimi's door with a lot of apprehension slowly lifting his hand up to the door it came sliding open. A very startled Leah looked up at him.

"Are you busy?" Suddenly Mark felt like he was in Jr. High asking a girl to the dance.

"No, not really, you need Mimi?"

"No, umm we all kind of get together at this café, and I was wondering if you would like to come."

"Sure, what day?"

"Friday?"

"Ok, no problem. Got to go, hasta lueago!"

"Bye."

She went past him and down the stairs and he just stared off into space, Thank God. Its over.

Now it was Friday and they all were eating, as the orders went around she just had salad, and when alcohol was passed out she only got a glass of water. All of Marks fears came back to him, she really was different than all of them, and she didn't even realize it.

Afterwards they all were walking home, making even more noise outside than inside. Roger was officially intoxicated and had started to tell Leah about the art of playing the guitar; the non-drunk Leah just nodded and laughed when appropriate. Mark fell back to talk to Mimi about living with Leah.

"So what's she like?"

"Why?"

"Come on, you know."

"Really quiet she doesn't say that much about anything except how the DOW is doing."

"I knew it."

"What?"

"She's all business, I'm not, we could never be together."

"So? Maureen and Joanne seem pretty happy."

"I guess…"