I skip the next few days and not show up at the restaurant. When I do finally show up I sit in my old first spot before she came along and I order my usual and I try not to look up from my table. But any time the bell rings on the door I can't help myself but look up and hope that it is her. She doesn't show today, or the next. Or the next. Finally one day the waiter who always talks to her comes over to me and asks me about her.
"Have you seen Nadia lately?" I look at him confused, who is Nadia. "Last I saw her was when you were here last and talking to her. You took off. That was sweet of you to give her your food." A black truck pulled up a few minutes later and it definitely wasn't your car. Men got out and came bursting in the front door with guns and she booked it for the back door. The guys made a mess of the place," I started to look around and I actually started to notice the place. Half of the restaurant was a mess. Bullet holes all around, Tables still on their side. It was a small enough town that when things like this happened it was out of the usual but when we called the cops they didn't do much. Left us to clean up the mess.
I look back at the waiter. "Has she been back since? Did they get her?"
"I don't know. That's why I asked you. I haven't seen her since that day." And just like that, on cue she comes bursting through the door. covered in dirt and dried blood. ripped rags tied in different spots on her body. She is breathing heavily like she is running from a bear or something worse. She frantically looks around the room. By the time she already finds me I'm halfway to her. "What happened to you? Are you okay?"

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