My break came on a Friday. The uber-boss actually came by my office and said, “I’m hitting the links. The rest of you poor slobs can scuttle on out of here as soon as I’m gone.”

So Friday afternoon found me three hours earlier than usual at my coffee haus mecca, basking in the presence of Sweet Carolina. Discreetly, as usual, head lowered over a book, while my eyes were trained on the plate glass window that let me stare as much as I liked.

And then she hung up her apron and walked toward my table.

“You’re off early,” she said, sitting down at my table.

I jerked my head away from the plate glass. “Oh, yeah, my boss left early. I mean, he let us all go. Early, I mean. He doesn’t normally. Let us go.” I stuttered to a halt. Kill me now. Please.

She smiled. “If I’d known, I would have windexed the windows, just for you.”

God. “It’s not like that,” I said.

“It’s totally like that,” Carolina said cheerfully. “I used the same trick on this guy, Rick, in my algebra class in high school.”