Since she was out, she got dressed and we went and saw a movie. I don’t even remember which one. I think it had Ben Affleck in it.

After that, we went for a snack at a small cafe near the theater. Neither one of us was speaking much. She seemed to be trying to decide how to deal with the change in our relationship. I was trying to decide how I felt about her.

It’s true, she was cute—and still at least a little mysterious. But a lot of the mystery was gone…especially now that I remembered the girl who used to tag along behind me during my senior year in high school, with that purple notebook. I’d thought of her as a bit of a pest.

It was still hard to believe how much she’d changed since then. Maybe part of it was she was taking better care of herself; her hair was better, and her skin wasn’t wall-to-wall acne anymore. Maybe spending most of her time as intestinal bacteria just agreed with her.

I paid the check, and we headed back to my place. It was time for Cindy Lou to go back to work.