She chuckled and shook her, “No of course not! Let’s go into this spot here. It’s pretty casual but their salads and stuff are really good. And we can share a cupcake or something after.”

I smiled, “Watching your sugar?”

She nodded, and, as I held the door open for her as we walked into the corner restaurant, she observed, “You obviously don’t have to watch anything. In fact, if I had to guess, you need to put on some weight, don’t you?”

I shrugged and nodded ruefully. “Seem to have lost my appetite over the past year or so. But, ever since Hong Kong, I think I’m starting to get my appetite back. You should have seen the pail of shrimp I ingested at lunch today!”

She laughed, and then directed us to join the queue of people lining up to place their orders.

We chose a table by the glass windows and fell into a comfortable silence as we sipped on our ice-cold lemonade drinks while we each prepared to eat the food we’d selected from the buffet line.

“Nice to see, Aerin, that you have such a good appetite,” Sheryl remarked again. While we’d been picking out our food, she’d ribbed me about having selected the maximum portion size available, and then added a salad, also. She’d gone with the minimum single portion size, claiming she needed to watch what she ate. She laughed when I insisted on getting two desserts, instead just splitting one as she’d wanted to.

“I’m sorry Sheryl, but since you’re eating such a small main meal, I fear that you have designs on the dessert you claim you want to split with me. And there is no way I am letting you have all of this chocolate butter cream cupcake!” I pretended to be firm, as I also insisted on paying for our food and drink.

As we started to dig in, in the middle of finalizing my battle plan on how I wanted to consume this feast before me, I heard Sheryl exclaim, “Harley! Harley! Why, it’s so good to see you here, honey!”

Sheryl was half standing from her chair when I overheard a musical, just thoroughly sweet voice answer, “Oh, no, no, Sheryl, don’t bother standing.”