sound-dampening walls. I felt a rare sense of
grounded presence; the distracting pull of my phone and the outside world vanished, replaced entirely by the immediate, gentle rhythm established between us. The evening felt, in a word, right. To extend the pleasure of the company, I ordered coffee as the last crumbs of a shared chocolate torte were cleared away.
Then, the inevitable intrusion: the server arrived with the check.
She placed the slender, dark leather folder on the table between us with practiced neutrality, offering a polite, subdued
