Soun Tu Di seated at his usual table, his back against the wall, the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile, looking into the eyes of the familiar waitress with the coy smile, gently touched her hand as she laid the menu on the table in front of him. The averages of anyone noticing this exchange were infantismally small.

His neck hair stood on end as he cought sight of the patron at the table directly across from him furtively staring at him. When the girl left, he returned the stare at the intrusive patron, who now refused to meet his gaze. After a moment or two, in puzzlement, raising his eyebrows in near recognition of the rude person whose face was partially hidden behind a cashmere scarf, he wracked his brain trying to bring forward who this person might be. He barely noticed his admirer scratching their chest and slowly sliding their hand under their coat.

He saw the gun just in time to react by diving to his right down to the floor in the aisle beside his table. Looking up as he heard the dull thunk of the lead bullet impacting the wall behind where only seconds ago he had sat, he was staring into the barrel of a pistol. Paralyzed, in shock, the next sound that registered in his brain was the click of a misfire, and then the scarf slipped away from the assailant's face---

It was her!