"So how old are you anyway? Fifteen? Sixteen?" He said, playfully grasping my wrist. I tossed him a smile, and said "Eighteen", very precisely. He pretended great shock.
"NO! You look too young to be eighteen. You look too young to be working, you should be in school!"
"Well, as a matter of fact" I said, leaning in confidentially, "I'm graduating in a couple of months."
"Oh, and what are you going to do then?" he demanded.
"Tour Europe!" I exclaimed blissfully, and then ended with a forlorn "I wish."
"Why not? What's keeping you here?" he asked.
"Well, there's this small, irritating matter of money. I don't have any, really, and it's rather necessary if you want to go to Europe."
"Money in Europe? It's cheap over there! You could go with twenty five dollars and live for weeks! It's just the airline ticket that costs."
"Yes, that is a little more than twenty five dollars, isn't it." I said.
"How much would you need? I'll give you the money." He said with a great, teasing display of chivalry.
"Oh, eighteen thousand." I said casually, naming a ridiculous amount of money, since I really had no idea how much I would need.
"EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?!!!" he calmly repeated, and began coughing for a presently unknown reason.
"Yes, so you see what my problem is." I did my best to look like a maiden in dire distress, and need of financial rescuing.
"Well, I'll tell you what" he said seriously. "I'll give you the eighteen thousand, if you elope with me to Europe, how's that?" A terrifically boyish grin broke out on his sixty--something face.
"Tell you what" I returned. "You give me the eighteen thousand, and I'll elope by myself to Europe, how's that?" He and his friend thought that was the funniest thing they'd heard all year, and broke into laughter that you could hear on the other side of the restaurant. Oh well. Europe will have to wait.