For the record

Item #1: Receipt, Victory Supermarkets, floral department

What you said: "It's not fair. You brought me the flower, bought
me dinner... I didn't bring you anything."

What I thought: one long anxious moment of anticipation, a smile,
a pair of brown eyes I won't be able to get out of my head for weeks, the
way you look when you're thinking about something, the music of your laugh.

What I said: "Yeah, but the fish n’ chips were really good."

Item #2: Receipt, Newbury Comics #2, 36 JFK St. Cambridge.

What I said: "You know, it's very dangerous to bring me into a
place like this."

What you said: "I didn't bring you in here. You brought me in here.
Actually, you led me in here."

What I said: "Hey, this is exactly what I've been looking for."

What you said: "Tom Waits? Never heard of him."

What I said: "Well, he's a grizzled old man who sings about
drinking, staying up late in diners, and being treated badly by women. You'd
love him."

What you said: "I don't know... there's a song on here called 'Warm
Beer and Cold Women.' I don't like warm beer, and women, warm or cold,
don't interest me that much."

What I did: smiled.

Item #3 Packet, Clorets gum, two pieces remaining.

This is not the kind of place Tom Waits would sing about. It's too
neat, too clean; the people here are too well-dressed, and there isn't a
trace of cigarette smoke in the air... you're drinking your coffee and I'm
sipping my lemonade, wondering which of a thousand questions I should
ask you next -- and you notice a picture on the wall, a photograph of a
house, or what seems like a house, but when you look closely at each of the
windows you notice the face of an enormous cat staring at you -- and you've
just figured out what it was, and you're laughing, and I'm smiling, and I
know what question I'm going to ask...

"I only want two," you say, stuffing the third green tablet back
into the box. "And now you're probably not going to want that piece, since
I've handled it."

Furthest thing from my mind...