She walked in at 5:00, brushed hard with the mean colors of day.

"What happened to you?" Fred cried, trying to hold his insides inside through an elevator response to her appearance.

"Move!" she said. "Let me sit down and get me a drink."

Fred moved. He got her a drink. He sat down himself and he waited.

Fiona knocked back the drink like an iron penny bank and held out the glass. Fred jumped up, wavered while his stomach caught up. He refreshed her drink and was seated back down and straining to hear over the clinking of ice.