her head. “Maybe.”
“You’re really busy. Are we still on for today or do you have to work?”
“We’re always busy on Saturday mornings, but I’m off. I was just helping out until you came. Have you had breakfast?”
“No.”
“Good. I’ll get you something.” She handed me a menu. “Have a seat at the bar. I’ll be right back to get your order.”
I took the menu and sat down at the only available seat in the diner. I pondered my choices while April delivered coffees to a table.
“Anything look good?” she asked.
“It all does,” I said. “What do you recommend?”
“The feta omelet is my personal favorite. But only if you like feta.”
“Sold,” I said.
She took my menu and walked back to the kitchen. She returned a moment later. “It will only be a few minutes.” She leaned forward on the counter. “So I have a full day planned for us. It’s going to take a bit of walking. I hope it’s not too cold for you.”
“I’m used to cold,” I said.
“Of course,” she replied. “Denver. But I think it’s a different kind of cold here. Denver is pretty dry, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Here, the dampness just cuts through you. I’m still not used to it. That’s why I brought my big coat. And my mittens.”
“Me too,” I said. “Not my mittens. Just the coat. Do people still wear mittens?”
“I do,” she said. “I knit them myself.”
“You are a rare woman,” I said. She laughed. “So, I’m betting lunch that you really don’t know all the people you have hanging on the wall.”
“Bring it on,” she said.
“Okay, who is that?” I said, pointing to a color photo of a woman.
“Dorothy Hamill. Olympic ice-skater.”
I pointed to another woman, a picture in black and white. “And her?”
“Kim Novak. I think she was an actress.”
“She was in Hitchcock’s Vertigo with Jimmy Stewart.”
“Hitchcock?” she said.
“Alfred Hitchcock,” I said. “You know, the director of The Birds. Psycho. North by Northwest.”
She just shrugged. “Never heard of him.”
I looked at her quizzically. “Really?”
“I told you I’m not much into movies,” she said, taking a step back. “I’ll check on our breakfast.”
She returned from the kitchen a moment later carrying a tray loaded with plates. She gave me my omelet with a side of hash browns, and a cup of coffee. She set her own meal, a cinnamon roll and a cup of cocoa, on the counter in front of her, then leaned against the counter to eat.
“I’m a sugar freak,” she confessed, cutting into the cinnamon roll with a fork. “I’m glad I’m not diabetic. I’d kill myself on those peach gummy candies.”
“Those might be worth dying for,” I said. “And those grapefruit ones . . .”
“Yes!” she said. “I love those.”
“You’re standing,” I said. I stood. “Come sit.”
“No, I’m okay,” she said. “I’m just having a roll.” A broad smile crossed her face.
“What?” I asked.
“I like that you’re a gentleman.” She watched me as I took a bite of my omelet. “What do you think?”
“It’s good.” She looked pleased that I liked it. I took a few more bites. “So what’s the plan today?”
“First, we’ll go downtown and start our tour at the Sears Tower. Actually, it’s not really the Sears Tower anymore, it’s the Willis Tower, but everyone still calls it that. I thought we could go to the top so I could show you how the city is laid out. Then we’ll go on a walk through Millennium Park. Then over to the Art Institute of Chicago. Then, if we’re not too tired, we can walk down by the Navy Pier.”
“That’s a full day,” I said.
“We’ve got a lot to do. So hurry and eat.”
We took the Blue Line to the Clark/Lake station, then walked over to Wacker, passing in front of the Leo Burnett building.
“That’s where I work,” I said.
April looked up. “That’s a very tall building. Does your company use the whole building?”
“We have sixteen floors.”
“Wow,” she said. “What floor do you work on?”
“The twenty-seventh.”
She grimaced. “That’s too high.”
We walked about eight blocks to the Sears building. The Sears Tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-tallest in the world. From its top floors you can see four states: Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.
We had been warned by Justyna, one of the cooks at the diner, to expect long lines for the Skydeck but, being winter, there wasn’t much of one. I bought our tickets and we got onto the express elevator in less than a half hour, crowded in with about twenty other