And that, my friends, is the truth

Church was almost over. It was almost time to go.
Actually I hadn't really spend any time IN church. I mean, I was here and all, but was feeling so sick that I ended up spending most of the time outside the doors of the auditorium. But going home was out of the question, because this afternoon I was hanging out with him again.

I was pretty excited. We usually hung out once a month. Always on a Sunday, although I'd wondered about that. I'd always thought he was busy on Sundays.

Anyway, once church was over I was going to go and meet up with him at the strip and we were going to hang out for the afternoon.

It's not that we don't hang out any other time. But these times were just more... special. It was just him and me. Sometimes we just sat and talked, sometimes he dragged me into the 'wilderness' and sometimes we just decided to check out stuff on the strip... Like today.

Church was finally over and I couldn't wait to leave. Still not feeling 100%, but that was ok.

I drove over to one of the biggest casinos on the strip, parked the car and walked over to our meeting point. As always I was the one who was late. But I knew it didn't matter.

He beamed at me when I got there and we hugged. Man, I was so excited to see him. Although... I decided to come right out with it...

'So, I know it's my turn to come up with food options, but... well, I don't have the money for lunch today. So I was thinking, we could just not eat today. Or maybe later at home?'

'Dudette, I got a surprise for you!'

And with that we started walking towards the market research center.

I had no clue what he was up to. Surprises I expected, but the thought of lunch I could probably kiss good bye. While he totally enjoyed having a meal together he was not one for actually carrying any sort of cash or other payment methods.

We walked down the casino walkways, pretended that we couldn't walk on any red tiles, which meant we had to hop every now and then to keep on going. Some people were looking at us funny, but I didn't care. If they only knew how cool it was to spend the whole afternoon with him.

We finally made it to the market research center. For today we had decided to do a little market research and help out the world by watching a TV show and rating it.
He grabbed a pair of tickets that were almost shoved into out face as we walked up to the counter. The whole deal was for free. You just needed to show ID and bring a bit of time.

We were lucky and had a show starting the minute we arrived (although I wouldn't put it past him that he'd arranged this). We snagged the last 2 seats and listened to the instructions. Then the show finally started.

It was a fun show and I was totally engaged in the whole deal, almost sad by the time it was over. We rated the show and then made our way out of there.

I almost just left, but he said, no, let's wait for the instructor to give us our 'parting gift'. I remembered that the people at the counter had mentioned that we would get some vouchers and stuff.

'Let's just go. Even the 2 for 1's are useless when you don't even have enough money for the 1.'

But he resisted and we waited until the instructor had finished helping someone. She came over and gave us 2 envelopes.

Once outside he gave them to me to open... I was stunned to see that the first one had $20 bill in it. Unbelieving I looked up into his eyes.

He just smiled and said 'It's a special they have today.'

I opened the second envelope and saw a bunch of coupons. He helped me sort through them until he found the one he was looking for. $5 off any purchase at a coffee shop...

'Do you suppose it'll work even just for drinks?' I asked.

He smiled and took my hand and we walked to the coffee shop. I ordered the biggest frappocino they had and paid 39 cents for it. That was lunch.

'Ready for the rest of the afternoon' he asked.

'I'm ready Jesus, let's go.'