"ever notice how philosophical you get in these coffee shops?" i said. "yeah," karsten said. "kind of." "i'm going to ask the girl behind the counter a philosophical question," i said. we smoked a bit, thinking. "she might think you're hitting on her," he said. "depends on how i ask," i said. "i'm not gonna ask her for a date." "i wouldn't," he said. "ask her for a date?" i said. "i wouldn't ask her anything philosophical," he said. "why not?" "i don't know," he said. "i'd have to think about it too much before asking her." "i see." we smoked some more. "i'm going to ask her tomorrow," i said. "okay," he said. i went home and smoked a bunch more hashish and woke up the next morning and went directly to the coffee shop. karsten was there, and so was the girl, still working and beautiful. i walked up to the counter and opened my mouth but nothing came out, so i went to sit next to karsten. "what are you thinking?" karsten said. "i was just thinking about that girl," i said. "i'm going to come here tomorrow and ask her." "good," he said. we looked at each other and passed the hash pipe. i forgot which one of us started to laugh, but when we started it was hard to stop. finally we did, though, and when the smoke cleared a bit, i glanced over at the girl behind the counter and started thinking about tomorrow.
