The advertisement had been in the paper for several weeks and while fairs did not have a huge draw on Paul they were much better than simply sitting around the apartment with nothing to do. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature had actually cooled off ever so slightly so that even though it was still warm, the weather was quite nice. Set up along Broadway from Houston to Grand Street, the street fair was filled with booths offering arts, crafts, antiques, exhibits, and ethnic cuisines. While quite a few people had come simply to shop and browse, Paul had come with one intention. Eating.

At the moment he was moving through the crowd, enjoying the sound of street performers playing a guitar, drum, and trumpet over on the corner while sampling bow tie pasta with sausage and sweet peppers. He had dressed for comfort with tennis shoes, denim jeans, and a black polo untucked in a casual manner. He had a hundred dollars or so in cash carefully split up between his pockets so that if somehow a pick-pocket picked the pocket of another pick-pocket and made off with his cash, he would still have more to fall back on.

Polishing off his pasta he deposited the empty foam plate in a trash can and then moved back along the line of vendors, eyes peeled for a decent beverage. He almost never drank alcohol and on a slightly warm day like they were having either a sweet tea or lemonade sounded very refreshing. Moving through the crowd he suddenly tripped over piece of trash carelessly thrown down on the street and stumbled into another person enjoyed the fair.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to bump you." Paul quickly apologized as he righted himself and turned to face the person he had intruded upon.

Ah, yes. These thingies.

Ashley was never really sure what to call these things, but the huge gathering of people meant a couple of things for the formerly homeless redhead; food. And lots of it. She came to these tings every chance she got and now that she had some money...well, she ate as much as she could. Agnes made fun of her because of her eating habits and how she growled every time someone even came close to the food she had on her plate, but that was just habit. When you were homeless, you protected your food. It was the law. Or something.

The kabob that Ashley was currently devouring had some interesting things on it, and the mayo she kept slathering on the meat and vegetables had people giving her a wide berth. Whatever. Mayo was the best food she had, and by the time she jumped the stick in the garbage she still had some mayo packets left, which meant only one thing; dessert. Well, almost. It would require much more mayo for Ashley to be considered dessert.

Sucking on a mayo packet, the redhead wandered around the fair with curiosity on her face. Okay, so now she was clad in a green sundress with her black combat boots. Much better then the yellow sundress she sported when she was with Charlie. Agnes said it accentuated her hair, whatever that meant. The guitarist was inclined to point out that nothing matched with her gray eyes, but decided that she liked the fact that Agnes was dressing her up and said nothing. A slight bump on her shoulder broke Ashley from her daydream of her time with Agnes, and she blinked before looking back to the person she had bumped into.

>>"Sorry! Didn't mean to bump you."

The musician stopped as she looked the man up and down and then held up her hand. In it was a wad of cash. Okay...so her body had reverted back to it's pickpocketing days and apparently hadn't lost their touch. Like riding a bike or whatever. She blinked, then looked back at the man she had taken the money from and blushed a deep shade of red. Really, she had no need for the money and she didn't know why her busy fingers had taken the cash. She extended her hand, holding the bills back to the gray haired man.

“Errr...sorry.” Ashley mumbled, looking away. She was glad her hair slightly covered her face. “Didn't...mean to.”

Now THAT was impressive. Often a pick pocket bumped into their victim in order to explain a bit of contact as well as get close enough to grab what they wanted. For a pick pocket to have the patience to wait until someone bumped into them and also have the speed and skill to get fingers in the targets pocket and out again before the other person righted themselves was even more impressive. This girl was good!

"Some things are just automatic when you have years of experience." Paul replied with a slight smile as he waved his hand ever so slightly, refusing the cash, "And since I haven't met anyone with that much skill before, you keep it."

Her sun-dress and combat boots made an interesting statement as did the flaming red hair but the condiment packet she had been sucking, mayonnaise perhaps, was even more interesting. How many people liked any condiment enough to suck it like sure? Sure, he had seen people use a ton of ketchup on food but mayo? Wasn't that almost flavorless?

"My name's Paul McCoy." His focus had changed from finding a beverage to finding out more about this girl. How long had she been a pick pocket? Why wasn't she working the crowd now because if she was offering to give the money back then she obviously wasn't in need of cash. Had she left this line of work? "When did you quit doing that?"

>>"My name's Paul McCoy. When did you quit doing that?"

Ashley shook her head, a non answer to be sure but she really didn't know what else to say. This was more cash to get her more food, and she knew she was going to be leaving here feeling fat. But the musician wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and stuffed the cash the man named Paul had told her to keep in her bra, seeing as her sundress didn't really have any pockets. And Agnes said a bra was good a place as any.

“Don't really, no more.” Ashley said, flicking the mayo packet expertly into a nearby trash bin. “No need. Got place, food.” She shrugged, as if that settled the matter. Nothing you need more then that, expect maybe good company, right?

Still, she felt bad for taking Paul's money, and figured the least she could do was find someplace to sit and eat. She wasn't exactly self conscience when it came to her looks (unless she was naked) but she really didn't wanna get her sundress dirty or greasy, and there had been a few close calls with that kabob. And lord only knows how hard mayo stains were hard to get out of clothing.

“Eat?” Ashley raised an eyebrow, jerking her thumb at a nearby burger stand. Maybe went with a lot of things, but burgers were among the best. “Got money...yours, anyway.” The redhead blushed again, clearing her throat and looking down and away in a shy manner. “Or...meeting someone? Are you, I mean? Here?”

She kept her money in her bra... Paul had only seen that on movies or TV shows but here was a woman in real life that did it. Perhaps that was more common that he had previously realized. And it sort of made sense since the young woman was wearing a garment that didn't have any obvious pockets and she wasn't carrying any sort of purse. Along with that fact she seemed to unused to carrying on a conversation. Her sentences were broken up, starting and stopping with no obvious rhythm. "She was a street kid at some point." Paul quickly decided. The signs were all there and while it was possible she had a different background, street kid just seemed to fit.

"Eventually we all find a place some later than others." Paul responded with a slight shrug of his own. He remembered what it was like being on the street though his own experience had been worse that most. Being on the street while a war was going on was completely different from being on the street in a country that had at least some sort of program to help the down trodden.

"Something to eat sounds good though a cold drink sounds even better." Paul responded to the broken invitation with a smile, doing his best to try and make the young woman feel at ease. He had noticed her shyness and her blushing and wanted to do what he could to make her feel comfortable. "And I'm here by myself. I haven't had a chance to meet a whole lot of people yet so I just enjoy going to events with a lot of people. Especially when I know there will be plenty of food available."

>>"Something to eat sounds good though a cold drink sounds even better. And I'm here by myself. I haven't had a chance to meet a whole lot of people yet so I just enjoy going to events with a lot of people. Especially when I know there will be plenty of food available."

Ashley nodded in understanding, knowing that was why she had come to such places in the past. She nodded her head to the burger stand, noticing they were serving drinks in huge cups so she figured she could buy one for Paul, and walked over, her mouth already drooling at the thought of one of the gigantic burgers they were serving. She patted her stomach, hoping she had enough room left over but decided not to kid herself; the redhead knew she could put away a massive amount of food and never gain a pound. For some reason, other females hated her for that.

She didn't get it, and even when it was explained to her she didn't understand. Maybe it was a human thing.

Ordering their biggest burger (The Giganto Triple Deluxe Doom Platter) and a Diet Sprite, she turned to Paul with a questioning gaze as she took off the top bun of her burger and started piling on the mayo. “Drink, Paul?” she said, giving the person that had handed her the food the money, plus more to cover the drink. “Your money, really.”

This girl was a very quiet one. Other than nodding at his statement and then nodding toward a burger stand she remained silent. Falling in behind her, Paul followed up stand and then waited to see how she would handle ordering. Surprise, surprise, she did go ahead and speak for that and then turned her gaze back toward him, once again using her voice to address him. "Wonder if maybe she's a psychic so she's not used to speaking much..."

"A large sweet tea please." He ordered quickly, trying to keep his thoughts to himself. Of course, the very idea of keeping his thoughts to himself was simply ludicrous if she did happen to be a psychic of some sort. He better make sure to keep his thoughts nice and clean so he didn't offend her.

After a few moments of simply standing in silence, Paul was handed his drink while the young woman was handed her own drink and an absolutely enormous burger. Just seeing her order the item was impressive in its own right but if she could actually manage to eat it then he'd be even more impressed. "So what drags you out here by yourself? Or are you meeting someone later?" Suddenly, as he asked the question something popped into his mind. "I don't even know her name..." Somehow she had ignored his own offered name and had managed to keep her anonymity through the last few minutes. It either showed her extreme awkwardness or extreme skill while also showing that Paul was not on his A-game for the day. When he had been on the streets he would have made sure to get a name, even if it was a fake but at the moment he found himself quite comfortable with the secrets this girl seemed to be holding so close.