There aren't many people in the diner at nine thirty on a Wednesday morning, especially not during a school day. Ephram would be worried about being caught, except he's already over the state line and truant from a hundred different things elsewhere. He's fairly sure no one cares.
A hand snakes out to pull his headphones out. "What're you listening to?" Nina says, smiling.
Ephram presses 'pause' on his discman. "Kind of a mix cd, you know," he tells her. "A little bit of this, a little bit of that."
Nina peeks at the case, and he holds it out to her. She sits down beside him, reads the songlist. "The Cure, Yo Yo Ma, more Cure, Louis Armstrong, and Henry Rollins." Raises an eyebrow. "Some mix."
Ephram shrugs. "I call it 'things to do in denver when you're dead'." He holds the burned case, face up, and indeed there it is, scrawled right across the front: things to do in denver when you're dead. Nina looks at him sadly. Ephram glances down at his book. "It was funnier last week, all right?"
"You want more coffee with that, honey?" she says, filling his cup before he says 'yes' or 'no'.