all good things

I was ordering coffee from a sidewalk espresso bar when the world ended. We didn't know it was coming, of course. I always thought the movies that acted like we'd have time to prepare got it wrong.

Neither of us was really sure what to say. "So, the world just ended. Do I still have to pay?"

"Do you still care?"

We both figured that maybe there would still be some time before my cards stopped working, so I paid with that and we were both more or less satisfied. Then she started robbing the till. "It's not like I'm going to work tomorrow."

We decided to see if there were any other shops that survived, so we went around. We were going to buy things on our credit cards until they stopped working, but by the time we got to the shops they were being looted and there wasn't much we could do but try to join in.

There wasn't really anything either of us wanted. We managed to grab some food and a case of beer before it was all gone and tried going back to her place, but it was destroyed, so we went back to mine. The TV wasn't working and the internet was down and I didn't have a radio. We watched movies.

"All I can think about," she said, after a few movies and a few drinks, "is how all that money I took isn't going to be any good anymore."

"Yeah."

We kept it anyway. Maybe someone at the end of the world would take it. But there were a lot of DVDs to watch and neither of us really wanted to venture out.