Late night escapes are fun until a zombie shows up.

Kyra and I didn’t feel like going home.

“Press?” I suggested, “I brought my laptop. Did you bring a book or something?”

“Yeah…” she exhaled.

After a pause she added, “But Press might have live music, it won’t be quiet.”

“Maybe.”

“Do you really want to go downtown?”

“No I guess not….Are you hungry?”

Her head popped up. “YAAAS!”

Inspiration struck. “Let’s go to Olive Garden.”

“YAAAS! Let’s go!”

With Beyonce belting “Drunk in Love” we headed to our favorite Americanized Italian chain restaurant.

The waitress offered us a wine sample. Kyra glanced at me, smirking. I politely declined (wouldn't want Olive Garden to get their liquor license revoked) and we ordered a Build-Your-Own Pasta to share.

Enveloped in a delicious food haze of cold salad and warm breadsticks, Kyra and I talked about nothing important, but at the time the conversation was so funny my stomach ached with laughter. At one point water I laughed so hard I choked and water burbled into my lap. Trying to milk as much time as possible, we ordered Zeppoli for dessert and made it last until closing.

When we finally made our exit, a zombie stopped us dead in our tracks. In the space between the inner and outer door, the hostess peering wide-eyed behind us, we watched a woman pull listlessly at the outer door in the dark. Her eyes seemed unseeing as she stared at an arbitrary spot on the pavement. She looked like a robot that had run into a wall and didn't know how to turn around.

Kyra backed away. I thought about looking for another exit. Instead, I opened the door from the inside and stepped back as she shuffled in, still not making eye contact. She mumbled something about her family being inside. Kyra grabbed my arm and we fled.

After recovering from our encounter with the walking dead, we realized going home would mean only being able to listen to one more song. Instead, we just drove. Kyra picked a direction at each intersection.

At one point, we found ourselves near a movie theater and decided to go see The Fault in Our Stars. Googling showtimes, we realized we had just missed the last showing, but it was playing in ten minutes in a theater across town. We drove with new found purpose.