You are learning departure: you will read the scene it happens in, take apart the pattern behind them (departure + check ritual), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
The end of a New York restaurant meal. The American check, the tip, the chef compliment, the warm farewell, and the phrases that turn a server into someone who'll remember you when you return.
The check arrives. The stranger has been in New York for a month. He tips twenty-five percent — not because he was told to, but because the service was genuinely excellent. He thinks about it: the water refills without asking, the timing of the courses, the server who remembered he was allergic to shellfish before he had to remind her.
At the coat check: "This has been truly extraordinary. One of the best meals I've had."
The server — whose name is Elena, they learned over the course of the evening — smiles a complete smile. "Thank you so much. That means everything."
"Please pass our compliments to the chef. Really."
Outside: 20th Street, the Flatiron Building lit to the north, a cool September night. Marcus and the stranger walk south. "What an evening," Marcus says. "What an evening."