Gold

He put the gold one on and placed the silver ring back into his pocket.

Gold was the color of kings, was it not?

Exiting his apartment, he turned to lock the door and headed out.

As he descended down the steps, his neighbor Yvette came bounding up. A shopping bag was in her hand, and her vivid, cool blonde hair rested upon her shoulders as prettily as usual. Stanley gave her a friendly greeting, keeping his eyes away from her very respectable bosom, which at the moment was only held in by a form-fitting, white tanktop. Her usual, maintenance-free attire was in full effect, with a pair of blue capris and sneakers to wrap it up.

"Morning, Stanley!" She smiled as she went on. Her apartment was right next to the staircase. "You got work right now?"

"Filling in for a co-worker, yeah." Jutting down a thumb cartoonishly, Stanley made a gagging motion. Yvette laughed as she fiddled with the keys.

"You look excited," she jabbed, flashing a white smile.

Stanley raised his arms wryly. "What can I say? I'm a real morning person, aren't I?"

Yvette laughed again, opening the door to her apartment and winking. "Yes you are, aren't you?" She backed in, holding the door with a foot. "Well, I'll see you later then. Have fun, and don't get too rowdy out there, mister morning Stanley!"

Her taut body was out of sight by the time Stanley's facial disposition lifted, and his chest rose up a little. He turned around with a palpable swish in the wind.

He really did feel good this morning. Better than good, actually. In fact, he already couldn't wait to go out, smell the fresh air. Maybe even hum some Andy Griffith.

And that's just what he did.

As he energetically stepped out to his car, he made drumsticks out of his fingers against the roof of his sedan. "Doo-doo-doooo doo-doo-doo!" He nodded, breathing in then out, enjoying the lone wasteland of his mid-tier 4-star apartment complex's parking lot. "As ripe as dew."

Now humming the theme song to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he climbed into his car and drove off, in search for a quick, nutritional breakfast.

His personal favorite chain's nearest joint was surprisingly busy. After some self-convincing, he yielded and moved to the next one over: the ubiquitous, unquenchable, country-tarnishing Mickey D's. If anything, you at least always knew what you were in for.

Pulling up to the drive-thru, a voice crackled through the speaker. Stanley rolled down his window.

"Welcome to McDonald's," a honey-tinted, young sounding voice recited, "would you like to try our hotcake deluxe special today?"

Well, that sounded more than a little appetizing. Stanley leaned forward, inquiring, "Is that the one with the two bacon sandwiches and cheesecake on the side?"

It was as soon as the last syllable was imparted from his tongue that he slapped himself. No, of course it wasn't. He was thinking of the bacon cheesecake lunch special they had going a couple weeks back. Not to mention, they were only serving breakfast at the moment.

"Sorry," correcting himself, Stanley glided a hand, "I meant--"

"Yes, that's the one."

"Yeah I thought so," he sighed, "my--"

Stanley stopped. He blinked, looking at the faceless speaker from which the faceless voice was casually emitted, and after a prolonged silence, frowned.

Huh. What did you know?

"Sir?" crackled the voice.

"Oh, er, right." Stanley slapped himself back into focus and continued, "It's just I thought that you guys had that on a limited run."

"We did," confirmed the girl on the other end, "but it was brought back because of local popularity. It's only available here in this branch."

A nod. Then, secondarily, "That makes sense. But wasn't it also a lunch item? Pretty sure we've still got a couple hours before noon."

"It was, but after the original hotcake deluxe special was discontinued, we decided to have the bacon cheesecake fill its place, so we've gone to calling it that now, too. But it's served all-day."

Wow. Lucky man Stanley. This morning was turning out to be just his cup of tea.

"Well sweet!" he laughed. "I'll take it."

"Alrighty." His bacon cheesecake deluxe popped up in the menu, a tag of $9.50 in the according right margin, and Stanley nodded happily along. He felt playful, his dew-barely-on-the-grass spirit giving a jovial fullness to his cheeks. "Hey, since we're already on to a roll, do you think I could also get one more of those for free? I would love some seconds, you know. Off the record," he chuckled.

Without skipping a beat, the server replied, "No problem, sir."

Mid-smile, another bacon cheesecake deluxe appeared on the menu, below his previous order. This time, $0.00 appeared on the right part of the screen. A few sconds passed. Stanley expected her to lay down the punchline, the inevitable 'ha-ha'. But none came.

"Would that be all?" the server finally asked.

"Uh..." Was she actually going to give him a free meal? Talk about generous. Slightly befuddled but pleasantly so, Stanley blurted out, "Sure, yeah, I'll take it."

A couple more taps peppered the background. "That'll be $9.50. Thank you."

Stanley shook his head and drove up to the next window. A girl probably no more than a year younger than him was there to meet him. He gave her a ten and as she prepared him his pair of quarters, he spoke up.

"So," he went on, "just to be clear, I get to have that extra bacon cheesecake deluxe for free? For real?"

"Correct," the girl nodded. Her nametag read 'Claire'.

"Wow," Stanley mumbled, leaning backward. "That's friken awesome, man! Is it a part of some kind of deal or something?"

"Yep," Claire passed him two coins, and he took them. "It's a buy-one-get-one free discount. Get one bacon cheesecake deluxe and the second's on the house. Spread the word," she verbally nudged.

Musing in approval, Stanley told her to bet he would.

Once she'd plucked out the receipt and transferred it to his hands, Stanley began moving forward to the window where his two cheesecakes and four bacon sandwiches surely awaited him.