She was still thinking about John as she smiled and handed a customer a pizza box, then grabbed their change out of the drawer. "What's up?" Larry asked, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms. "Nothing," she said. "What's up with you?" "Nothing, but then I don't have that preoccupied look on my face." "I wasn't aware that I had a preoccupied look on my face." "Well, you did," he said. "Well, I didn't mean to," she replied. "People rarely mean to look preoccupied," Larry remarked. She sighed. "It's nothing. My brother wanted to talk to me and I was going to talk to him, but I'm a big chicken and now he's back at school. I won't get to talk to him for a while unless I want to talk on the phone, which I don't." "Ah," he said with a nod. "Well, you can always talk to him next time." "Yeah," she murmured, turning to answer the phone. Larry waited patiently until she was finished, then he smiled. "Hey, what are you doing after work?" "Practicing my cartwheels," she replied, turning to the rack of pizzas.
