“There’re so many reasons why we shouldn’t—”“But we only need one why we should.” I’m smiling now, confident that I know where this is going.“And what’s that?”“Because we want to. Pick me up tomorrow night at eight. You know where I live.” He helped me move in, after all.“We can have dinner,” he decides. “But it’s not a date.”Yeah, like a label’s gonna stop me. I merely smile. “You’ve got my number, right?”In answer, he taps out a quick hey and my phone pings. I shouldn’t find this so endearing. “See you tomorrow, cowboy.”After he leaves, the rest of my shift is…bearable. I shut the place down at nine, and by fifteen past, everything is sparkling clean. I take the bus home, wishing I had a car. Maria’s out with her boyfriend, no surprise there, so I strip off the Pretzel Pirate get-up and take a shower. It’s not even ten thirty, and I’m bored as hell. I have the sense that I used to have somebody to hang out with—but maybe I left her in Kilmer.
