It Happened on Maple Street

And at least it wasn’t an avowal of undying love.

I made a beeline for the register, hoping to pay for the card and hide it in my purse before Rebecca saw what I was doing.

I waited until the cashier was finishing with the last person at the counter and went forward.

“What’d you find?”

It was like Rebecca had been watching me, waiting, she appeared so quickly. Pounced so quickly was how it felt to me.

“A card.”

“Can I see it?”

I handed it to her. And looked at the ground while she read. The carpet was grey. Commercial. Dirty and ugly.

“You’re getting Tim a card.” She handed it back to me. If she told my mom, in front of my dad, that I was buying Tim a card before he’d even said he liked me, I’d get a lecture for sure.

“Yeah.” And if she thought it was the wrong thing to do, too, I was going to do it anyway. No matter how much her level of experience in the dating department outweighed mine.

Rebecca had liked a lot of guys. I was in love.

The words of wisdom I was expecting didn’t come.

“What do you think?” I asked.

She nodded, her perfectly feathered bangs giving her that elfin look that all the guys went for. Her breasts were overly enviable in size, too. A fact that was further emphasized by her slim waist and the tight sweaters she always wore.

r />

“You think I should give it to him?”

“Yeah, I do. You really like this guy.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, well, he needs to know that. And to do something about it if he hopes to keep you. Besides, it doesn’t say anything about the L word, so it’s not like it should scare him completely off.”

Wow. I wasn’t as backward as I’d thought.

He found his car at the first dealership he visited—a Pontiac LeMans Sport Coupe. It called out to him when he pulled on the lot. The second he saw the pristine exterior with the black landau roof and, inside, the leather seats and the shifter on the console, he knew the car had to be his.

He pictured Tara in the passenger seat. And in the backseat, too. She’d be impressed. She’d love it. How could she not?

He wasn’t going to say anything to her about it, though. Not until he knew for sure it was his.

“Can I drive it?” he asked the salesman who approached him out on the lot.

“Yeah, you can take it overnight if you want, let your mother and brother have a look at it.”

He was in Eaton where he’d lived all his life. Where everyone knew his family—and his business.

He didn’t need anyone to have a look at it. He knew cars as well as anyone in his family. But he wasn’t going to blow his chance to keep the car overnight.

And when his student loan came in a couple of days later he hurried back to the dealership, worried the whole way that the car would be gone.

It wasn’t. It was as if the LeMans was just sitting there waiting for him to take it home.

The next day sitting with Tara in geology lecture, he was about to burst with his news.