"Oh my God, I love Cherry Street Market. Those oatmeal raisin cookies at the counter, I used to beg for those as a kid. Your mom is the sweetest. Is Charlie your brother then?"
As soon as she mentioned my brother, my face fell. In my family, Charlie was the smart one, the nice one, the dependable one. Charlie was a perfect angel and I was the black sheep. The perpetual fuck up. The most likely to never succeed.
"So you know my brother, huh?"
"Yeah. I’ve actually had some classes with him."
"You got to USC?"
"Yes, it's my last year. The goal is to finish up then get my MBA."
"So you're a business lady," I teased.
"It’s funny you’re part of Cherry Street because stores like yours are the very ones I want to work for and salvage. Small mom and pop businesses are my passion. All through the country so many incredible and irreplaceable businesses go under because of poor management. You hear all these stories about local shops closing, people moving away and all these iconic main streets turning into veritable ghost towns. I want to change that. Move away from big business and restore the small, local, and sustainable economies."
Here she was, barely out of her teens, and she had her whole future mapped out. She was just like Charlie, knowing what she wanted, so sure of herself. A small-town girl with love for helping and building a better community.
She was nothing like me, a guy who'd dropped out of high school to pursue art. I thanked my lucky stars that I was good with a tat gun; it saved me. Without my art, without ink, I’d be on the streets, or worse. My love for body art was sometimes the only thing that grounded me. I shouldn't have wanted anything from this girl. She was perfect, idyllic, the kind of girl you bring home to your parents and propose to at Thanksgiving. What I should have done was just leave and forget about her. Move on, let her live her life and marry a perfect lawyer or doctor. I didn’t want to stifle her dreams with my outcast ways and black sheep reputation.
But I couldn’t let go. This girl was a magnet. Something held my feet to the ground and my heart hammering in my chest like I’d done a shot of adrenaline.
"You hungry?" I asked her. I didn’t know what else to say.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Here you are helping me all day without any pay, and I didn't even feed you. Can I make you a panini or toast you a muffin? I'd offer you a fancy coffee, but we’re only serving them at Dunkin Donuts today." She gave me a playful grin.
"Who said I wasn't going to get paid?"
She nervously wiped her hands on her black pants, her eyes round as if been caught off guard. "Oh yes, I should have offered you some straight up cash. You shouldn’t have to wait for my paycheck. I can do a payout and just um, gauge a per diem." She moved past me, but I grabbed her arm and turned her to face me.
"I don't want any money," I said, stepping closer to her. “I want to see more of you.”
“Oh okay. Like actual plans we set now?"
I hadn’t been out of the scene so long that I forgot how it worked.
"Yeah, like dinner and a movie, is that still acceptable these days?"
She took a step back, almost tripping. I reached out, grabbed both of her shoulders, holding her up. "A confirmed plan would be nice. Don’t people do that anymore?"
Hell, maybe with all those apps and dating sites, who knew. Maybe putting her on the spot like this was uncouth and what I needed to do was get her handle and ask her out on line.
“Oh,” she stammered, “You were serious. Ummm, ok. When did you want to do this?”
"How about tonight?"
"You aren't sick of me yet? We just spent the whole day together."
"I'm not sure being sick of you is even a possibility, ever,” I said. Her skin turned a cute shade of pink. I wanted her to want to get to know me, not feel backed into a corner. "I'm hoping you'll say yes cause I'm not sure my partner would be okay with me ditching work every day to take shifts making coffee." I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and held it out to her. "If you need to, we can call my brother right now. I'm sure he'd vouch for me."
"I'm sure you're a totally great guy."
I didn't like how she said it. It sounded kind of phony like she was brushing me off.
"I am. Let me prove it to you."
"It's just that I'm not really looking for anything right now. Like dating or relationships, I mean."