“Were you flirting with Amy from knitting circle?”
“Was I doing what where?”
“You heard me.” I focus on the display of greens behind him. Broccoli and zucchini and such because meeting his gaze is too much. “It’s not really any of my business. Though it sort of is, given the situation. You hooking up with someone locally would be all sorts of awkward and embarrassing for me, what with the stories we’ve been spreading around.”
“June,” he says, and waits. He wants me to look at him. And when I finally do, his dark brows are drawn down and he’s frowning. “What’s going on?”
“She just approached me at the meat counter, and I guess you could say she’s interested inyourmeat.”
He smiles in amusement. “Nice pun.”
“Thanks.”
“Amy makes an excellent banana cake,” he says. “Which of course I told her, but I wouldn’t call it flirting.”
“Okay.”
“I guess you could say, she doesn’t excitemybanana.”
I snort.
He grabs the cucumber out of the basket. “I’d say my cucumber isn’t thrilled by her, but this one is way too small.”
“What are you talking about? That thing’s like twelve inches long.”
“My point exactly. This fruit just isn’t an honest representation of my manhood,” he says. “Girth really does matter. Is a cucumber a fruit or a vegetable?”
“It has seeds inside so it’s a fruit. Can you stop waving that around, please?”
“You didn’t want to touch it? Go on. I know you want to.”
I just wait for his foolishness to end. Which means we could be standing here a while.
He tips his chin and asks, “You wouldn’t be jealous by any chance, would you?”
“Of a cucumber?”
“HA. Of my new friend in the meat department.”
“What? No,” I say, with the world’s most fraudulent smile.
“Not even a little?”
“What a silly idea.”
“Do you know you have a tell?” he asks, putting down the cucumber so he can study my face. “When you’re lying.”
“I do not.”
“Yeah. You do.”
“Well, what is it?”
“There’s no way I’m giving that up. Then you’d stop doing it.” He takes a small step forward, getting in my space. “Which brings me back to my original point—we’re lying to a lot of people, but I’d prefer if you didn’t lie to me.”
“You wanted to just be friends and I respect that.”
“Given everything, it did seem like a good idea.”
