Page 55 of Robbin’ the Rich

“We’ll see you guys later,” Mel said with a smile before following her little family to the car that had just pulled into a spot.

Hand in hand we made our way towards the noise. The pumpkin patch was exactly as autumnal as I had expected. There were haybales, corn mazes, apple cider, and pumpkins galore. Children ran through the rows shrieking while exhausted parents carried far more pumpkins than any family reasonably needed.

It was kind of fun, not that I planned to tell Micah that.

We moved through the patch together before stopping to drink some cider and pet some goats, but I found myself watching Micah. Not intentionally, at least not at first. It just kept happening. I watched as he took a handful of animal feed and handed it to the little girl next to him before having a conversation with her dad about what the little pellets were actually made of. He had a way of being fully present and curious in conversations that fascinated me. No one was that interested in everything… only he was.

Part of me wanted to write it off as fake, but it wasn't performative. I was good at spotting performance. My newfound side hustle of crime existed because I knew how others hid ugly truths behind polished smiles. Micah wasn't performing. He genuinely cared.

I was watching him help a small child lift a ridiculously oversized pumpkin into a wagon when Mel appeared beside me.

"You got it bad."

I nearly choked on my cider.

"I do not."

Mel snorted. The sound contained thirty years of accumulated skepticism. "Robin."

"What?"

"You've been staring at him for ten minutes."

I whipped my head in another direction. "That's not true."

"As much as it pains me to say this, he actually seems like a really great guy."

"He is… maybe too good."

Mel shrugged, “I don’t know, he seems pretty genuine to me.”

“Oh, I think it is too. And that’s all part of the problem.”

“I’m not following.”

“He’s like… perfect,” I said as he looked over at us and waved.

Mel smiled and waved back. “Well, I think that is a problem you'll have to tackle head on… or maybe from behind,” she said with an approving glance as he bent over to pick up another pumpkin for a kid.

I elbowed her. “Knock it off or I’m telling your wife you were checking out my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” she shot back at me, way too loudly.

“Will you just shut up?”

Mel took a sip of her cider and returned to her family looking entirely too pleased with herself. I glanced toward Micah again. This time he was watching me with a curious expression.

“What was that about?” he asked as he walked over to me, leaving a sea of happy children behind.

“Oh… just Mel being Mel,” I said. I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets.

Micah slipped an arm around my shoulders. I leaned into his and breathed in his scent as he kissed the top of my head. He did it so casually, like he hadn’t just rearranged my heart with a simple gesture.

“What do you say we give the corn maze a go?”

I nodded. “Let’s do it.”

His hand traced down my arm until his hand wrapped around mine, and just like that I headed into a corn maze, holding the hand of a boy entirely too good for me. Now this was not on my bingo card for the year.