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He was lying.

I stared at him. “You were interested?” I asked. “In me?”

“We should not be talking about this—”

“No, you just seemed so irritated. I’m surprised is all. I thought…” I trailed off. “I thought you didn’t want to. I figured I wasn’t your type or you weren’t looking or something. Or you really didn’t want to drive a stranger to River Grove,” I said, laughing a little.

He sat there, silent. Peering out the driver’s side window, probably so he wouldn’t have to look at me. I looked at him instead, like I could glean what he wasn’t saying from the side of his face.

I couldn’t.

“So did the coin guy come back with bills?” I asked, changing the subject.

“The coin guy dumped the whole bag and clotheslined it over the counter at my pharmacy tech.”

“He didn’t…”

“I had to call the cops,” he said, looking back at me. “He got arrested for assault. With pennies.”

“Are you kidding?”

“I’m not.”

“Working retail should be mandatory. You could not convince me that the world wouldn’t be full of better humans.”

“Treat it like jury duty,” he said.

“Yes. And they have to substitute teach one day too.” I sat back in my seat and sighed. “I would love to get out of customer service.”

“Me too. I might start looking for something else.”

“Like what?”

“A hospital job probably. Won’t have to deal with patients or customers,” he said, looking up at the billboard.

Then the conversation stopped. We just sat there, looking up at the sign.

Had Chris really been interested?

I thought back to that night. Mike, being Mike. Flirty and smiling at me. And Chris, hands in his pockets, dark cloud.

But then I remembered something. How he’d mentioned that he was closer to River Grove than Mike was.

At the time I took it like he was letting me know that I’d be inconveniencing Mike more than him. It didn’t feel like a bid to get me to go with him.

But now that I knew Chris, I saw it differently. That was a bid. And I’d missed it.

Chris had been hitting on me, in his own quiet way, but was eclipsed by Mike. He’d wanted me.

I don’t know why but this flipped my entire reality around. A record scratch.

I just never thought…

I never thought I was good enough for someone like him.

And that’s really what it came down to. Yes, he’d looked unapproachable. But really, when I reflected on it, it was when Lexi told me Chris was a pharmacist that I chose Mike.

I figured someone like Chris would want someone smarter or more educated. A doctor or something. Someone on his level.