It helped that she was nice to him.
She’d never worked a cash register before, and Annette, whom she would be replacing, was immediately exasperated, even though from what Toby could tell she was picking it up quickly. People weren’t born knowing how to use a piece of man-made equipment. Toby wanted to walk over there and tell Annette this, and he almost did, but Melissa seemed to be handling everything fine, and her smile never vanished.
Then Mr. Zack asked Toby why he was loitering out here, and he sheepishly returned to the stockroom.
He spent the morning lifting boxes and working up the courage to ask her to sit next to him at lunch. Or the courage to sit next to her, wherever she decided to sit. Either one of those would be fine.
Melissa went home for lunch. Apparently she lived only two blocks from the store.
Toby spent the afternoon mopping floors and trying to decide if he would be risking severe humiliation by asking her to go to a movie with him. Robin Hood was still playing, though he didn’t know if she’d want to go see a Disney cartoon. The only other thing playing was Serpico, which might be kind of violent for her.
His hands were so sweaty that he dropped a box of Tide when he tried to put it on the shelf. Fortunately, Mr. Zack didn’t see him.
“Hi,” Toby said, walking over to her as their shifts ended. “I’m Toby. Mr. Zack introduced us this morning.”
“Yep, I remember.” Toby wasn’t sure if her smile actually got bigger, but it might have. “What’s up?”
“How was your first day?”
She shrugged. “Not too bad. Annette tries to make it a lot more difficult than it really is. I think she’s embarrassed by how easy it is. You don’t even have to add up the numbers yourself. At least your job requires strength.”
Toby grinned. “Well, not that much strength.”
“More strength than pushing buttons for eight hours.” She lifted her hand and stared at it in mock agony. “Oh, my poor, poor, delicate fingers!” She had long fingernails, painted with bright red polish.
“Do you want to go to a movie tonight?” Toby asked. He hadn’t planned to just blurt it out like that, but at least he didn’t screw up the words. He’d half expected to say something like “Tonight want go movie-thing me come too?”
“Ooooh, I can’t tonight.”
“No problem.”
“I can tomorrow, though, but we have to see Sleeper. Have you heard of that?”
“No.”
“It’s about a guy who wakes up in the future. It’s a comedy, though. It looks hilarious.”
“I didn’t know it was even playing.”
“It’s not in Orange Leaf. We’d have to drive about forty-five minutes. Is that okay?”
“Of course!”
“How about we leave right after work? I’ll drive.”
“I’ve got a car.”
“Yeah, but I’ll drive. Are we set?”
“Definitely.”
Toby went out and bought a new shirt and jeans for the date. He pretty much only wore the same five shirts, so everybody at work would know that he’d bought something special just for this occasion, but he didn’t care. He didn’t have any reason to downplay his excitement.
“Nice shirt,” said Annette. “You look good in green.”
“I should let you know that I investigated you,” said Melissa, as she pulled out of the grocery store parking lot. She was dressed simply-faded jeans and a yellow T-shirt-and Toby had never seen anything more radiant.
“You did?”
She nodded. “I just asked people around work if you were safe. Apparently you’re extremely quiet and keep to yourself most of the time.”
“That’s probably accurate.”
“Except Mr. Zack said that you can be a smart-ass.”
“That’s probably accurate, too.”
“And everybody was surprised that you asked me out.”
“I was kind of surprised, too.”
“I’m glad you did. I really want to see this movie and I didn’t want to go by myself. And I promise that I’m not a serial killer if you promise that you’re not one.”
“I promise.”
“And I’m not a political activist or a religious nut.”
“Neither am I.”
“Good. So we’re not serial killers, political activists, or religious nuts. I think we’ll at least be able to make it through the trailers without any problems.”
They talked and laughed all the way to the movie theater. Owen was his best friend and that would never change, but it was so nice to have an extended conversation with somebody he could fully communicate with. This was natural. This was right.
Sleeper was the funniest movie Toby had ever seen in his life. He laughed until tears streamed down his cheeks. They shared a popcorn and a package of red licorice, but they were still hungry when the movie ended, so they went to get a burger and fries. They laughed some more and quoted their favorite lines from the movie, over and over.
Toby didn’t know what being in love felt like, and to be honest he thought that it probably involved a more dramatic shift in his outlook on life than what he was currently feeling. Still, there was no question that he really, really liked Melissa. Maybe more than he liked anybody besides Owen.
Right now, she was his favorite human being.
They got back into her car. She didn’t start the engine. She looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. “Do you get high?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said, though he didn’t.
“Do you have anything with you?”
“No.”
“I’ve just got some weed. Wanna go somewhere?”
Toby felt himself begin to perspire and hoped that she didn’t notice. Yeah, he wanted to “go somewhere” with her, but not to do drugs. How was he supposed to explain this? Sorry, Melissa, I appreciate the offer, but I have these disturbing images in my brain that I can’t always control, and if I try a mind-altering substance I have no idea what I’ll see or say. He’d kept his secret too long to risk sharing it while he was stoned. He could just imagine himself, rolling around in a giggling fit: “And then I cut off their fingers! It was the funniest thing I’ve ever done!”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Oh, no, I trust you completely.”
“You shouldn’t. Because one of the things I said I wasn’t isn’t true.” She poked him in the chest. “Vote Democrat.”
He sensed that she was trying to let him off the hook, but he wanted to explain himself, even if his explanation was completely made up. “It’s just that my parents are coming to visit for the holidays, and my mom is as antidrugs as you can possibly get, and if she even thinks she smells pot she will absolutely flip out.”
Nice. Smooth. His great excuse for not getting stoned with Melissa was that his mom might not approve. Wow, she was going to think he was simply the coolest person who’d ever lived in the entire history of the universe.
“That’s too bad,” Melissa said. “Pot makes me horny.”
Toby felt like an entire bathtub’s worth of sweat suddenly gushed from every pore in his body. Maybe he’d just smoke a little, or fake the inhale.
No. He knew what would happen. One kiss from Melissa and he’d forget himself, suck in a deep lungful, and then chase imaginary bullies around the room with a hunting knife.
