Page 27 of Believe in Caloosa Springs

Damn.

I grabbed a bottle of coke out of the small fridge next to the cash register and greeted the man behind the counter with a friendly nod.

“‘Evening,” he said, as he began punching buttons on the ancient machine. There were no barcodes on anything. He scratched his head for a moment as he turned the condoms around in his hand. After a moment, he seemed to give up. With a small shrug, he punched in a few more keys. “Seven dollars and twelve cents.”

I pulled my debit card out of my wallet and presented it to him.

“Oh, um. Sorry, my son isn’t here at the moment, and I don’t know how to work the debit. Can you come back later?”

“Yeah. No problem.” I opened the fridge to put my bottle of pop back.

“No, son. Take that with you. Just come back tomorrow and pay.”

“Are you sure?”

The man nodded and opened up the newspaper he’d been reading when I walked in.

“Thanks,” I said. “Have a good night.”

They say people in Salt Lake are friendly and trusting, but I’d never had anyone let me walk out of a store with a promise to come back and pay later. This place felt made up.

Chapter Nine

Christian

“So, what’s the deal with this farm guy?”

I pulled the black pencil away from my eye to snort. “Farm guy? He’s your employee.” I watched Mandy flip a page in the magazine she was reading by way of the mirror's reflection.

“Well, I guess that’s technically true, but he’s still a farm guy. And, you said it yourself, he looks like he just stepped out of church choir practice. So, like, what’s the deal?”

“There is nodeal,” I retorted after I’d connected my bottom lash line with the top with charcoal liner. “He invited me to hang out, and I accepted. Besides, it sounds like half the town is going to be there. I don’t understand why you are so opposed.”

“I’m opposedbecausehalf the town is going to be there,” she said dryly. “And you are changing the subject. Since when do you entertain any man with less than three tattoos and two misdemeanors?”

I laughed. “I don’t know. He’s cute, and he’s trying really hard.”

“That’s for sure. He’s like a lost puppy. Heiskinda cute though. You could do worse.” She looked reflective. “Who the fuck am I kidding; youhavedone worse! Remember Jeremy?”

“Oh, fuck you! We arenottalking about Jeremy!” I put the liner down and swiped my finger across my highlighter, haphazardly sweeping from the corner of my eyes down alongside the bridge of my nose. That way, when the light caught it, I'd have a shimmery tear stain. I picked up my cologne and began to spray the mist into the air all around me as I turned in a circle.

“Actually, I take it all back,” Mandy said after a moment. “Fall in love with him so badly you can’t even imagine leaving, and just stay here and have lots of babies! Then, I don’t have to worry about you leaving.”

I choked on my spit. “Ewww, Mandy! No! No babies. Gross.”

She chuckled and turned another page.

“And I’m not staying here forever,” I continued. “I already told you that. Myhappily ever afterconsists of more than four businesses and a community cow.”

“There’s like… twenty cows here,” Mandy countered as the doorbell rang.

“You have a doorbell?”

“Apparently?” Mandy shrugged. “No one’s ever used it before.”

When I opened the front door, Porter smiled. “Hi.”

Why the fuck did I just get goosebumps?I smiled back. “Hi.”

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