Page 26 of It Started With a Scarf

"What about the guy at the bus stop, the one who had your scarf?"

"He liked me," she said. "He was a customer at Abercrombie, and he had gotten my number from someone. I blocked him, and he would still come into my work."

"Is that why you quit?"

"No, but it was a bonus. I'm so sorry about this," she said, fixing her scarf so that it was covering as much of the logo as possible.

"I'll have to put an X through it."

"Or better yet, I'll just give you a Northwestern sweatshirt. I have about two hundred of them if you want one."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. I see those around. Is that the right college, Northwestern?"

He smiled. "Yes, it is."

"Twenty-seven!" the guy at the restaurant yelled it louder as if it wasn’t the first time he said it.

Dominic glanced at the table and saw that it was their number so they paused their conversation long enough to go pick up their hamburgers and French fries. Marley stayed back with their drinks. He saw her bless her food before she ate, and then she just dug in, taking a huge bite of the burger, not shy at all. She sat up and smiled at him as she chewed. She lifted her eyebrows. She didn't care what anyone thought of her. Aside from the sweater, she was the vision of perfection. Heck, even with the sweater she was pretty perfect.Maybe Notre Dame wasn't so bad.Dominic had to smile at himself for the thought.

"I went to the restaurant to ask that guy, Tom, about you, but he had nothing."

"Oh, yeah, I never did give him my number or anything." She sighed. "Oh, man, you went to the restaurant? How sweet. You really tried to get this thing back to me. You posted that picture, too. You tried to give it back as hard as I tried to find it—we just never connected."

"I went to the restaurant before I had the scarf."

"What?"

"I went to the restaurant before I ever had your scarf. I had seen you at that bus stop before, and I don't know, I went back there to try to get in touch with you. We had talked, but I didn't have much to go on in the way of finding you. I figured that post was my best hope since the restaurant was a dead end."

"That was a great picture. Thank you for doing that."

"Did you just see it right before you reached out?"

"Yes," she said.

They ate for a minute and he smiled at her.

"What?" she said. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because you had no idea I had your scarf, and were stalking my page."

"I-I I was. I don't have an excuse. Your page was interesting…"

"I'm just messing with you."

"No, I was stuck in the dentist office, waiting for Joan, so I was bored."

"Oh, thanks," he said sarcastically.

"No, I mean, your pictures were great. You must like photography."

"I'm glad you were looking at my feed, Marley. I just admitted that I went looking for you before I ever had your scarf. I think I want you stalking my page."

Chapter 9

Marley

I loved Gino's burgers, and this one was especially good. I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, and I was hungry. I was also in an incredibly good mood. I felt like all was right with the world now that I had this scarf back around my neck. I finished my burger before Dominic finished his, and then I slowed down on the fries once I realized how fast I was eating. I dipped one fry at a time instead of three at once like I had at first.

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