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Or maybe I look in the mirror every day and a back at ain for the coffee" Graha 6th street He’s shortened his stride to match mine, like he does e run "That was nice Otherwise, I’d still be hiding underlike I just ate a dirty t-shirt"

He sly descriptive"

"Disgustingly fitting, unfortunately"

He’s walking with his hands in his pockets, and he buhtly with his elbow "So you think I’m nice, huh? Maybe I’m actually a coer, peering at him "You’d have to be a nefarious individual with seriously evil intentions, to bring me coffee and be a jerk at heart"

He looks down at ht his eyes, while still dark, seem more deep caraht, too, so outdoors turns his color dial a notch or two lighter

"Good deducing And use of the word nefarious," he says "Especially with the hangover and all"

The day is warm already I assumed as much, and dressed in shorts and the pink t-shirt I’d left on the bed last night in favor of the black tank I grabbed my red canvas Chucks instead of flip-flops, since I had no idea just how , too, because we’ve walked about a hundred blocks by now

"How ood news is Ibrunch at some point in the near future The bad news is I don’t knoe’re planning on walking to the next county first

"I take it you’re a suburbs sort of girl I grew up in New York City--lots of walking This feels like nothing" This guy is a freaking irl… who, lest we forget, is suffering froh a hundred pounds more"

"Seventy And I hate to tell you, but--" He takesme up a pathway to the front door of the restaurant, located in a renovated old house "We’re here"

I give hilad I don’t have to kick your ass, since I’ a thousand miles for that type of exertion" He s the door open forthe fluffiest blueberry y "Sorry about the cranky"

He forks a bite of omelet, dabs it into the pool of salsa he poured on one side of his plate, and sticks it in his , he appears puzzled "What cranky?" He lines up another bite "Oh, you e ato walk a couple of blocks?"

"A couple? It was at least fifteen!"

"Actually, ten"

"Nuh-uh" I was certain it was closer to twenty

"Yep Ten exactly"

God, I’ht "Huh"

"That’s five," he says, before I even have tihs "Would you rather be in your room, buried under your pillows?"

"No" I sound like a sullen toddler Sipping my chicory-flavored coffee, I relax, and the house see as a waiter walks by with a full tray over his head "This place is great"

"Told ya"

After brunch we backtrack and spend a couple of hours at the bookstore There’s a puppet show going on in the kids’ area, and he insists we sit on the floor and watch This is when I learn that Graham and his older sisters used to make sock puppets and put on shows for their parents This whole idea is so foreign toit up On the walk back to the hotel, I ask him what kinds of shows

"We’d make puppets of ourselves, or our favorite book characters, like Where the Wild Things Are, gluing on wiggly eyeballs and yarn" I try to iuins, coloring popsicle sticks like lightsabers and hot gluing those to the flippers, and then we did a Star Wars reenact Star Wars"

Penguins puppets with lightsabers? There’s no way he couldto one of the shots you tossed back last night, you’re an only child," he says "What was that like--being the center of attention all the tiht is that after my mother died, I felt more like the invisible kid than the center of attention And then I begin stressing about how I’ dead The subject of fas the story of my mom forward There’s no si those tords s areonly accoo away I know that now There are moments I wish the pain would disappear, butache I lost her, and I feel it--sometimes like a bruise that doesn’t hurt until it’s pressed, sometimes like a knife

"I bet you were spoiled rotten," Graha at theof a narrow storefront of skateboards and boarding gear

"I seeainst it

"I didn’t say that But I can picture you as a little girl: adorable, no one else around to steal the spotlight That’s all it would take to wrap your parents around your little finger I ht? Darwin’s lesser-known theory: survival of the cutest"