Things I’ll Never Say by Ann Angel

staring at him as he leans on the glass with one hand as if he was just hanging out, nothing and nobody on his agenda. I take advantage of the diversion and slide back into my seat.
    â€œThis town could use more girls,” she says.
    â€œIt could,” I say. “It really could.” I wave Charlie in to come sit with us, and as he scurries toward the door, Celeste gets agitated. She finishes her second drink awfully quickly.
    â€œI need to go now,” she says. “Thank you for the painting. I sure would love to retrieve the others. Have you got a phone?”
    â€œYes,” I say, taking it out of my pocket and displaying it proudly, like I am the first person in town to have one.
    She grabs the phone and hurriedly starts pressing buttons on it. “I’ll give you my number. And I’ll put yours in my phone as well, in case you forget about me.” That was already ridiculously unlikely even before she withdrew her own phone and amazingly began programming both of them at the same time with her two flying thumbs.
    â€œHi,” Charlie says.
    She keeps her head down and focuses on the phones and the task at hand. “Hi, Charlie.”
    â€œI came to apologize,” he says.
    â€œIt’s okay,” she says.
    â€œYou know, Warren here has been trying to tell me that I can be a little inappropriate sometimes.”
    She finishes, flips my phone closed, and looks up at him. She smiles sympathetically as she hands the phone to me and slides out of the seat.
    â€œThat’s good,” she says, patting him on the chest.
    She turns back to me and says, “Please, if you can arrange to get me the rest of them, that would be great. Just give me a call.” Then she puts money on the table to pay for the drinks. We watch her leave.
    â€œDon’t even bother,” the waitress says just as Charlie begins to bend his knees on his way to sitting. “You know better than that, Charlie Tuna.”
    Charlie straightens back up without a word of protest.
    â€œIt’s okay,” I say. “He’s with me.”
    â€œThat’s right, he is,” she says, gesturing with her thumb for me to scram, too. “Now that your mother’s gone, you can’t be in here, either.” She scoops up the money.
    Charlie splutters a laugh as I say, “That was my date, not my mother, if you must know.”
    â€œI don’t think she must know,” Charlie says, pulling me up, “since she must already be in the bathroom.”
    I follow him out, collect my bike, and start walking in the direction of Bread & Waters.
    â€œCan I see your phone for a second?” he says.
    I sigh loudly as I pass it to him. We both know it’s not really my phone.
    â€œYou’re doing it again,” I say as he scrolls.
    â€œDoing what?”
    â€œBeing inappropriate.”
    â€œI am not. And anyway, I’ll give you another one as soon as we reach the shop. I must have something like seven of them just now. Nicer ones than this, too.”
    I’m behind him as he’s unlocking the shop and hear his low brumble of excited laughter.
    â€œYou honestly believe something good is going to come out of you having that phone, don’t you?” I say. He pushes open the door and we are in.
    â€œOf course I do,” he says. “This was like an act of God or something, me getting a second chance like this. She’d never get to know the real me if I didn’t have some way to sneak up on her first.”
    He is rummaging around in a couple of the lower drawers in the great wall of dark wood drawers that run right up the wall behind the counter. “Here,” he says cheerily, spilling a half-dozen phones out for me to pick from.
    â€œHonestly, Charlie, I don’t think there is a second chance for you. I don’t think there was a first chance, really. And also, talking like that, about
sneaking up
on her, that’s another one of those