“I’ll be back in an hour, tops. That means your register will only be short for not even sixty minutes, that’s it. What’s the difference, right? And plus another twenty for you. I mean, look at me. You seeing me? You honestly think I’m trying to pull one over on you, hustling a pretty young thing for a squirt of gasoline? C’mon. Give me a hand here.”

And so now he takes hers. “Please?”

She peeks behind her. They are alone. He gives her spongy hand a squeeze. She grins, shrugs, then says yeah, fine. Okay. He stops himself short of kissing the top of her hand and instead draws it up to his crown like a blessing.

After running through the phone number to put the five bucks of minutes on, a new idea comes gusting. Why doesn’t she go ahead and keep those ten digits for herself now, too? She can call him whenever she wants, for anything she wants.

“And I mean anything.”

Her eyes roll, pink reheats, and the cash register rings out at $28.66.

On top of the fiver and four singles, he places one penny, a copper cherry on top. Gets one quarter and two nickels in return. He jingles the change at her. “Hey.”

“Hey, what?”

“These thirty-five cents, no,” he unpockets his last three pennies. “Excuse me, these thirty-eight cents wouldn’t cover a Black & Mild, now would they?”

“You’re the worst,” she says, reaching up to the shelves.

“Wine.”

She groans, delighted. She chucks the tobacco twig at his chest. “Now get out!”

One quarter, two nickels, three pennies, and a cigar slip into his front pocket. He grabs the beer then bows, pushing his way out of the door with his ass, telling her she’s the best, a lifesaver, an absolute angel. He’ll see her soon. Real soon. And she better not forget to call him, okay?

$576.17

Michelle was in a bad way, had lost control. Over the last year, the pills had hollowed her out, leaving in her place a gaunt, greasy shell of the person she’d been. She was using daily—that went without saying. The real question was how many times a day? How many hours had she squandered stoned comatose, or writhing through a comedown? How many precious dollars had she pissed away on pills? And if not cash, then what else was she trading for a fix?