I let my thoughts drift towards the store, scanning it. “It’s okay,” I said. “It feels almost empty.”

He nodded, eyes narrowed in thought. “Maybe we should risk it,” he said. “If they have some second-hand camping gear, we could avoid motels until we find someplace safe in Mexico to hole up. Plus we could maybe get another helmet, so that both our faces are hidden.”

“Oh,” I said.

Alex glanced down at me. “What?”

“Nothing. I just thought you were thinking about clothes.”

His dark eyebrows arched in amusement as we continued to the bike. “We’re on the run, and you think I’m worrying about clothes?”

“Alex, I’ve worn this same outfit for three days now; it’s getting foul. And, you know – as long as we’re in there anyway...”

“This is a girl thing, isn’t it?”

“It’s possibly a girl thing,” I admitted.

The Goodwill store was huge, but it was so near closing time that we were the only ones in there. The old woman behind the counter was reading a romance novel; she didn’t even look up as we came in. We both got some clothes, and Alex found another helmet for the bike, plus two old sleeping bags and a two-man tent. Then, as we were carrying our stuff to the checkout counter, I saw them: an almost-new pair of grape-juice-purple Converse sneakers, just my size.

“Alex, look, look!” I darted over and tried them on; they fitted perfectly. And they were only four dollars. “Okay, these are definitely mine.” I put back the pair of old running shoes I’d been going to buy.

Alex grinned. “Hey, excellent.” Then he took in my face and started to laugh. “Is this another girl thing? I’ve never seen someone look so happy over a pair of shoes before.”

He was right; I couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe it was stupid, but it felt like I’d gotten back a little piece of myself that I’d lost.

We’d parked around the side of the building, in the shadows. When we got back to the bike, Alex pulled off the blue T-shirt he’d been wearing for the past few days and reached for the bag with our clothes. Warmth stirred through me as I watched the muscles of his chest and arms move. We’d been together for over a month, but it felt like longer – I couldn’t imagine my life without Alex now.

“It’s not really fair, you know,” I said, leaning against the bike. “I can’t just start changing my clothes out here the way you can.”