Then, I spot a familiar motorcycle parked out front.

Quickly, I pull into a free spot not far from the shop, something you can only find on a weekday in the fall. As I walk up to the shop, I stop when I see Rafe walking outside with a heavy box in his arms. A young boy follows behind him, and they both drop their boxes on the ground in front of an empty display stand.

When Rafe looks up, he catches me standing here with a quizzical look on my face. When I saw his bike I figured he might have stopped to pick something up. I didn’t expect to find him working here with a teenage boy.

He smiles at me, a real-life smile, and I don’t see a lot of those with Rafe so I drink it in like lemonade on a hot day. “Well, hello nurse,” he croons, standing up and checking me out in my pink cherry blossom scrubs. “What are you doing here?”

“I was wondering the same thing about you,” I answer, staring up at him, with the sun in my eyes.

“I was just helping my friend out. This is Mateo.” He gestures to the boy who stands and holds his hand out to me. I bet the kid is only sixteen. With his dark hair and innocent looking eyes, I can imagine he is a lady killer for girls his age.

“Hi, Mateo,” I answer, shaking his hand. “What are you guys doing?”

“We were just about to settle a debt,” Rafe says as he pulls out his phone.

“He’s trying to tell me that Mayweather was better than De la Hoya,” Mateo adds in, shaking his head and looking at Rafe disapprovingly.

“It’s adorable how clueless you are,” Rafe fires back.

“Don’t call me adorable!”

I can’t help but laugh as they both start googling something on their phones. “The loser has to fill this display case by themselves,” the boy says.

After a few moments, Rafe shouts, “See! Mayweather won in 2007. You don’t remember that because you were still in diapers.”

“One fight, old man! De la Hoya had a better record.”

“How about this deal?” I say, interrupting their playful banter. “We all put this stuff on the display case together and I’ll buy you both lunch at Gino’s Pizza.”

They easily agree but still throw sneers at each other as we work.

Sitting across the table from Rafe and the teenage boy, I can’t keep the smile off my face. I have no clue how these two know each other—boxing, maybe—but they seem to be close friends. Mateo is telling us about how he grew up in Juarez and what it was like moving here with his aunt and uncle. He seems like such a bright kid, and I can see the way his face lights up when I tell him I’m a nurse.

“What are you going to do after high school?” I ask, pushing the rest of my cheese slice aside.