I made myself a quick sandwich, then went and knocked on Mrs. Gunderson’s door and asked if I could borrow her car to run an errand. I would’ve asked Suzanne, but I knew she’d never be satisfied with the explanation that I’d loaned mine to a friend. She’d want details, and I’d end up lying and getting caught.

Mrs. Gunderson, on the other hand, was getting a little vague. She was happy to loan me her car, no questions asked, so long as I picked up a few things for her at the supermarket while I was out. That was no problem — I did that for her most weeks, anyway.

There was a pet store in Frederick, and it was open on Sundays. I got a lid for the aquarium, a water bottle, some rodent kibble, a tiny bowl, a little wooden house, and a wheel. I also got a bag of paper bedding — I’d hate for the little guy’s nice golden fur to get all newsprinty.

After dropping off Mrs. Gunderson’s groceries, I went and got the mouse out of his tank. He was awake by that point and seemed glad to see me. He ran up my arm again and snuggled in my hair while I dumped out the newspaper and arranged his new home. When I put him back in the tank, he ran around sniffing everything and quickly settled on the food bowl as the most interesting item. I left him holding a kibble in his cute little pink hands and nibbling away.

I made a cup of tea and settled on the couch in the den to think about Graham.

That kiss had been really nice, but his attention confused me. I just didn’t understand why he would be interested in me.

He was older than me — thirty or thirty-five, maybe — and seemed so sophisticated. He didn’t speak like I did, didn’t dress like I did.

I was a young, uneducated small-town girl. In fact, I had barely been outside Wisconsin. I couldn’t see that my personality was the big attraction. I was nice enough, but I wasn’t vivacious or incredibly funny. Similarly, I was smart enough, but smarts don’t make up for ignorance. If I’d turned up with some amazing ability, like flying, maybe that would draw his interest, but that hadn’t happened either.

I wasn’t trying to be down on myself, just realistic. I thought I was reasonably attractive — not stand-out beautiful, but pretty enough. But no way was I attractive enough to overcome what would undoubtedly be a lot of deficits in the eyes of a worldly older man.