I went straight to the front door and had my hand on the doorknob when I realized this was an opportunity to impress him. I wasn’t unattractive, but my appearance was improved with grooming. So I brushed my hair and put on a little lip gloss.

“Better,” I said to the mirror.

A few minutes later, I rang his doorbell. He answered and seemed pleasantly surprised to see me there with a bottle of wine in my hands.

“Well! What’s this? Are we having a party?” he said. “A bottle of mead?”

Oh! He knew about mead!

“No, sadly, it’s just wine. I can’t find our corkscrew. Do you have one I might borrow?”

“Of course! Come in.” He held the door open and I stepped inside.

“Thanks,” I said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but I really love your floors.”

Maybe saying love was overstating it.

“You do?”

“Yes. They’re so pretty and they really shine. But not like they’ve got some fake finish. Do you know what I mean? They have a lustrous quality, like pearls have a luster.”

Was I really using a word with lust in it? Twice? Did he read into that? His eyebrows were sort of scrunched together. Not good.

“I have kind of a thing for flooring,” Archie said. “All these boards are reclaimed from an old house in Walterboro that was being torn down. They’re hand-hewed and pegged. You don’t see that anymore. They get waxed by hand twice a year. You know, for some guys it’s sports cars, although I wouldn’t mind a Lamborghini. For me? It’s flooring, which is also attainable.” He stopped and looked at me. “You might be the only person who ever noticed the patina.”

“Really?” I didn’t tell him about the car fund.

“Yeah. Come on. Let’s pull that cork.”

I followed him to the kitchen thinking I was really glad my remark didn’t win me a Dork of the Year trophy, because the minute the words left my mouth, I realized they sounded awkward. But that was another reason I liked Archie so well. He never made me feel like I was weird or something.

At first glance, his kitchen was way too sterile. I don’t mean too clean, I mean it didn’t have a soul. Hunter and Tyler were seated at the kitchen table doing homework. The only small appliances on the counter were a coffeemaker and a toaster. Other than those two things, the counters were bare. And there was no meal preparation in evidence. Were they having pizza again?

“Hey, Mith Holly!” Tyler said.

“Hey!” Hunter said, looking up. “You coming for supper?”

“No, no. Just stopping by for a moment,” I said.

“Here it is,” Archie said. “Shall I open it for you?”

“Gosh, thanks. Sure.”