“Thanks, I’m working on it. You know, I plant all sorts of things my bees like.”

“Well, someday you’ll have to tell me all about that,” he said and smiled at me.

“I’d love to,” I said, and I realized I was staring at him and then repeating myself. “So, it was a good day? That’s good.”

“Yeah, it was, except for the super pious kid who refused to discuss the John Frum cargo culture. The whole concept of ‘myth dream’ was beyond his grasp.”

“Hmm,” I said, unsure if I’d ever heard the term, either. “Someday you’ll have to explain more of the finer details of cargo cults to me. I’d love to hear more.”

“Sure. How’re things at Publix?”

“My days there utterly vibrate with excitement. The work is scintillating,” I said and smiled at him. “So, Archie? I heard you have a girlfriend. Is that true?”

“Oh, I don’t know about all that. She’s the sister of a faculty member at the college. We’ve had dinner a few times. She’s nice enough.”

“Nice enough for what?” I said. That sounded awkward.

“For a dinner partner?”

“Uh-huh. My sister, who you might know has returned to the family home indefinitely, wants you to know that if you’re about to fall in love, don’t do it so fast. There might be other contenders.”

I just kind of blurted it out and then my face turned bloodred. His eyes got very large and I could see immediately that he thought I meant Leslie was interested in him.

“Leslie?” he said and sort of gulped and stammered nervously. “No, well, you know, I mean I’m . . . I’m really not on the market at the moment. You know, it’s too soon for me.”

“I’ll tell her that. She’ll understand.”

How stupid was I? If it wasn’t Leslie, then who would it be? Me, obviously. So, shoot me, I let him think it was Leslie.

“What happened? Did she and Charlie call it quits?”

“I think she’s thinking something like that. Yeah. She’s sort of done. Listen, who knows?” I was leaving the door open for Leslie to better explain it to him. I’d already bungled up everything and I was so embarrassed I wanted to dive headlong into the azaleas.

“That’s too bad. Divorce is so hard. Give her my best, okay?”

“Sure! I’ll call the boys.”

“Thanks!”

“Oh, and I made a beef stew in my InstaPot for y’all! I’ll give it to them to bring home.”

Leslie gave us an InstaPot last year for Christmas. I finally took it out of the box and now I think I might be in love with a small appliance.

He immediately took his wallet out of his back packet. “What do I owe you?”

“Oh, how about a thousand dollars?”