“I know,” said Carmen. “Isn’t it awesome?”

“I love his woods . . . his trees.”

“I suppose you would.”

He grinned. “I suppose I would too.”

“Would you like it?” said Carmen. He lifted his hands off instantly.

“Oh. No. I’m . . . Thank you. It’s all right.” But his eyes still followed it regretfully.

“Sure. Can I take your number?”

He looked at her. His eyes were very green indeed, she noticed. How unusual. She wondered where he was from.

“Um.” He seemed awkward.

“For the order,” she said briskly, annoyed with herself because she knew she was coloring. “So we can tell you when it’s in . . .”

“Of course, of course. Sorry,” he said. “Oke.”

“Okay,” she said.

“No, I mean Oke. That’s my name. ‘O-K-E.’ Well, it’s short for . . .” He stopped himself.

“What?” said Carmen.

“It really doesn’t matter,” he said.

“Ooh,” said Carmen. “Okehampton?”

“Um, I don’t know what that is.”

“Ocarina? Hang on, I don’t know what that is.”

They smiled at each other, but he remained tight-lipped, and so Carmen wrote “Oke” down alongside a number that started with +55.

“I don’t think we can phone that,” she said, looking at the manual dial telephone on the desk. “I’m not sure it does international calls. Where is it, Mars?”

“Brazil . . . but I’ve ordered the book?” he said, looking slightly confused. “Of course I’ll come back for it.”

Carmen, a veteran of many years of retail, smiled slightly tightly at him. “If you say so. If you’re absolutely not going to disappear to Brazil.”

There was a bounce to his walk as he headed toward the door. He was definitely a student, thought Carmen. If he was lecturing as a real job, he wouldn’t be hanging out at 11:00 A.M. anyway.

Just as she was thinking this he turned around.

“Do I get my student discount?” he asked, and she felt bad for mocking him when he was almost certainly incredibly poor.

“Of course,” she said quickly, even though she had gone from age seventeen to age twenty-five completely furious that a student discount even existed for those gilded souls swanning around drinking coffee and talking and doing not very much while grafters like herself were on fifty hours a week. She didn’t even know what the discount might be. Well, she’d work that out as it went.

He grinned again. “Cool. Bye!”

Chapter Eleven

Carmen mounted the stairs from the basement. There was a chicken curry on that smelled absolutely divine, and Carmen looked at the little family for a moment, sitting up nicely, eating what appeared to be vegetables. She felt a pang. Was that what she wanted? Was she just jealous?

Then Pippa made a remark about Phoebe having food on her face, to which Phoebe responded by kicking Pippa hard under the table.