She was quiet for a minute, replaying the drink in the face. She shook her head, offered a short laugh. “You should not disrespect women that way. But maybe I went too far. You were the straw that broke the camel’s back. You would not believe the day I’d had.”

“If it matters, my day wasn’t that hot, either.” He glanced down at her, the color of his eyes once again making her catch her breath. “So, tell me, what was so bad yesterday?”

“Are you asking me about my day? Wow. It’s been a while since someone did that.” That’s right. I don’t have a boyfriend …

“You’re stalling.”

“You wanna hear? Alright…” Angel felt the anger build up in her again as she thought about trying to balance working and studying, Jose’s emergency, then Dr. Collins and his sliminess, then the insurance company refusing to pay for Jose’s medicine …

As they walked, she unloaded on the poor man, a complete stranger. It didn’t matter if the guy was listening or not, or even if he was there. By the time she got around to describing the catcallers and then Frank’s office sexploits and him asking her to join in, she was spitting out her words, bullets of angst and frustration and not a little fear released into the air. Slowly, her chest felt lighter. “And, then, you asked me to take my shirt off.”

“That’s not exactly what I said.”

She laughed. “I know. More than what you said, I think it was when you touched me that I lost it. You came into my space bubble.”

They were walking along a chain-link fence next to a school. An older guy was yelling out commands to a group of boys practicing baseball on a small dirt infield. Angel hesitated and then said, “This is my stop. I guess we can chalk yesterday up to a full moon or something and forget about it, what do you say?”

“Shake on it.” He thrust out his hand. “That is, if you’ll let me invade your space bubble one last time.”

She laughed again, shaking his hand. His grip was warm and firm and she didn’t want him to let go.

“Is that your boy out there?”

“Jose. Yes. Gabriela, the neighbor you met yesterday, dropped him off for this baseball club. He’s not interested in basketball. He and his friends live for baseball, spending the winter getting ready for the regular season.”

“Again, I’m not judging, but I’m surprised you let him outside today.”