I nodded. There were no spare seats near him, so I stood there like a loser. It took me forever to get my brain to work, and Hennessy pulled his headphones down to rest around his neck. “Um, yeah. Hi. I’d always wondered what music you listened to. I would guess it’s some ultra-cool indie band that no one has ever heard of or some underground jazz-fusion mix that won’t hit mainstream for another five years. But then I saw you listening to something that made you upset last Thursday, or maybe it was something completely unrelated to your eclectic music taste. I don’t know, that’s not really my business and that’s not why I’m bringing it up. I just, well, I saw you upset and then the next day you saw me upset, so I guess we’re even—”

He stood up, our fronts almost touching, and the bus jerked and we brushed against each other and I thought I might die. He was a fraction taller than me and I could get lost in those eyes and that smile should be a federal offence. “My stop,” he said, nodding toward the door. Other people were now lining up to get off the bus, and I was holding them up. He was still impossibly close to me. “And it’s not music I listen to. It’s audiobooks.”

“Audiobooks?” I whispered, like he just announced his undying love for me. My heart, my heart was about to explode. I was sure I had ridiculous cartoon hearts in my eyes.

“Flowers for Algernon,” he whispered. “It’s what I was listening to.”

“Daniel Keyes,” I breathed, looking right into his eyes, our faces an inch apart. “That book… Ow, my heart.”

He let out a quiet gasp. “You know it?”

“I cried like a baby.”

“Me too. Every time.” He grinned, our gaze broken by the rush of people trying to get off the bus, and Hennessy turned and stepped off, leaving a void in his place. I fell into his now-vacant seat, pretty sure by the way my head spun that I hadn’t breathed since I got on. And he stood there on the footpath with his head down, and he pulled his headphones back on and popped his coat collar up around his neck to protect him from the wind, looking seven different realms of handsome. And I thought for sure I’d blown it—again, with the incoherent babbling. But as the bus pulled away, he looked right up at me and smiled, all shy-like and timid, and I breathed the only thing worth saying. “Motherfucker.”

The old lady I was sitting next to gaped at me. I shrugged, not even the slightest bit sorry. Okay, well maybe just a little sorry. But he smiled at me. Hennessy goddamned smiled right at me, like I was the reason for his happiness.