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“Sometimes I don’t know why I’m here.”
    “At the bookstore? Or on planet Earth? Work problem? Or existential crisis?” This was the moment he’d been waiting for, a chance to get to know the vulnerable part of her that she kept behind her brave veneer.
    “It’s not the job,” she said. “Well, it is. But that’s not all. Do you ever get the feeling that you’re wasting your time, that you should really be someplace else doing something completely different?”
    He examined her like she was a cartoon turning into a human being. He was surprised that she spoke so softly with a complicated blend of powerlessness and strength.
    “I think everyone feels that way sometimes,” he offered.
    He didn’t know whether he should go back to work on the organizing task that Nadine had given him. She didn’t seem nearly finished, but he wasn’t sure whether she was going to say more so he motioned toward the stack of books that he needed to put price stickers on and reached for the pricing gun.
    Nadine came out from behind her desk. This was the most casually she’d been dressed in the whole time David had worked at the bookstore but in her pin-striped skirt and black knit turtleneck, she looked like a runway model to him. Against all David’s expectations, she took a seat on the table where he was working, right next to the stack of books he was about to handle. She looked like a kid sitting on a kitchen counter, waiting to watch an adult make a tasty snack.
    “I can’t concentrate anyway,” she said, as though reading his mind. “And who’s kidding who? We’re a dream team down here, light years faster than Hank even needs us to be, so let’s just take a breather, shall we?”
    “Sure,” he said apprehensively. Until the words came out of her mouth, David never would have imagined that Nadine would ever ‘take a breather’.
    “I know,” she said, “let’s do something fun. I have an idea.”
    She got up off the table and went to her purse. Change purse in hand, she made a dash for the door. “I’ll be back.”
    David shook his head at the absurdity of it all. He wondered where she was off to and figured that he’d better hurry up and price the books in front of him while he had the chance. Even if Nadine was pretending to be a slacker, he knew that there was nothing lazy about her and that she valued being miles ahead of Hank’s expectations.
    She came back only a couple of minutes later. Whatever she had with her must have been from the vending machines right outside the store.
    “Here,” she said, handing him a brightly colored wax paper package.
    “A Popsicle?”
    She nodded. He laughed. “So this is your idea of a fun time, eh?”
    “Yeah,” she nodded, tearing open her package. “I live on the edge. I know.”
    He opened his. “Oooh. Orange. My favorite.”
    “Really? Because I gave you the underdog,” she said, smiling. “I wanted to keep the pink one for myself.”
    “I’d have given you pink if it were up to me.” David held up his Popsicle to hers, as though it was a cocktail and he was about to say ‘cheers’. Instead he said, “To Popsicle compatibility. It’s a rare and beautiful thing.”
     

Chapter Six
     
     
     
    David crammed his book bag into his little locker in the staffroom and took his place at the cash register on the textbook floor of the university bookstore on the first day of classes in September. The line up snaked around the building with students holding spots for each other while they ran to the coffee shop for lattes and muffins to endure the interminable process of buying course material. David had been lucky to get this job as he was only in his second year. These union jobs were coveted and only a select few students got chosen to make such a sweet hourly wage. Today was the day he had trained for. This was it. The next four hours would be the longest of the entire semester and if he could make it through today, he’d be able to handle the