wallet is bigger than this,” he jokes. “She’s got this massive purse we like to call her Marry Poppins bag because she literally has everything inside of it. You need an umbrella? She’s got it. You’re having an allergic reaction? She’s got you. Need socks? Just wait.” We stop at the cashier, where Arlo lays the purse on the counter. “We just found this in the parking lot.”
Behind us, a woman wearing a sleek black dress with a shawl weaved through her arms appears, her heels clipping on the tile floors. “Excuse me!” she calls. “Has anyone turned in a—” She pauses, her face brightening as she looks at the purse. “My purse! Oh my God! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have no idea. My life is in this bag.”
The store clerk swipes it up quickly. “Sorry, Ma’am, I just need to check the ID really quickly.”
The woman nods. She looks like she stepped out of an old Hollywood movie, her hair elegantly coiffed, and her lips a matte red.
The cashier hands the clutch to the woman. “Have a nice night,” he says.
She smiles and takes the purse. “You guys are the ones who found it?” she asks, her voice formal and rich.
“We didn’t open it or touch anything,” Arlo says. “We just found it and brought it in.”
“He found it, but I was with him, and we truly didn’t touch it,” I say, wanting to give him adequate credit without creating any speculation or doubt.
The woman smiles, then opens her purse and retrieves a small card that she sets on the counter and scribbles something across. “My partner and I just opened a new restaurant downtown, called Nosh. It’s um, a bit … exclusive. I would be honored to have you as guests—free, of course, to repay you for finding my purse.”
“We really didn’t do anything,” Arlo says.
She extends the card a bit farther. “You did a lot. If this had been stolen, it would have taken me weeks to replace everything. Please, take it. Come eat at Nosh, and let me say thank you.”
Arlo slowly accepts the card. “Have a good night.”
She beams. “You guys do the same.” She turns and walks back out of the store.
“That was nice. I’m really glad you found the owner. I had my wallet stolen once, and it really did suck. It happened here, by the way, in Washington—not Texas,” I explain, looking across the store and trying to read the signs that mark where things are. “Also, I’ve heard of Nosh. It’s supposed to be like the next big thing. This could be a great way for you to settle things with Jade, who you’re dating but not dating.”
I’m halfway to the first aid aisle when Arlo calls after me. “You’re the antidote.”
“Sorry?”
“When I’m around you, bad luck doesn’t follow me.”
“Does my dad know you’re crazy?”
He shakes his head as he continues forward with me. “Think about it: the Blazer’s game, you left, and a drink was spilled all over me, and when you returned, we got upgraded and free merchandise.”
“You’re forgetting, I was there when the chair broke and when the electricity sparked at the physical therapy office, and then there’s this.” I point to my newly acquired stitches.
He shakes his head more swiftly. “You’d left at the physical therapy office, and I wasn’t near you when this happened.”
“What about the broken chair and the broken glass,” I tell him.
“Maybe you were too far away?”
“You’re reaching.”
He ignores my comment, grabbing a tube of bacitracin from the shelf. “You’re like an anti-bad luck charm.”
“Also known as a good-luck charm, which has a far more positive connotation.”
“Blazer’s game, now this … I never had bad luck before I was cursed, but I’ve never had this good of luck, either.”
I turn to face him, gauze pads and tape in hand. “I’m not a good-luck charm. I just helped remind you to look at situations differently.”
His gaze jogs over my face. “Okay. Prove it.”
19
Arlo
Jade: She must be more than just a friend since you dropped everything to go to her.
I pause and lean forward, clasping a hand to my forehead. I’ve tried calling and texting Jade a handful of times this morning, and now, while I’m on my way to work, she’s finally responded with this in reply to my messages asking if she’d gotten home safely and telling her that I had to take Olivia to the hospital because she’d been injured.