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I was at Food ‘n’ Things to get ingredients for dinner. The store was empty, but there was the sound of Dale loudly stocking something in the corner.

“Hey,” I said quietly.

Dale turned around, gave me a singular nod, and went back to slamming pasta on the shelf.

“Everything okay?”

He only waved me off, which made me wonder if it was me.

I got through my list before going to the front. Dale sighed and stopped what he was doing to come and check me out.

“Come on, tell me, what did I do?”

He looked up, shook his head, and looked back down.

“Wow, I must’ve really stepped in it.”

“Not everything in this damn world revolves around you. There’s other stuff going on.”

A younger me would have been mad at that, but I knew whatever was going on was serious.

“All right, message received.”

Dale was quiet. “Things are changing around here.”

I paused. “Aren’t they good changes, though?”

He huffed and I could only stare. On the outside, it seemed like Strawberry Springs was doing well.

Was it not like that on the inside?

He watched me stare at him and then shook his head. “You don’t have to pretend to care. We’re all up in arms about something here, not whatever you and Jade are doing.”

“We’re not doing anything.”

“Sure. Just like nothing happened the first time.”

I was tempted to argue with him, but his other words hit me.

“What else is going on?”

There was a second where I thought he would tell me. There was rarely news that I didn’t know about since I’d snuck into the Facebook group.

But then Dale shook his head. “Don’t worry about us, kid. We’ll figure it out.”

He handed me my bags and I took them numbly.

When I was out in the square, I looked back. I shook my head, knowing no amount of digging would ever make anyone in town reveal their secrets.

Instead, I went home and made food for the girls and got caught up on my email.

My frustration only got worse.

Gabriel

Are you coming over tonight?

Jade