Our gym is a big structure in the middle of a shopping mall. It's a little ways out from the mall so the parking lot surrounds it. He rounded the corner, near the street where there were fewer cars parked. I jogged up behind him and said hey.

He turned to me and said hey back.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Going home," he said pleasantly.

"You want to buy me a smoothie?"

He stopped. He pivoted on his heel. "What's up?"

"Nothing," I said. "You heard me."

He smiled. "Allison talked to you, didn't she?"

"Yeah."

He sighed. "I've told her I'm sorry - it was the wrong...