Nox drove the van back to the main road. Fifteen miles later, they found a strip mall. Nox stopped in front of the electronics store. “I’ll grab you a change or two as well. What size do you wear?”
“A twenty-eight, thirty in pants, medium shirt.”
“Can you get what you need in thirty minutes?” Nox handed Luca a wad of fifties.
Luca shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
“Good, just make sure you don’t leave the building until you see me pull up.”
Luca got out. Nox didn’t drive away until the automatic doors swooshed shut behind him.
There weren’t many people inside this early in the morning. It made getting to the rows of laptops easier than Luca had anticipated. The brands were typical for big box stores, but he was more interested in processor speed, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. He found three and narrowed it down to one. Now all Luca needed was for someone to unlock the cabinet. He spotted a guy two aisles over kneeling on the floor with a clipboard, reading the tags on the shelves.
“Hey, uh, do you think you could get a computer out of the cabinet for me?”
The guy hurried to his feet. “Sure, I’d be glad…” He met Luca’s gaze. The man was close to Luca’s height, but he had more muscle and bone. His shaggy red hair hung over his forehead, and he wore grommets in each ear. The edge of a tattoo peeked over the collar of his uniform.
A flush tinged the employee’s cheeks. He cleared his throat. “Which one were you interested in?”
Luca showed him.
“Oh, yeah, that’s a nice one. You game?”
“Uh, no.”
“If you don’t game, you could get one with less RAM. Save a couple hundred bucks.”
“I appreciate it, but I’d like to have the extra memory in case I need it.”
“Understandable.” He pulled out a ring of keys from his front pocket. “My name is Joey, by the way.” Joey knelt and flipped through the keys, trying each one in the lock. “You, uh, you live around here?” He tossed Luca a warm smile.
“No, just passing through.”
“Oh.” Joey tried a couple more keys. “How long will you be in town?”
Was he hitting on him? The guy glanced up at Luca and was slow enough to return his attention to the lock that it was obvious he’d done a quick once-over.
No one had ever hit on Luca before. But he’d been sick most of his life, so it wasn’t like he had many opportunities. “Not sure.”
“Would you be around long enough to…” Joey shrugged. “You know, get some coffee? I’ve got a break in about thirty minutes. I opened today, so I get my lunch when everyone else is eating breakfast.” The key he tried in the lock slid home. “I knew I’d find it.” He opened the cabinet and took out an unopened box. “Here you go.” Joey handed it over and re-locked the cabinet.
“Thanks.” Luca tucked it under his arm.
“Need anything else?”
“Yeah, actually, I need a couple of pay-per-minute smartphones.”
“Sure, those are over here.”
Luca followed Joey to the other side of the store where a variety of cellphone models were tethered to their respective shelves. Luca skimmed the options. He picked out a model. “Do you have two of these?”
Joey read the product number, and while saying it over and over, he knelt at the shelf under the display and repeated the routine of testing keys in the lock.
“You know if you label those, they’d be easier to find.” Luca laughed a little.
“Yeah, but then I’d be done quicker and not get a chance to talk to you.”
Luca’s cheeks warmed, and he rubbed the back of his neck.