Weeks passed, and Sal's summer so far had been spent sneaking to Russell's work, hanging out with Savannah, and working. It was great. Especially Fourth of July weekend, where Russell managed to sneak out to see the fireworks with him. It was also his birthday weekend, and Sal hated that Russell spent his actual birthday being cooped up in his room all day. And now, all he could think about was Russell's soft lips against his own while the fireworks went off in the background. Literal and metaphorical.

A polite voice brought him back to the present. "Excuse me."

Sal looked up from the jewelry counter he had been dusting to see a middle-aged woman. He flashed his Kovyn's smile. "Can I help you?"

"Yes." The woman held out an ad. "I'm looking for this purse, but I can't find it. Do you have it here?"

"I can check." Sal set his rag aside to use the computer next to him, and searched the SKU number. None were in stock. "I'm sorry, we're out."

The woman sighed. "I'll order it online then."

"But then you'll have to pay extra for shipping," Sal said. "I can special order it for you now, and have someone call you when it comes in. Livermore has some in stock, so it should only take a couple days to get here."

The woman's face lit up. "That'll be great. Thank you!"

"What'll be great?" A male Kovyn's employee with short, brown hair walked in on the scene. Ray.

"Special ordering a thing we don't have stock of." Sal clicked onto the order screen. "What's your address?" he asked the woman.

Ray crossed his arms, glaring down at him. "You can't do that."

"Why not? She needs something we don't have, so I'm ordering it for her. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is, you're just a cashier. You're not qualified to do special orders."

"You have to be qualified to type and click buttons?" Sal shook his head. "I've special ordered stuff before."

"You're not supposed to. Let me do it." He brushed Sal aside, and gave the woman a fake smile. "What's your address?"

Crestfallen, Sal grabbed his cleaning rag and went to search for something else in need of polishing.

He walked past another Kovyn's employee, who flipped back her long, dark hair and asked, "What's wrong?"

Sal looked up from the rag in his hands. "It's nothing, Tina."

"I've never seen you sad before," Tina said. "Of course it's something."

"I was trying to special order something for a customer, but Ray showed up and told me I wasn't allowed to."

The corner of Tina's mouth twitched upwards. "Technically you're not."

"But I know how."

"You know too much." She clasped her hands in front of her torso, gazing up at him. Sal bit his thumbnail, his face heating. "I'm taking my lunch break soon," Tina said. "Do you wanna eat together? There's this great Italian place across the street."

Sal pondered her invitation. He was getting tired of eating in the break room. And peanut butter sandwiches were starting to get old. "Sounds fun."

They sat across from each other in a booth, and Sal took that moment to brag about his Italian heritage. "My father's pure Italian, you know. My mom was only, like, mostly Italian. But that makes me eighty percent Italian."

"Really." Tina leaned forward, her hands weaved together under her chin.

"Yep. I'm also nine percent Irish, five percent English, six percent German, and 1 percent Cherokee."

Tina set her hands back down on the table, frowning. "That equals 101 percent."

"Damn right. Most men are only 100 percent. But I'm not like other men. I'm 101 percent." Sal jutted his chin out.

Tina giggled and the waitress interrupted them by bringing them breadsticks. Once the waitress left after taking their orders, Tina asked, "How old are you?"

Sal grabbed a breadstick. "18."

"You're only 18?"

Sal rolled his eyes. "Only 18? 18 is ancient. How old are you?"

"19."

"Now that's really ancient."

Tina covered a smile and leaned forward. "I assume you just graduated high school. What do you plan on doing?"

Sal was in no mood to discuss his generally scorned-upon decision to spend the rest of his life working retail, in addition to spending the rest of his life with his same-sex, high school sweetheart. So he shrugged and ripped off a chunk of the breadstick, popping it into his mouth.

Tina took a breadstick of her own. "You can't spend the rest of your life working at Kovyn's."

"What's wrong with working at Kovyn's?" Sal asked. "You work there."

"Only so I can pay for college." Tina pulled her breadstick apart. "I can't wait to get out of retail hell."

"Yeah, and then you can move on to cubicle hell."

"At least I wouldn't have to deal with the general public." Tina bit into a piece of her breadstick.

"You don't like working with the general public?"

"You do?"

"Yes." Sal held his head up like a majestic swan. "I love working at Kovyn's."

Tina fell into a fit of giggles. "You're so funny."

Sal smiled at the compliment. Then blushed. Then smiled again. "What do you plan on doing?"

"Right now, I'm in community college. But I plan on transferring to State next year. I want to get a degree in business."

"A business woman." Sal nodded in approval. "Riveting."

"And hopefully along the way, I'll find someone." Tina smiled coyly.

Find someone? Sal furrowed his brow, leaning forward. "Who are you looking for? Maybe I could help." He smiled at the thought of being helpful.

Tina covered her mouth, giggling at his words. The waitress appeared with their food, while Sal wondered why Tina kept giggling.

"But seriously," Tina said, twirling her spaghetti around her fork. "What are you going to do?"

After taking a bite of his fettuccine, he swallowed. "I'm moving to Oregon."

"What?" Tina held her forkful of pasta halfway towards her mouth. "When?"

"In a few weeks." Sal took another bite of his food.

"You're going to college there?"

"No, but my boyfriend is." Sal clamped his mouth shut and looked away. Why did I say boyfriend!

"What?" Tina's jaw dropped. "You're... GAY?"

Her last word echoed through the restaurant. Sal cringed, trying to ignore the strange looks from a group of elderly women at the next table over, the family behind them, the waitress taking the family's order, and a lone man on his laptop. "Not exactly," Sal said, covering the side of his burning face with his hand.

"Bi?"

"Asexual."

"You reproduce by budding?"

"No. I don't experience sexual attraction."

Tina nearly choked on her pasta, and took a sip of her water between laughs. "Good one."

"You think I'm joking?"

"Well, yeah. What weirdo doesn't experience sexual attraction?"

Sal stared at his fettuccine morosely. "Me."

"Oh." Tina rested her fork on her plate. "Have you tried seeing a doctor? They could help find out what's wrong."

"You think there's something wrong with me?"

"No, but they could help you get over it. And I'm sure your boyfriend wouldn't complain. It's not fair to him."

"He doesn't mind. He says so all the time." Doubt crossed Sal's mind for a second. But no. Russell said he didn't care.

Tina seemed to have disagreed, but thought it best not to argue on it. "Fine. You're a plant. You're a plant with a boyfriend. So why did you agree to go on a date with me?"

Sal's fork clattered against the plate. The food in his mouth threatened to fall out, and he was forced to swallow. Unfortunately, it wasn't chewed well enough. He grabbed his glass of water and chugged it down, earning himself more strange looks from the nearby patrons.

Tina stared along with them. "Are you gonna be-"

"Did you just say-" Sal paused to wipe the dripping water off his mouth. "Did you... a date?"

"Yes. A date. The things people go on when they're interested in becoming a couple."

"You thought I was interested in you?"

"You agreed to go out with me." Tina twirled more pasta around her fork. "You flirt often enough."

"I... I do?" Sal tried to think of a single instance where he had flirted, only to find himself wondering how flirting worked. "I thought you just wanted to be friends."

"Friends?" Tina let out a laugh. "Boys and girls are never just friends."

Sal thought of Savannah. Her lack of interest in dating, his lack of interest in dating anyone who wasn't Russell. Scowling, he stood up, pulled out his wallet, and slammed $15 down on the table. Shoving breadsticks into his pockets along with his wallet, he said, "Sorry, I have to go right now immediately."

"Sal-"

He didn't wait to hear her excuses, and fled the premises.

Sal thought he'd have a tough time of going back to work after the lunch fiasco with Tina, but helping out customers took his mind off of it. His mood was improved further when Jenn told him he would be able to transfer to a Kovyn's near the Portland area. He had asked her about it that morning, and she said she'd look into it.

After distracting hours of ringing people up, it was time for his 15 minute break. He sat at one of the three, long tables in the break room, and was in the middle of pulling his phone out from his pocket when Ray walked in.

"Is what I'm hearing from Tina true?" Ray asked.

Sal swallowed, and forced himself to smile. "What do you mean?"

"That you're one of those asexual freaks who hate sex."

Sal opened his mouth to protest, but Tina walked in. So he directed his anger at her. "Tina! You told Ray I'm ace?"

"It slipped out," she said in a monotonous voice.

Sal slapped the table. "That was classified information!"

"I feel sorry for your boyfriend." Ray smirked at him. "Imagine all the amazing butt-sex he's missing out on, being stuck with you."

Tina snickered. Ignore them, Sal said to himself, walking to the opposite side of the room. He set his Kovyn's hat down on one of the tables and untied his hair, combing it out with his fingers while keeping his mind on Russell.

"Maybe his boyfriend is also asexual," Tina said to Ray.

"I hope so." Ray looked over at Sal. "I had a friend who dated an asexual. Worst relationship of his life. She made him feel ugly and gross. Are you aware you're making your boyfriend feel ugly and gross?"

The thought had never crossed Sal's mind. He tied his hair back up neatly, wondering if it was true. Russell never said he did, but he never said he didn't.

"Sex is an important part of a relationship. Shooting him down like that, man, that would kill me. It's a basic human need you're depriving him of."

Sal raised his eyebrows. Was sex really that important? No, Russell says he doesn't mind.

"Seriously though, is your boyfriend asexual?" Tina asked, taking a seat at the table closest to Ray.

For a split second, Sal considered lying, but the truth slipped out of his mouth. "No."

"Oh God." Ray rubbed his face. "Have you ever stopped to think about what you're doing to him? You're keeping him from having a normal sex life. You're making him feel ugly and worthless, and you either need to suck it up, or break up with him."

Sal couldn't think of an argument, and the more Ray went on, the more he realized Ray was right. He stared at the floor, fighting back tears. No wonder Russell didn't love him.

"I hope you at least told him about your abnormality before you started dating him."

"I didn't know back then." Sal's voice cracked.

"But you knew you weren't bringing sex to the table."

"I didn't think-"

"Of course you didn't think," Ray said. "That's why you asexuals need to stick with other asexuals. So you don't burden the rest of us. Go find an asexual boy to hold hands with."

"But I love-"

"If you really loved him, you'd do the right thing."

"How can you love someone you don't want to have sex with?" Tina asked. "That's what I don't get."

Ray flopped down in the chair next to her, back facing Sal. "Who knows. Asexuals are weird."

Sal couldn't handle another word. He snatched his hat and, jamming it over his head, stormed out.