Mae kept her hand extended for Elliot, but he pulled his arms close to him, and looked at her nervously. Mae gathered up the stack of books in front of her and brought them around to Elliot’s booth, and sat directly across from him.

“Hello,” he said, feeling as if he sounded a bit too nasal, and rubbed his nose with his sleeve, “I’m Elliot.”

“Listen Ellioso,” Mae said, leaning towards Elliot as if she was about to tell him something horribly confidential, “I’m usually not all this friendly and whatnot, but that whole invisible remark just gave me some kind of wild epiphany, and I decided to at least talk to someone for a change.

“Uh huh,” Elliot said, distracted by the pile of books she had placed in front of him.

“No way, is that Silent Spring?” Elliot asked pointing to one of the books.

“Yeah, Rachel Carson is my environmentalist hero. I mean, if I was really serious about that kind of thing,” She said.

Elliot gave a shy smile.

“You know,” Mae said, “We need cheesy fries.”