Excerpt:

He asked me to go for a walk. Who does that? What shoes do you wear to appear both sensible and stylish? Surely some advertisement had told me exactly that at some point. It was raining and I thought God that is so romantic and then freaked out and messed up my hair and showed up at our meeting spot eighteen minutes early. I went into the 7-11 and, not wanting to be one of those people who browse the magazines and then never buy one, I perused the candy aisle, and then the coolers, and then the baked goods. The ATM was from my home bank, so I put my card in and checked my balance (the same as the day before). I examined the frozen dinners. I got the feeling that the clerk was starting to be weirded out by my disinterested wandering, so I went into the alleyway and texted everyone I knew asking them what they were doing, and made little mewing sounds in case there were any kittens hidden behind dumpsters.
“Tillie!”
It had not occurred to me that he might walk to the park, that he might walk right past this alleyway.
“Hey! …Hi!’
“What are you doing?”
I was crouched down, between two trash cans. I thought I might throw up so, actually, it felt like about the right place to be.
“I dropped a quarter.”
“Just hanging out back here?”
“…it rolled.”
Here are things we talked about: Trudeau being short, prices at independent bookstore, hairless cats, iPod battery life, getting jujubes stuck in your teeth, fall, the sleekness of the black London minicab.
And then we parted ways. Was that all? Are we friends? It was suspiciously friend-like. No hugging was involved. No holding of hands. Not even a “you look nice” when we met. I may be sinking in to paranoia, or I may just have no idea what it means to have a boy talk to you in a bar and then take your phone number and ask if you want to go out “for a stroll.” He didn’t even try. I’m pretty easy, in that respect. I got desperate for every bit of eye contact, every accident brush, took them as signs, was embarrassed for doing it, gave him signs that were hopefully at least as subtle—so as not to come on too strong—and ignored him as much as possible for the last half hour.