They walked side by side, neither of them in any particular hurry.
The evening air was cool enough to make the walk comfortable, and for a while the only sounds between them were their footsteps and the occasional passing motorcycle
Sarah glanced at the phone in Jason’s hand, the spiderweb of cracks across the screen catching the streetlights.
"So" she began, tilting her head
"How’d your phone end up like that?"
Jason looked down at it.
Right, the phone
His brain immediately reached the part where it was supposed to produce a believable explanation and found absolutely nothing.
Well, I could tell her a magical system shattered it in front of my face. Great idea.
She’d either run away or call someone qualified to deal with mentally unstable people.
"I dropped it" he replied.
Sarah blinked
"That’s it?"
Jason nodded with all the confidence of a man defending the weakest lie ever told.
"Yep"
She narrowed her eyes just slightly, clearly waiting for the rest of the story.
When none came, she smiled.
"You know" she said, suppressing a laugh
"it kind of sounds like the dramatic part costs extra."
Jason couldn’t help smiling.
"I charge premium rates."
"Hm"
She studied him for another second as though deciding whether to keep digging but to his surprise though she didn’t.
Instead, she simply hummed to herself and kept walking and Jason almost looked over at her.
That’s it? No interrogation? No detective mode?
She’s either incredibly trusting or she decided whatever actually happened would be funnier if she imagined it herself.
He wasn’t about to complain and then an uncomfortable silence settled over them again.
Jason immediately realized something.
He’d somehow managed to walk halfway across the neighborhood with a girl he genuinely wanted to know better, and his conversational strategy so far had been existing beside her.
At this rate she’ll get home knowing more about my broken phone than the person actually holding the phone.
He quickly searched his brain for something, anything that didn’t sound like an interview question.
"So," he said, scratching the back of his neck
"do you actually like working at the store or is it just a job?"
Sarah didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she looked ahead, thinking it over longer than he’d expected.
"I like it," she said at last. "The people are nice most of the time."
"The most of the time sounded important."
"It is." She laughed
"You meet some very creative customers."
"I can imagine."
"But it’s still a job. I need the money."
She smiled to herself, quieter this time.
"I’m saving up for something."
Jason glanced at her.
"For what?"
Sarah’s smile became just a little more mysterious.
"You’ll find out someday."
"That’s suspicious."
"It wasn’t meant to be."
"It definitely sounded suspicious."
She laughed, and for some reason Jason felt oddly accomplished.
There we go. A real conversation, only took half the walk.
He was already trying to think of another question when Sarah looked ahead and lifted a hand.
"We’re here."
Jason followed her gaze and the phone repair shop stood only a few storefronts ahead, its illuminated sign glowing against the evening sky.
He frowned.
"Seriously?"
"I told you it wasn’t far."
Jason then let out a dramatic sigh.
Just when I was about figuring out how to hold a conversation with a girl without offering to buy her something
Jason looked from the storefront to her, then smiled.
Maybe the walk had been shorter than he’d wanted but somehow, it didn’t feel nearly long enough.
The repair shop was smaller than Jason had expected. Glass display cases lined one wall, filled with phone cases, charging cables, and tempered glass protectors hanging from metal hooks. Somewhere in the back, a heat gun hummed softly while the faint scent of solder and electronics lingered in the air.
It looked less like the kind of place that performed miracles and more like the kind that quietly fixed other people’s expensive mistakes.
Sarah headed straight for the front counter without hesitating.
"Hey, Max."
The man behind the counter looked up from the phone he’d been working on. A grin spread across his face the moment he recognized her.
"Well, if it isn’t Sarah." He set the screwdriver aside
"What’s up? You finally decide to bankrupt me?"
She laughed. "Not today."
"That’s disappointing."
"I brought someone who needs help."
Max leaned slightly to the side, finally noticing Jason waiting a few steps behind her.
"Oh?" His eyes flicked back to Sarah with a knowing smile
"A friend?"
Sarah rolled her eyes.
"His phone’s the patient. Try not to charge him the ’gold finish’ price."
Max placed a hand over his chest in mock offense.
"Sarah, you wound me."
"You know exactly what I’m talking about."
He chuckled and shook his head.
"Fine, fine. Since you brought him, I’ll see what I can do."
Jason couldn’t make out everything they were saying from where he stood, but judging by the easy back-and-forth, they clearly knew each other well
That’s a good sign, might even get the phone done for free
Sarah glanced over her shoulder and motioned him forward.
"Jason."
He stepped up to the counter.
"Max," the man introduced himself, extending a hand.
Jason shook it. "I’m Jason."
"Nice to meet you." Max’s gaze dropped toward the cracked phone still in Jason’s hand
"Sarah said you dropped it."
Jason hesitated for half a second.
"Apparently."
Apparently? What kind of answer was that?
Max didn’t seem to question it.
"Mind if I take a look?"
Jason handed over the phone.
Max turned it over in his hands, tilting it beneath the overhead light. His thumb ran carefully along the fractured screen before he checked the frame, pressed the power button, and inspected the edges where the glass had splintered.
"Hm."
He rotated it once more.
"The display assembly’s gone, and the touch digitizer is dead too." He tapped lightly against one corner. "Frame took a hit as well. If I leave that bent, the new screen won’t sit flush."
"Oh, I see" Jason replied back
Yeah, I didn’t understand one thing he said but they were definitely words.
Max then placed the phone on the counter and continued speaking
"I can replace the screen, straighten the frame, and run a full diagnostic afterward to make sure nothing else was damaged."
He looked up.
"It’ll come to about one hundred and eighty dollars."
Now coming to words that Jason finally understood, his smile froze.
One hundred and eighty what?
For a second, he wondered if he’d misheard.
His eyes drifted toward Sarah.
Wasn’t the whole point of coming here because she knew someone?
This was the discount?
The number in his bank account immediately surfaced in his mind, and he didn’t like the comparison.