“It was coming down anyway,” he offers by way of an explanation and tosses the hair tie in a dumpster as we pass. “Hey,” I sulk, “I don’t have another one with me.” He shrugs, which only makes me annoyed with him.

“You’ll just have to leave it loose then, won’t you?” He ruffles my hair, trailing his fingers softly through the length and down my back.

“Stop acting like a child,” I say with exasperation. “Sometimes, I seriously can’t understand why I ...