62...

Alexis stood outside the entrance of Fountain Books, squinting against that aggravating Southern California sun and smoking a cigarette down to the filter. She was pitching the butt out into the parking lot, the asphalt soft with a full day of heat resting on it, when she heard the store's door open.
Without looking, she reached into her purse and grabbed another smoke. She didn't necessarily want another one, but it was easier to ignore a coworker you didn't want to speak with if you were lighting up. She glanced over, eyes still narrowed to slits, and saw Matthew standing on the opposite side of the door lighting a cigarette of his own. He saw her staring at him and gave a quick, furtive wave of his hand.
"Hey Sheryl," he said quietly, quickly looking away out towards the parking lot.
They stood there silent, each looking out towards the cycling traffic, each against the wall and on opposite sides of the door. The plain bookstore logo shone in reflected golden glory off of a window darkened against the damages of the caustic sun. Alexis looked back towards him, at the shoulders hunched up towards his ears.
"Hey Matthew?"
He turned his head toward her as if he were twitching, his eyes wider than they really had any business being. There was a brief flash of sadness within her for this guy, this guy who always seemed to be running from beneath a heavy weight, this guy that seemed to enjoy the sci-fi section a lot. She realized she really didn't know anything about him other than that. But that sadness was muffled and pulled aside by something a little more calculating.
"Yeah?" he asked, taking a shallow hit off his cigarette.
"What'd you do?" she asked with that crooked smile that had charmed many.
Something reminiscent of that first frost of the year blew through his eyes. Most people would have missed it, but Alexis was used to focusing pristinely on people's eyes. They hazed over quickly and narrowed.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean before you started working here, what did you do?"
"Oh." He looked back out towards the traffic, took a deep breath. "Well, I went to school for awhile, but stopped doing that. Did a couple of weird part time jobs... Started working here..."
He glanced at her, almost for confirmation, and then quickly away again towards to parking lot and street beyond. Shame was practically coming off this guy like smoke. Alexis was able to imagine a lot of bad things, but found it hard to imagine this shy young man doing something so miserable to deserve his desire to hide inside his own skin. She stared at him with that same crooked grin, watched him begin to squirm a bit.
“What?” He asked after a moment.
“Nothing,” she finally dropped her gaze, but kept the smile. “I just wonder about you Matthew.”
And before he could quite catch up she finished with, “you heard about the new guy coming in.”
“Yeah,” he said in a drawn out and ponderous tone. “Seems sort of weird. It’s not like we need someone else in a store this size.”