Today’s <i>Read Between the Lines</i> Conversation

Sometimes there’s more there than meets the eye.

—

I am paying for gas in the little gas-station kiosk.

Me: Pump number seven.

Man in the Kiosk: Seventeen-fifty.

Me: (Handing him a twenty) Here’s twenty.

Man in the Kiosk: Interesting.

Me: Excuse me?

Man in the Kiosk: Nothing. He hands me my change.

Me: Why was it interesting that I gave you a twenty?

Man in the Kiosk: It wasn’t.

As I writer, I must know the answer. People get annoyed by this, I figure.

Me: Do most people give you twenty dollar bills or do most people give you two tens?

Man in the Kiosk: Excuse me?

Me: Nothing.

I take my change.