I broke the hand shake and he again blushed real red.
He reached up and pulled the cigarette from behind his ear and started to put it in his mouth when he changed his mind and held it out to me.
“Ya smoke?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Can’t stand the smell of them.”
“Oh?! Yeah, I-I should probably stop anyhow!” He said as he gave the unlit cigarette a flick into the street; which was a good twenty feet from where we were standing.
“So you here for a visit?” I asked.
He again blushed and I knew I had asked something that touched on a tender nerve.
He started to act uncomfortable as he said, “Not really. Folks sent me out here ’cause I got in a bit a trouble back home.”