The Genie in the Designer Hoodie

From the back cover

In high school, a rich kid named Liam treated the whole class to fried chicken, burgers and rented-out movie theaters, earning the nickname the biggest baller in school. To a girl who budgeted every meal, he seemed like a genie granting her smallest wishes — the fast food she could never afford, the movies she skipped, even a down jacket that kept her ears from frostbite. She never told him she noticed.

Years later, Liam's family goes bankrupt. His father runs off with a mistress, and Liam drops out abroad and ends up living on the streets. By then the girl has opened a small diner. When she finds him on a park bench, she offers him a job — four thousand a month, room and board included. He agrees, cold and distant, and moves into her storage room.

He does not seem to recognize her. But on her desk sits a framed graduation photo, an accidental shot of the two of them together, and the question of what he remembers hangs quietly between them.