Wrench
Today, while biking to a store, I spotted a guy setting up a table laden with phone cases on the side of the street. For the past few months, I've been living life like a lottery winner, strolling around without a phone case. It's lovely to feel the nice, sleek design of the phone as it was meant to be felt. Typically, I buy the slimmest, most stylish premium phone on the market, only to shove it into a giant, submersibly waterproof case. The past me would never have considered buying an iPhone case that didn’t boast an IP68 rating.
If you don’t know what that is, here’s the nerdiest article possible, which is, humiliatingly, on brand for me.
Anyways, I realized I needed a phone case because I didn’t want to continue pushing my luck.
"Do you have cases for the iPhone 12 Max Pro?" I asked, my eyes immediately landing on a hilariously large sign that read "iPhone 12 Max Pro." There were only two signs; that was one of them.
So, I started to circle my bike around the table to where he was pointing. That’s when I heard a wrench fall. "Is this yours?" I asked, thinking I might have knocked it off his table.
"No," he responded. "Oh, okay. My bad. I guess it was stuck on this CitiBike. The bike mechanic must have left it on, and it fell off."
"Okay, I like that green silicone one," I said to him, pointing at my signature color. "Fifteen dollars," he said. "Let's do 12," I suggested. "Ehh, alright, you’re my first customer of the day, so that’s cool," he agreed. "I’m gonna give you 12; we're set on that. But just out of curiosity, what’s the lowest you would have gone?"
I usually say "If you get a screen protector, I do the cases for 10 usually," he replied. "Cool," I said.l
I handed him 22 dollars. He struggled for a moment and then handed me 15 back, asking if it was right. "No, it’s only ten," I said, handing back the five.
We exchanged names and chatted a bit.
"Hey, do you want this wrench?" I offered.
"Don’t you want it?" he responded, or "Put it back by the CitiBike stuff?"
"Nah, the best thing I could possibly do right now is give it to you."
Then, I rode on to the store I was originally heading to.