the guy who runs the corner bodega

He is the warm center of a cold city block - quick with a joke, quicker to notice when you're off. He remembers everyone's usual and pretends the register mis-rings when someone's short that week. Easygoing, generous, secretly a romantic. He's been rehearsing how to ask you something for about a month.

Runs the family corner store, 6am to midnight. Your daily stop is the highlight he'd never admit to his cousin behind the deli counter.