ATX

“Those shoes are awesome,” Riley said, semi-out of breath, to a girl walking past her on the sidewalk. The girl had her head buried in her phone with her headphones on and didn’t hear her, but it was the thought that mattered, right?

Riley had been walking down Barton Springs Road in Austin, Texas, trying to find where she parked. There were about a million parks in this city and she knew she parked at one of them. But was it the one with the huge grass field or the one with the troll? Or the one by the pool? It was late August and too hot to remember anything, her brain was practically melting. The air was wet and thick as she trudged through it and her sunglasses kept sliding off her nose from the sweat beads dripping down her face. The streets were filled with shirtless moustached men. Her personal hell. She tried looking at her phone for directions to her car, but it was dead from editing short form content all day. Apparently being a social media marketer requires you to be on your phone the entire day. She was still getting used to that, having only had the job for a couple weeks. Riley fumbled around in her tote bag for something that could cure her de-hydration. As she pulled out her water bottle she bumped into a man and dropped it.

“My fourty ounce glass water bottle filled with matcha!” It shattered.

“You also ran into a guy…” the man muttered as he stood in front of her. He was in his mid twenties, roughly 5”9”, mullet, mustache, wearing shorts and a tank top. Your average Austin guy. The matcha that was in Riley’s water bottle had spilled all over his leather boat shoes. He had a disappointed look on his face that told her he was not going to shy away from confrontation.

“Oh my gosh I am so sorry, my sweat was blinding me and I wasn’t looking where I was going, I’ve been walking around for hours, I can’t believe I broke my water bottle! I feel like I can’t do anything right today I–”

The man cut Riley off. “Look. I don’t care about your water bottle. It looks better shattered anyway, what’s even the point of carrying around a glass bottle if you’re clearly so clumsy? You should invest in something more durable. I care about my shoes. These shoes were given to me by Glen Powell. Yes, I know Glen Powell, and no I won’t give you his phone number–”

“What? I don’t want Glen Powell’s–”

“Don’t lie to yourself. After learning that Glen lives in Austin, I spent months wondering if I’d ever run into him. It was always on my mind. Going to get barbeque, looking around for new boots, I pictured running into Glen and being able to tell him how big of a fan I am. Man, I even planned out what I was gonna say. ‘Glen Powell, Twisters was my favorite movie of 2024. Top Gun: Maverick was literally the best movie I’ve ever seen and ever will see. I don’t really like romcoms, I’m more of an action guy, but Anyone But You honestly changed my mind about that. But to be real here, I’ve known about you since 2003. When you played Long Fingered Boy in Spy Kids 3: Game Over, ah the game was really just getting started. You changed, my life, Glen.’” He stared off into the sun and chuckled, and shook his head softly.

“So, did you say that to him, or..?” Riley inquired. She wasn’t really the type to be constantly having interactions with strangers, so she wasn’t sure what the etiquette was.

“No, actually. It was crazy, I was at this party and my friend dared me to do a Shoey out of my own shoe, so I did, obviously, I’m not gonna be a pussy. Anyway, then my shoe was soaked with beer, I couldn’t wear that around. So I was walking around with one shoe on, and I go outside, except the problem was, it was all gravel. I started walking across, but it was not pleasant, I was limping and wincing from the pain every few seconds. You know, gravel always hurts way more than you think it will, and even I have like, really tough foot skin, but believe me it was sharp gravel.”

“What does Glen Powell have to do with any of this?”

“Yeah so if you’d just let me finish, which, you’re gonna wanna hear this because it was literally the most epic moment of my life.”

Riley considered just walking away, she still had to find her car, and she was also getting hungry. But she was irrevocably intrigued by this weird guy and his weird obsession with Glen Powell. She knew this would be a good story to tell to her coworkers. They all always had these crazy stories of their nights out and all Riley ever had to talk about was stories about her cats and the occasional new seasonal item at Trader Joes. This time, she was going to have a good story to tell. She actually didn’t even have to say anything and he just kept talking.

“So I’m in pain, right. I swear it’s at least 200 feet of gravel that I’m walking across. Then, out of nowhere, I hear, ‘Hey, man!,’ and I whip my head around, it’s a voice that I’d easily recognize anywhere. I am in disbelief, but there, running up to me, is Glen Powell. He says that he saw me with one shoe on and felt so bad for me that he literally gave me his boat shoes off of his own feet. But as soon as he gave the shoes to me he got a phone call and ran off, so I didn’t even get to thank him. The last thing I saw of him that night was him running away barefoot across the gravel and into the sunset. It was majestic, to say the least.”

“Wait so you didn’t even get to tell him how big of a fan you are?” Riley was really invested at that point.

The man grimaced. “I didn’t. You know, I was kinda thinking it was better that way, and I had the shoes to remember the night by, but you just ruined that.” He stared back at Riley blankly.

Riley stuttered trying to find her words. “Again I’m really sorry, is there any way I could make it up to you?” She was doing it for the plot, she did not care about this guy.

“New shoes?” He said like a little kid asking their parent for something.

“New shoes–I, oh, I actually happen to have a bunch of shoes in my car that I’m selling at a thrift market this weekend, I’m sure we could find a pair that fits you.”

“Well, I did say new shoes, but that’ll do. Where are you parked?”

Riley sighed. “That’s the problem, I honestly don’t know. I’ve been walking around for like an hour trying to find my car.”

“How do you just forget where you parked your car? And doesn’t your phone track that or something?”

“Hey, I’ve had a long day. And I don’t even know your name but I offered to give you a pair of my shoes, so are you coming with me or not?” Riley quickly pulled out her phone to check the time only to remember that it was dead. They probably had an hour of sunlight left and she didn’t really want to be walking around aimlessly with this odd man in the complete darkness, so the sooner they started searching the better.

“Yeah yeah, I’m coming. It’s Derek by the way–”

“What the hell? That’s my car!!” Riley exclaimed, almost laughing at the fact that she just saw her silver honda civic casually driving down the street without her in it. And she knew it was hers. She had too many custom bumper stickers of her own cats to mistake it.

“Quick, get in!” Derek’s car was conveniently parked on the street beside them. He had already unlocked it and motioned for Riley to get in the passenger’s seat. Against her better judgement, she hopped in. He swerved in and out of lanes and ran over countless curbs as he tried to catch up to the stolen vehicle, who didn’t even know they were being chased.

Riley was so stressed she opened up the glove compartment to look for napkins to wipe the sweat off of her forehead. She was fumbling around with some different papers that were in there and saw a headshot of Glen Powell. Naturally. She wanted to inquire why Derek was holding onto that, but also did not want to distract or potentially upset the guy that held her life in his hands.

“There!!” Derek shouted, spotting her car up the street. He sped up and got behind the car, then all of a sudden it took a hard right turn and bumped into a trash can on the corner of the sidewalk, tipped it over and spilled out hundreds of used zoo animal paper plates. The road was flooded with children’s birthday party dishes. Derek slammed on the brakes, treating it like a barricade.

“What are you doing?? Keep. Going.” Riley insisted.

“They’re zoo animals! They’re adorable I don’t want to–”

“ITS PAPER, DEREK.”

“It could still damage my car–” The sounds of honking cars only intensified their yelling.

“JUST DRIVE!!”

“FINE!” Derek hit the gas so hard a giraffe, lion, and zebra with peanut butter smeared all over them and flew up and stuck to their windshield, specifically on the driver’s side. “C’mon Riley you gotta help me all I can see is this zebra’s lifeless eyes staring back at me!”

She shook her head in disbelief but had to comply. “Oh, god, okay just keep going straight, I can see my car ahead, now get into the left lane and pass the car in front of us, okay just stay in this lane and speed up,” she glanced to her left and saw that Derek’s eyes were closed.

“DEREK what are you doing–”

“Sorry! Sorry, they’re open now.” She continued giving him directions, then looked over and his eyes were closed again.

“Goddammit Derek!!”

“Okay I swear I’ll keep them open, it’s just too fun–”

“Red light!” The car halted to a stop and they both looked to their left and saw Riley’s car in the lane next to them. Their jaws dropped.

“Is that–” Riley started.

“Glen Powell???”

Glen noticed them staring at him and gave them his signature toothy smile. From where Riley sat she could see Derek blushing. “I could faint,” he said.

“That is MY car!!” Riley started yelling and gesturing and although his window was rolled up, Glen instantly started looking super nervous and turned away. He looked at the busy intersection in front of him and all of a sudden he just drove straight through it seemingly without a scratch, although everyone honked at him. “Okay, we can still catch up, it’ll be okay–”

And without warning Derek also sped through the red light. “I am not passing up another opportunity to talk to my idol.” Derek caught right up to Glen and cut him off, making Glen brake and stop the car. Riley jumped out of the car and went up to Glen and he sheepishly rolled the window down.

“Hey, what’s going on? This is my car, I need my car! Why are you driving my car?” Riley begged for answers. Glen broke down into tears. Derek was just now catching up with them.

“What did you say to him??” Derek whispered. He kept trying to get in front of Riley so that he could talk to Glen but she wouldn’t let him.

“I just asked–”

“Hush!” Glen said through his sobs. “I promise I’m not a criminal. I just made a mistake. I’ve been having a bad habit of giving my shoes away to strangers. Something about it just makes me feel good, like I’m making a difference in the world y’know? I’m so embarrassed, but I ran out of shoes. I gave all my shoes away and I have none left! I was feeling pretty down about it today and I happened to pass by your car and saw the monstrous pile of shoes in your back seat.” Glen stopped crying. “Seriously, how did you obtain that many shoes, lady? They’re almost covering the windows!” He paused for a second then kept crying. “I didn’t mean to steal your car, I just needed to transport the shoes back to my house.” Glen rested his head on the steering wheel while he kept crying.

“So…” Riley started, “Could I have my car back, it’s not really okay to just steal someone’s car–”

“Hey Glen! You might remember me, I’m actually one of the people you gave your shoes to. I was wondering if I could have your autograph?” He had shoved in front of Riley and whipped out his headshot of Glen Powell for him to sign, but right as he did Glen opened the car door which knocked Derek down to the ground. Glen, barefoot, did not pay any mind to him and instead walked up to Riley and gave her a hug and cried into her shoulder. The last thing Riley needed in that moment was a grown man crying in her arms, yet there she was. She awkwardly hugged Glen back, and looked to her side to see Derek slowly getting up, still holding the headshot. And it was truly an insane sight to see him so sad and dejected while holding a photo of the criminal movie star that was in her embrace.

“I’m sorry, but this has to be done,” Glen said calmly and let go of Riley and patted her on the shoulder. He hurriedly opened the door of her car and took a couple pairs of shoes and ran off before Riley could stop him.

“Derek! Come on, we can catch him!” Riley said, trying to get him up.

“It’s not worth it. It’s just a few pairs of shoes.” He grabbed a pair of shoes from her car and put them on, threw the matcha infused boat shoes into a bush. “Never meet your idol twice…” he muttered to himself as he walked to his car and immediately drove off.

Riley stood alone, and watched her new nemesis run off into the sunset holding her old shoes. She got into her car, which was still running, plugged in her phone, and drove to the nearest drive thru to get tacos. She had no music playing, not even a podcast, she just imagined the lit up faces of her coworkers as she had the best story to tell out of everyone. She sat in her car, stuffing her face with below average tacos, writing down all the details of today in her notes app so she wouldn’t forget a detail.