My Two Cents

This morning after I dropped the baby at daycare, I stopped for gas and went in to the mini-mart to buy snacks (peanut butter cups and Pepsi - breakfast of champions!). My total came to $3.78 and I handed the clerk a $20 bill.

"Out of twenty," she said. "$16.22 is your change."

Normally, I don't count the coins, just the bills. As she handed me my change, however, I noticed that she'd given me a ten, a five, a one and two dimes. Twenty cents, not twenty-two.

"Hhhmmm," I thought, "she just said twenty-two."

I wasn't going to say anything, but I happened to catch her eye, just in time to see her rolling her eyes at me as she asked, "Do you need the two cents?"

Well, that's an interesting question. Do I need the two cents? No, I don't need the two cents. Quite honestly, I don't even want the two cents. My purse is heavy enough. But aren't they my two cents? What was she going to do with them? There was no "take a penny, leave a penny" jar on the counter. Did she have a giant stash of pennies behind the counter? Saving for a rainy day? Was she out of pennies? I have no idea... I was totally stumped on what to say. She asked a question, was she expecting a response?

I thought about getting upset, saying something sarcastic. But, I figured if she was going to go to the trouble of keeping my two pennies, then admitting (sort of) that she didn't give them to me, then asking me the (rhetorical?) question about if I needed the two cents, then clearly, she wanted them more than I did.

"Nope, I sure don't," I replied with a smile. And then I left.

I'm fine with two fewer pennies... I just wish I knew what she did with them!