“Why?” She stopped and turned around to face me, her head cocked to the side, questioning me.
“What if I need more help with the wine options?”
“I told you, I’m no help.” Her chuckle fueled me to continue.
“But two heads are better than when both people have no idea what they are buying.”
I tried to reason with her. We were at a standoff at the end of the chips aisle, me watching as she plucked out her phone and handed it to me. I typed in a text message to myself, letting the option for her to add me to her phone, up to her.
“There. That way if I need any help I can ask you.”
“I don’t think you’ll need my help.” She pointed toward where Tabitha was still standing behind me. “Pretty sure you have all the help you need.”
And with that she turned around, leaving me with the list she’d had and truly not understanding what she had meant.
Was she implying that I was with Tabitha?
I let out a bellowed laugh as she rounded the corner to the next aisle and turned back around to Tabitha. If Erica thought I was with Tabitha, then her jab was one of jealousy. I shook my head, letting the laugh inside of me die. I hated knowing she was feeling that, that a part of her was hurt when she walked away, but then something else sparked in me. If she was jealous, then she had to have feelings. Didn’t she?
“Are you ready yet?” Tabitha broke me out of my thoughts and grabbed for the basket in my hand, heading toward the checkout without me.
I pulled out my phone and typed out the only thing I knew would be able to clear this situation.
You’re wrong. You’re the only help I have right now.
Erica
I walked out of the grocery store without anything that Max had asked me to get.
I had loved the interaction I’d had with Chase, but then that girl called for him and I panicked. I had no claim to Chase, even though I wished so badly that I did. I shook my head and got into my car, trying to shake off the jealousy that was filling my heart. It wasn’t an emotion I was all too familiar with and one I wanted gone immediately.
I knew I had wasted away years pining over a man from afar, but Chase had never made a move, and damn it, I was too much of a chicken to do anything myself.
I sat in my little blue Kia, thumbing on the steering wheel and taking deep breaths. It wasn’t like we had been flirting with each other, right? That wasn’t flirting. Or was it? When we had been standing there alone, I could have sworn he was leaning down toward me. There was just something about Chase that was magnetic and I wanted to be in his presence, even though I couldn’t always be. But when we were together, it was like we didn’t even have to try for us to work together and be comfortable talking to each other. I struggled with that a little with Jack and Max, since I didn’t work with them as much anymore, but when it came to Greg, it was almost the same as being with Chase, but yet something felt different.
Idiot.
Of course something feels different. You love Chase, not Greg.
I put the car into drive and headed to my mom’s place, which was really my place, since I bought the house right next to her a year ago.
After being back in Atlanta for a few months, I realized it was a far better plan to live at home longer to save up more to buy my own house, rather than getting an apartment or condo. The stocks I had taken out with the money I got with the buyout from Max, plus what I was making, let me flat-out buy a house instead of financing or leasing. It was something I was immensely proud of. A home owner at the age of twenty-five.
I pulled into my driveway and made my way across the lawn to my parents’ house. The smell of homemade sweets filled my nose when I opened the door. I breathed in deeply, taking in the atmosphere around me. The fully lit Christmas tree with presents shoved underneath. Even now that I was older, Mom and Dad still went all out for the holidays.
“Hey, Mom,” I called out into the house as to not scare her.
Her head popped around the corner from the kitchen and a bright, mischievous smile crossed her face. I knew that face. It meant she had a plan and I wanted nothing to do with it. I put my arms in the air, making an X.
“Nope. Whatever you have planned. Nope.”
“Oh, come on,” she whined and stomped her foot like a child who wasn’t getting their way. If there was one thing I didn’t get from my mother it was her personality. Looks, I got all day, but when it came down to who I was as a person, I was basically my father. Quiet, but punctual.
“Len, leave her alone.” My dad came down the stairs and kissed me on the head before walking into the kitchen. I followed behind to see the ruckus that lined the counters. Cookies. Cookies everywhere.
Mom always baked for the local firefighters in town as a thank you during the holidays, and she would be delivering them later this week. Hopefully, without me. It always turned into who she could hook me up with, rather than giving thanks to them.
“Shush, Drew,” my mom scolded my dad, but that didn’t stop him from coming up behind her and kissing her neck.
