Chapter 1
Did life control fate, or was it the other way around?
It’s a question I never asked myself until my life changed that fateful, moonlit night. Did all my decisions add up to my fate, or did some unseen hand guide me to that alley and the stranger who would change my life forever?
“Grace! Snap out of it!”
I started back and blinked against the harsh, bland lighting that hung overhead. A middle-aged woman stood in front of my cash register, her hands on her ample hips and a scowl on her face. The name plate pinned over her left breast read Margaret. Such an innocent name for such a foul creature.
She shoved a hand in front of my face and snapped her fingers. “Snap out of it! Customers are waiting!”
I blinked, and the magic fell from my eyes. The dingy small market reemerged from the fogginess of my wandering mind. There was the deli with its grease of unknown age, the dairy with the broken lights inside the upright coolers, and the floors, unmopped for several days and long since showing their age, that I could place somewhere in the middle of the last century.
And then there was Margaret, my manager. Her sharp eyes sat behind a sharp, narrow nose. She wore her hair short against her head and was attired in the uniform of our store: a white shirt with blue jeans. The woman would have made a good linebacker if she hadn’t been tempted by power.
She now wielded that power over me as she stabbed a finger at the two customers waiting beside the belt. “Stop daydreaming and start ringing these customers up!”
I shot to attention and gave her a salute, much to the amusement of the customers. “Yes, ma’am!”
Margaret’s eyes threatened retribution, but it would have to wait. There were customers to be served, after all. She stormed off, and the first customer slipped up to me. She was an older woman with twinkling eyes.
“Caught with your mind elsewhere again, Grace?” she wondered as she pulled out a checkbook.
I sighed as I scanned her noodles and pasta. “I guess I haven’t been sleeping all that well.”
“You should take some of Grandpa’s cough medicine,” the man behind her chimed in.
The other customer shot him a look of warning. “That’s not done anymore, Todd, and you know it!”
A broad grin stretched his face. “Why not? It was good enough for my grandpa.”
“Your grandfather was the town drunk!”
“And lived to be ninety-seven.”
“That’ll be thirty-seven sixteen, Susan,” I told her.
Susan viciously assailed the check with sharp sweeps and ripped it out. “Don’t you go listening to him. What you need is a good man who’ll treat you right.”
I laughed as I tucked the check into the cash register drawer. “I don’t think I’ll be able to find one of those around here. They’re already taken.”
Todd tucked his thumbs underneath his suspenders and puffed out his chest. “I’m always available.”
Susan glared at him. “You’re sixty-eight, for goodness’ sake!”
He failed miserably at hiding his smile as he shrugged. “What’s a few decades?”
“Try four of them!” she snapped as she grabbed his hand and tugged him to the cash register. “Now pay for your things and stop your nonsense.”
“I was only trying to help,” he teased as he handed over some cash for his few items. He winked at me. “But if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Susan wagged her finger at him. “In the retirement home, harassing the women there.”
“I only have eyes for you and Grace,” he countered as he plucked his goods from the counter. “Goodnight, my darling Grace. I hope you don’t have too much longer left on your shift. We could make a late date, but I do have a bedtime to obey.”
I laughed. “I get off in a couple of hours.”
He sighed. “What a pity. We’ll have to schedule it for another time.”
