I had been the worst grocery store buddy the last hour, constantly pulling out my phone to muster the courage to text Benny. I hadn’t heard from him all day and was more than convinced it had something to do with my erratic exit from the break room this morning. I tried to find him as soon as my session with Garrett was over. He deserved a face-to-face apology for my behavior, but his office was dark and was nowhere to be found in the building.
Shoving my phone in my pocket, I take a bag of potatoes and hoist it into the shopping cart. “What else do we need?”
“Got the marshmallows!” Kate shouts as she rushes down the produce aisle towards us. “I got minis and extra-large, there was no in-between.”
“It’ll have to do,” Emma says, eyeing the marshmallows, clearly making mental adjustments to whatever recipe they were being used for.
“Great! Do we have everything?” I ask, steering the cart towards the direction Kate just ran from, Kate walking beside me as she tears coupons from the Glendale fundraiser coupon book.
“I have a coupon for a BOGO bag of popcorn balls, did we get that?” she asks, tearing the coupon to show me the savings.
“Ugh, I could kill for a popcorn ball!” I laugh.
“Same! I’m starving!”
Kate and I turn down the snack aisle, leaving Emma behind to tally up her list. We each mosey along, dropping different bags of candy, chips, and crackers into the cart. Disobeying Emma’s store rule ofsticking to the list.
My stomach growls loudly as I toss in a bag of Skittles. “Why are we here when we’re hungry?”
“Rookie mistake.” Kate groans as she holds up two different bags of flavored pretzels, debating on which to purchase before she ultimately decides both are good options and tosses them in the cart. “So, this morning was interesting.”
“What was?” I wheel the cart ahead of her to avoid eye contact. It was only a matter of time before she brought it up.
“You knowwhat!” She hurries to catch up to me. “He was practically scooping you up into his lap in the middle of our meeting!”
“That’s an exaggeration.” I roll my eyes.
“For Benny though, that was major PDA!”
“Really? I didn’t even notice.”Lies.
“Really! He is anti-physical touch in public. He barely even hugs me unless I’m crying or just having a freak out.” She pouts.
“He just leaned against my chair, what’s so crazy about that?” I ask as if I am painfully unaware of my surroundings and the facts are not computing. My voice is an octave higher than it should be.
She steps in front of the rolling cart, forcing me into a sudden stop. Glaring at me, she says, “Did something happen?”
“What? Nothing . . . nothing happened.” I start panicking, she’ll read right through me. “I don’t know. Why are you asking me?” I wheel the cart around her and try to pick up speed, but she’s right on my heels.
“Ahh, no you don’t!” Running past me, she plants her feet on the bottom rail of the cart like little kids do when they want to be wheeled around the store. She leans across the basket, eye level with me. “Tell. Me. Everything.”
The memory of our kiss rushes back to me, causing every sensation in my body to go into overdrive, pulsating down my legs, into the floor, and back up again. God, such a good kiss.
In normal circumstances, I am a steel trap, keeping every secret detail about my life tightly closed within the walls around my heart and mind, nothing breaking through.
I’m not sure if it’s Kate’s hilarious attempt at intimidating eyes, the oversensory of her tapping foot, or the giddy butterflies in my stomach . . . but I can’t keep it any more. The steel trap is opening and a lovestruck teenager is about to burst through…
“Fine! We . . . kissed . . .” I whisper-squeal.
“What?” Kate yells, planting her hands on both sides of her face in shock.
Then, as if we were just told we won the lottery, we start screaming, laughing, and jumping up and down right there in front of the Doritos.
“What? What’s wrong?” Emma comes rushing towards our shrieks.
“They kissed!” Kate announces to Emma and basically the entire store.
“Who? What? Oh my gosh!” Emma joins in our weird circle of giggles and nudges, hugging me so tight I feel I might crack in two. “This is so exciting! Our plan worked!”
