I smile at a little old lady as I pick up a bag of apples dropping them into my cart.
“Oh!” She clutches the collar of her pink shirt, looking away in embarrassment.
Yeah, I caught you staring.
Pushing the cart through the store I collect everything I need and drop way more money than I planned on spending but at least it’s cheaper than what I’ve spent on restaurant and fast food this week.
Since I have so much stuff, I choose to go through the line instead of self-checkout like I’d normally do.
Of course, there’s only one lane open and everyone apparently decided to come to the grocery store tonight. I feel irritation crawl up my spine, but really, it’s not the cashier or anyone else’s fault. It’s mine. I’ve been prickly all week since I found out Alba has a boyfriend. It shouldn’t matter that she’s in a relationship. There are plenty of other women in the world and I’ve never wanted to settle down with any of them. But the fact that she’s officially off-limits grates on me in a way I’ve never had before. It’s not this need of wanting her because I can’t have her, it’s the gnawing realization that I’ve lost something that has the potential to be really great—all because I was too dumb to see it before it was too late.
The line moves up the smallest bit and I feel bad for the cashier. It’s nearing closing time and I’m sure the last thing she wants to deal with is a string of people cramming up the line.
A tap on my shoulder has me looking behind me, but the guy I see is too far back to have touched me.
“Down here, Giant.”
Dropping my head I take in the tiny woman standing behind me with a bottle of wine in one hand a gallon of ice cream in the other. I recognize her immediately as Alba’s right-hand woman and friend.
“Astrid, right?”
“Yep. So, are you back for good now?”
My brow wrinkles at her question, wondering why it’s important to her. “Um, yeah. I had some family stuff to deal with, but I’m back. Why don’t you go in front of me? I have a lot more than you.”
“Oh,” she smiles gratefully, “thank you.” She wiggles her body between my cart and the shelf of candy bars. She tugs her bottom lip between her teeth and lets it go. I can see the nerves vibrating off of her. “This isn’t my place,” she looks around like someone might overhear, “but be careful with her.”
“With who?”
“Alba.” She rolls her eyes like I’m so dumb for not realizing who she was referring. “She’s a good person and she cares a lot about the people in her life. She deserves everything and I know she likes you even if she won’t admit it. So, be careful with her. If you’re not interested in her in that way then stay away from her but you need to be there for—” She squeezes her eyes shut. “Shut up, Astrid, it’s not yours to tell,” she mutters to herself. “Anyway, just be careful.”
“I am.” Now she’s the one looking confused. “Interested in her, I mean. But she told me she has a boyfriend.”
Astrid lets out a pig-like snort. “Trust me, Alba doesn’t have a boyfriend. The closest she’s come in years is the weird little flirtation you two have.” She wiggles her fingers at me, nearly dropping her wine bottle in the process.
“She doesn’t?”
Why is hope filling my chest? It shouldn’t matter. She shouldn’t matter. But here I am.
“Nope.” Astrid places her two items on the conveyer belt as we finally get close to being able to checkout. “She’s as single as a pringle—extra crisp too because she needs to get laid.” She deepens her tone on the word laid and does a dramatic fanfare with her hands. “Trust me, she’d be a lot easier to deal with.”
I crack a smile, amused by the tiny woman in front of me and her antics.
She doesn’t say anything else to me as the cashier finishes with the man in front of her and rings up her two items. Astrid pays and grabs her bags, but doesn’t leave immediately, turning to me where I work on getting the last of my shit out of the cart.
“Don’t be mad at her when you find out.”
I narrow my eyes. “Huh?”
“Just remember what I said.”
She hurries toward the exit and disappears. I know by the time I get checked out and to the parking lot she’ll be long gone and I won’t be able to question what she means.
That doesn’t mean it’ll stop me from puzzling it over all night long.
Drinking my coffee, I stare across the street at Alba’s shop. The crimson red script spells out Between the Lines. Thoughts swim through my head, all centering around the curvy dark-haired beauty and wondering why she’d lie about a boyfriend. More so, I wish understood Astrid’s cryptic statement to not be mad when I find out. Find out what? Astrid told me the boyfriend thing was a lie so what else could she be referring to?
“Whatcha thinking about man?” Harry, one of the artists that works in my shop, steps up beside me, following my eyes out the window. He chuckles, running his fingers through his ice blond hair. “Still hung up on that chick after all this time?”
“I’m looking out a window,” I deadpan.
He rolls his neck back and forth cracking it. “I’m not dumb. You had a thing for her before. If you asked me, she always liked you too. Fiery that one. You should go for it.”
Was it that obvious to everyone but Alba and me?
I blink at Harry. He’s not someone I know all that well, he works at the shop and we’ve been to the bar together a few times, but we’ve never talked much and definitely not about Alba.
“Hey,” he says when I don’t say anything, tossing his hands in the air, “who am I to tell you what to do?”
I allow my eyes to linger across the street a few seconds longer before tearing them away and getting my station ready for my first client.
I’ve been lucky that in the short time I’ve been back several past clients have been eager to book me for new work. Already I have the next three weeks fully booked and since I need the money I’m not complaining.
When my first client shows up for a simple quote on her inner forearm I sit down and get to work. The feel of the gun buzzing between my fingers is a familiar reminder that life goes on. My brother’s life ended but mine hasn’t and that means I have to get out there and do something about it.
Two clients later and it’s already time to break for lunch. Heading out, I grab a cigarette and stick it between my lips. I don’t light it. Not because I don’t want to, but because I owe it to my brother to try to quit. He always used to gripe about them giving me cancer. Little did we know that it’d be my health nut baby brother who got sick instead.
Nothing in life is guaranteed—particularly life itself.
Tossing the unused cigarette into a trashcan I pull open the door for the local ice cream shop. There are only a few people in line so I take a look at the menu deciding what kind of sandwich and ice cream I want. I’ve always had a terrible sweet tooth, another bad habit I should try to kick, but today’s not that day.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” I know the voice, only because I think about it way too often. Peeking over my shoulder I meet the fuming eyes of Alba. “How are you always everywhere?”