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It pained me to hand it over to her, knowing that she would be eating with another man. Alas, that was just my luck. She was off to cook steak for another man. The only thing I could hope for was that he wouldn’t like her cooking and dump her on the spot.
“I really appreciate this.”
“Hey, if it doesn’t work out, you can always come to me. I’ll teach you how to make steak for him.”
What the fuck are you doing? Now you’re offering to show her how to cook for another man? You’re the stupidest asshole on the planet!
“I might take you up on that,” she smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear again.
God, what I wouldn’t give to feel her fingers in my hair. I backed away, holding up my steaks. “I should get home before another beautiful woman takes these from me.”
Shoot me now. I turned back to the cart, tossing the steaks inside. I could have invited her over for dinner, but no, I led her straight into another man’s steak-loving arms.
Brock pushed his cart over, frowning as he looked at the meager amount of meat in my cart. “That’s all you got?”
I looked over my shoulder, watching the woman with the blonde hair disappear around the corner. “Yeah, I got sidetracked by a beautiful woman.”
“Yeah? Did you get her number?”
“No.”
“She turned you down?”
“I never got the chance,” I grumbled, grabbing more meat for the cart. “She was meeting her oil tanker friend later. She’s making him steak.”
“Ooh,” he hissed. “That’s…”
“I know. It’s just as bad as if he were a mechanic. How’s a guy supposed to compete with that?”
He slapped me on the shoulder, gripping me tight. “You can’t. All you can do is move on and try not to think about her anymore. Face it, she’s gone. You never stood a chance.”
I shook my head, pushing the cart away. “Stupid fucking oil tanker.”
2
LAURA
I rushed inside,plopping the grocery bags down on the counter. I had only an hour before Andrew got in and I had no time to get the house clean before then. The sour cream rolled out of the bag, nearly falling on the floor, but I dove for it, catching it in my palm before it could crash to the ground.
“Ha! Gotcha!” I said in victory, feeling like I’d finally gotten something right today. Rolling over, I held the sour cream in the air, wincing at my bruised elbow.
My roommate Lee walked into the kitchen, staring at me with a blank face. “What are you doing on the floor?”
“Rescuing a tub of sour cream before it bit the dust.”
She sighed heavily, walking over to the coffee pot, pouring the leftovers from this morning. “What’s the point? If you’d let it fall, it would have ended this horrible existence and moved onto a peaceful life.”
“In the landfill?” I asked.
She turned to me with her cold cup and stared blankly. “Down the drain. It’s practically a liquid. What would be the point of throwing it away?”
“Yes, what was I thinking?” I asked, shoving off the floor.
She walked over to my bags and started rummaging through them. “What’s all this for?”
“Andrew’s coming home tonight. I’m making him dinner.”
“Right, the guy that you’re not seeing.”