Page 132 of Dear Future Husband

“Scoot, Belles, scoot! They close in less than five minutes!”

“I’m trying. We just need the cheese.”

Catapulting myself across our shopping cart, I launched at the cheese sitting on the top shelf.

“Alright, package secured,” I announced, and Penny snorted.

“Fall out then, before we get locked in here and have to build lives for ourselves like Natalie Portman in thatWhere the Heart Ismovie.”

I stopped right there, in the middle of the grocery store aisle. Another announced reminder over the loudspeakers saying the doors would close soon rang out. I ignored it to give my bestie a disgruntled look.

“That was such a beautiful movie based on a beautiful book, and that was main takeaway?”

Penny smiled too sweetly before she shoved me forward. “Nope, my main takeaway was to play safe with boys because they’ll end up abandoning you in the middle of nowhere, anyway.”

We were at a grocery store a little too far from home. Tomorrow Trey was coming home after he and the team had been gone for almost a week, playing back-to-backgames out of town. In celebration of both wins, them coming home, and the semester ending, I thought I’d make Chelsea’s famous lasagna for the boys.

Chelsea was a fancy gal, so, of course, her food was too. The lasagna called for specific ingredients that weren’t available at any of the local shopping spots. So, Penny, being the best friend that she is, came on a little ingredient scavenger hunt with me. Luckily, we found everything I needed at this random grocer just before closing.

We both hustled toward the self-checkout line and halted as we got to an open machine.

“Things not going well with Daniel?” I asked as Penny handed me the groceries and I scanned them.

“What? No, things between us are great. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. That was just a very pessimistic thing to say for a happy girl with a boyfriend.”

She stopped handing me items to look at me. “Daniel and I aren’t dating, Belles.”

I abruptly stopped as well to look at my friend. “What? Since when?”

“Since forever,” she said, handing me another item. “Danny and I are just friends.”

“Hmph,” I grunted, throwing the cheese into a bag. “Could’ve fooled me.” We both went quiet then. I finished scanning, paid, and we walked outside into the balmy night.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Penny said, interrupting the rhythmic sound of our feet clicking against the pavement. “I do like him—it’s just complicated.”

Nodding, I adjusted the few bags in my hands up onto my forearm. “What’s complicated about it?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s just… Oh, oh no.”

“What?”

She searched around herself, frantically checking her pockets. “Shoot. You wouldn’t happen to have myphone, do you?”

Leveling a sarcastic smirk at my friend, I said, “You had it when we walked into the store. Did you leave it in the bathroom when you used it?”

Groaning, Penny spun back toward the front of the building. “I bet it’s going to be a hassle trying to get them to open the doors for me. Ugh, I’ll be right back.”

I sniffed, continuing my approach of the vehicle that sat at the back of the vacant parking lot. Before Trey left, he had given me his car keys saying, “What’s mine is yours”.

Having been trusted with something as great as a car, I was overly cautious when I parked. Now, as I trudged the distance, I regretted trying to be extra safe with my boyfriend’s car.

When I made it to the Jeep, I set the grocery bags down next to the rear wheel and knotted my hands around the cross-body strap of my purse.

The parking lot was void of life besides me.

Still… There was a fraction of my subconscious feeling extremelytwitchy.