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TWENTY-ONE

GROCERY STORE HELL

Natalie

My version of hell? The grocery store the days leading up to Thanksgiving. And anyone who disagreed with me was just flat wrong.

I parked at the back of the lot and stood near the trunk, staring at the front doors and the hoards of people constantly going in and out.

I braced myself with a few deep breaths and started the long walk. All I needed was a few cans of pumpkin and graham crackers. We were having a potluck at work, and I had everything else for the recipe, yet those two ingredients were nowhere to be found.

This was my third grocery store. And if I didn’t find them there, I was giving up on pumpkin pie cheesecake bars.

I bypassed the carts, not even stopping to grab a basket, and beelined straight for the canned foods. Weaving between people and their carts, I nearly collided with a tower of boxed stuffing mix when a group of children came out of nowhere. I choked down the curse that nearly flew out of my mouth and continued down the aisle until I could see the shelf I needed.

The shelf that was surrounded by at least a dozen other shoppers.

Patiently, I waited for people to clear and considered the millions of things I’d rather be doing at that moment.

Like waxing my eyebrows or doing my taxes.

At least I had something to look forward to after I was done.

The other day, I’d surprised Theo by dropping to my knees the moment he stepped through the door. He’d returned the favor by eating me like his favorite meal on the kitchen table. But it was afterward, while we were cooking and discussing our days, that he said he wanted to do something together.

Outside of the house.

I was reasonably hesitant and proceeded to argue that it was an unnecessary risk. I was nervous as hell that we’d be spotted by someone one of us knew and it would get back to Ryder.

But Theo wasn’t taking no for an answer. He said he had a plan, and I should be ready at seven thirty. I had no idea what his plan entailed, except that we would be leaving the house.

We were going on a date. He hadn’t called it a date, but I figured that’s what it was. Although a date also blurred those lines that were seeming more and more vague every day.

Too caught up in my Theo-filled thoughts, I nearly missed my opportunity to squeeze between a few people in front of the pie filling. But I managed to snag two cans of pumpkin and slip out without colliding with anyone else.

I hurried down to the other end of the aisle and stopped in front of the graham crackers. The shelves were already sparse, so the choices were limited.

As I scanned for the regular crackers, a woman several feet away at the end of the aisle caught my attention. With so many people crowded in the small space, I didn’t understand why she stood out until I glanced at her in my peripheral twice and realized she was, in fact, staring directly at me.

I looked ahead and tried to ignore her stare, but my curiosity got the better of me. I peeked in her direction again. Her eyes were still fixed on me, and the longer I stood there, the more uncomfortable I became.

Mentally, I considered my hair, my outfit, my face and wondered what, if anything, could be out of place. Her unwavering attention made me more and more self-conscious as the seconds ticked by.

One final glance, and I noted her brown hair, faded jeans and large sweater. And her openly hostile expression. My fight or flight response was flaring to life, and I didn’t want to fight in the middle of the damn grocery store. I wasn’t really a fighter anyway.

Flight it was.

Quickly, I reached for the first box of crackers and almost dropped the cans in my hands. But I managed to keep a hold of everything as I turned to quickly escape.

Except I ran directly into the woman I was trying to avoid. In the two seconds my attention was elsewhere, she’d managed to walk around to my other side and stop less than a foot away from me.

“Oh, shit,” I mumbled, stopping short only an inch or two before I ran straight into her. “Excuse me.”

I pivoted to step around her, hoping she’d give up and move along, but she didn’t. She stepped to the side as I did. I tried the other side, and she mimed the action.

Fuck my life. I had no idea who this woman was or what she wanted with me.

“Umm…” I stuttered. I was way out of my depth and had no idea what to do. Turn around and try to walk away? Confront her?

But I didn’t have to make the decision.

“Natalie Calaway,” she said, and my full name was the last thing I expected to hear. Apparently, she knew me, at least. I’d tried to refrain from making eye contact like she was a damn wild animal. But hearing my name made me look up.

“How…?” I began, and her smile was condescending.

“I have my ways, but the better question is,” she continued, tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes. “Do you make it a habit of taking advantage of young men?”

“Wha—” I started, only to be immediately cut off by her sharp voice.

“Don’t play dumb. You know what I’m talking about,” she said. She crossed her arms over her chest and planted her feet like she was prepared to wait as long as it took for me to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

My mind reeled, and I was struggling to put together a single, coherent thought. It wasn’t every day that a random woman approached you in the grocery store, knowing exactly who you were and looking for a fight.

Except she wasn’t a random woman. She raised her eyebrows expectantly and tucked a lock of her curly brown hair behind her ear. I’d seen that look before, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t instantly noticed the resemblance.

I straightened my spine and tried to make myself appear taller. She had at least a few inches on me, and I was already intimidated.

“Kim. You’re Theo’s mom,” I said, and she nodded her approval. Now that I’d figured it out, it felt obvious. The eyes, the hair, the facial expressions were all so similar to her son’s.

I immediately liked them better on him. On her, they were hollow and dismissive.

“Great, now that we know each other, we can move on to the real reason I’m here.”

Irritation swept through me at her condescending tone. Not normally a confrontational person, I still couldn’t hold my tongue. “You mean you don’t make a habit of confronting random women in the grocery store?”

Surprise flitted across her face, but it was gone in the next second. I was happy I’d caught her off guard, but she was still standing in front of me, so I hadn’t ruffled her feathers as much as I would have liked.

I didn’t even know this woman, yet I despised her for the pain and torment she’d put Theo through. I was angry on his behalf.

“Interesting,” she mused. “Anyway, I know my son is staying with you. I’m not sure how that happened, but I need you to undo it.”

That anger roiling through me was simmering closer and closer to the surface the longer she stood there. She knew how and why Theo had ended up living with me. And she knew it was her fault.

However, the last thing Theo wanted was for her to know where he was. Or that he was staying with me. He kept all comments about his mom very brief, but he had told me that if she ever found him, she wasn’t likely to leave us alone. Ever.

“Don’t look at me like my request is unreasonable. My son is pulling further and further away from me, and I’m sure, as a mother yourself, you understand how difficult that is. So, if you could just send him on his way, that would be great. I will take it from there.”

“Are you really asking me to kick him out? With nowhere else to go? All because he’s not giving you?—”

She raised her hand and firmly said, “No,” loud enough that a few people around us turned to look.

Money , I finished in my head.

“He will have somewhere to go. He’ll come back home and live with me.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but she took a step closer, crowding my space and leaving me little choice but to back up into the shelves.

“And before you try to argue, you should know that I know what the two of you have been doing. I also know you’re struggling to keep it a secret. If I figured it out, how long do you think it’ll take before everyone else does? So let me make this really easy for you. If you do not kick my son out of your damn house, there will be consequences. Maybe I’ll tell your son that you’ve been fucking his best friend. Or maybe I’ll just make your lives hell until you finally give in. Either way, I want my kid back.”

She didn’t wait for a response. She merely turned like she hadn’t just threatened to blow up our entire lives and strutted back down the aisle.

I didn’t move until she was out of sight. And even then, it took me several seconds to wrap my mind around what had just occurred.

She’d threatened me. In broad daylight with a ton of witnesses. Although no one noticed anything out of the ordinary, all of them were too caught up in their own shopping to realize what was happening. To realize that I was shaking.

It wasn’t until a woman kindly asked me to move so she could get a box of graham crackers behind me that I was able to overcome some of the shock and surprise. I handed her mine and replaced the pumpkin on the shelf before I beelined for the front door. I wasn’t hanging around long enough to try to navigate the checkout lines that were wrapping around the place.

My head was on a swivel, and I knew I looked paranoid, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Kim was still watching me.

I didn’t stop until I was sliding into the driver’s seat of my car and locked the doors. My heart was racing, and my mind was struggling to keep up. My first instinct was to call Theo and tell him that his mother was on a rampage. And to revel in the calm he created. But I couldn’t, I knew that much.

I was still scanning the parking lot when my phone vibrated. I glanced down and saw Theo’s name appear. My breath caught in my throat as I opened it.

Theo: Be ready by 7:30.

Without hesitation, I responded.

Me: I’m still not sure this is a good idea.

Actually, I was absolutely positive it wasn’t a good idea at all. It was a horrible idea, only made worse by what just occurred.

Theo: I promise no one will recognize us.

Theo: I have a plan.

I squinted down at my phone screen, my fingers hovering over the keyboard, and contemplated how to get out of this date.

Knowing their history and how he’d reacted when his mom came into Haven City almost a month before, I didn’t want to tell him about my run-in with her. The effect it had on him wasn’t something I ever wished to witness again. The hurt radiating from him was too much to bear.

So, I wouldn’t tell him.

At least not yet.

Going out together was already a bad idea—who knows who we could run into and what questions they would ask. But now that his mom knew and was eager to break us up, to make our lives hell as she put it, I wouldn’t put it past her to do whatever was necessary to make that happen.

And outing us was one easy way to make that hell our reality.

Still considering how I could convince him that leaving the house wasn’t the best idea, my phone buzzed again.

Theo: Please.

My heart dropped into my stomach, and my forehead connected with the steering wheel.

Theo: Trust me.

I groaned into the silent car. Trust wasn’t the issue. I trusted Theo implicitly, which was already terrifying enough.

I didn’t trust other people. I didn’t trust Kim.

She seemed like the type of woman to make good on the promises she’d made. She was desperate enough.

But I knew how much this meant to him. How much he wanted to get out of the house and act normal.

I hoped one night wouldn’t hurt. One night and I’d worry about blowing our world up with the truth tomorrow.

There was always tomorrow.