Page 59 of Guarding Glenda

Jesus Christ.

The rest of the ride was quiet. I wasn’t trying to boss her around. But saying that again didn’t seem smart. She was already edgy when we left the clinic and was quick to argue. I replayed it all as I drove to the store, as she requested.

Honestly, I was glad to go get groceries, regardless of who was prepping food. I ate out sometimes, but not like the last couple weeks. I didn’t want to leave the house when she was still out, and couldn’t leave once she was up. Sure, Linny came by, but what the fuck could she do if Glenda fell or something, besides call someone for help? Bruce would need more food again soon and could use some treats for all the excitement. He was a good dog, but not used to all the company.

She was still going through a lot of shit and she chose to be with me. I was gonna have to let this slide until we could really talk.

We finally arrived at the grocery store, and it was busy as shit. “There’s no good parking spots. Want me to drop you at the door and I’ll go park?”

She was still staring out the window. “I can walk.”

Goddamn. “Fine. I’d rather you walk with me anyway.”

I parked in the first space I found then jumped out to go open her door. She jumped down without taking my help. I slammed the door but grabbed her hand.

She didn’t fight me. Instead, she held my hand and walked at my pace, which was moderately funny because she was so short and had to move those little legs fast to keep up.

We made it to the front and I grabbed a buggy so I had to let go of her hand. I hated every minute of it, but neither of us could push it around holding hands. Plus, I was going to do things for her if it killed us both.

“Where to first?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I guess we can just start over there and work our way around.”

I turned the buggy to the right and headed to produce as instructed. She thoughtfully looked over items, so I had to encourage her to grab whatever she wanted. Once we were halfway through the store, she added some baking supplies to the buggy. Once I pushed it, she was standing a bit closer to me than before.

Annoyed at the distance, I grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, then put our clasped hands on the bar to push.

“What are you doing? I’ll just have to grab something”

I said, “You can tell me what you want, and I’ll get it with my other hand.”

“You’re so ridiculous.”

But when I looked over, she was fighting a grin, those dimples giving her away.

She loosened up a bit, and we made it through the store. I did have to let go for the dog food, but immediately fixed that before we kept going. Once we made it to checkout, though, we both let go and started adding things to the conveyor belt.

“Sheesh, how did we even get this all in the buggy?” she asked.

“It was pretty barren back at the house. Good thing we came by.”

It took ages to be rung up and the person bagging did a good job, but packing it back in the buggy was a sight. I started to wonder how we managed to get it all in, too.

After paying and managing to make it to the truck without dropping anything, I loaded the bed up and she climbed in.

The ride back to the house was still quiet, but the air between us was less tense. She rolled the window down and turned her face towards the opening. Her eyes were closed and her dirty blonde hair whipped in the wind.

It wasn’t dark but the sun was setting fast and the sky was a mixture of orange, pink, and purple. The air was cool. The radio was playing hit after hit. Everything was perfect.

Or would be, if I knew what was bugging her.

Once we pulled in, I asked her to go let Bruce out since he’d been cooped up all day and gave her the keys.

I got half the load, filling my arms with bags and trudged up the steps. I dropped those off and went back for the other bags, then made one last trip out for the dog food and drinks.

She was unpacking bags as I dropped the huge bag of dog food then put the sodas and beer on the counter.

“Why don’t you go sit down. I’ll bring you a beer in a minute, if you want one.”