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It only takes about fifteen minutes to gather everything I need. The kid at the register is a pimply-faced teenager with a nametag that reads Zane.
He handles my groceries with much more speed than the last girl. I’m grateful because I can feel a few pairs of wandering eyes on me, and it takes everything in me to not tell them to mind their own damn business.
It amazes me how many people will openly stare and gawk in this town. As a foster kid, I learned to keep my head down and not stare at anything for too long for fear of what I might see.
Zane finishes bagging everything for me, and I head toward the exit.
Home free.
But I’m not quite that lucky. Arlene almost runs straight into me.
She looks like she’s about to haul off and punch me, but when it registers who I am, her lips curl into a devil-like grin.
“Andi,” she says.
It doesn’t take long to figure out what she’s playing at. A woman comes walking up next to her.
And by woman, I mean a goddess in human form.
She stands a whole head taller than me and has legs that practically come up to my neck. She looks like a fucking Amazonian or something.
She has long, blonde hair that is ridiculously shiny and cascades down her back in beautiful blonde waves.
And she’s thin. Not overly so, but we certainly don’t share any of the same jiggly bits.
If you were to look up polar opposites in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of this woman right next to a picture of me.
Arlene jumps in, “I’d like you to meet Nicole.”
Although I had a feeling of who this blonde bombshell was, hearing Arlene say it makes it hard to breathe.
I can’t help but notice how much she resembles the woman Michael had his affair with. Both are gorgeous, although I have to say Nicole’s beauty seems more natural than Stacy's.
Arlene interrupts my thoughts once again. “You know…Nicole…the one Jonas was hung up on for so long. Hell, he’s probably still hung up on her.”
Nicole turns and gives her friend a cross look for a brief moment before turning back to me with a smile.
She holds out her hand to me. “I’m sorry about my friend. She’s clearly out of line and out of her mind. I’m Nicole, and it’s really nice to meet you, Andi.”
There's a warmth to her that you don’t feel from too many people.
Trying to find my ‘I’m a badass bitch’ confidence, I take her hand and shake it.
“Nice to finally meet you,” I say in a voice that I barely recognize.
“Likewise. I’m so happy that you and Jonas found each other.” Her accent is sweeter than a pitcher of that Southern sweet tea everyone is always raving about.
I try to detect any hint of condescension to her words…any hint of jealousy…but there is none.
Nothing.
Nothing except genuine kindness.
Great. She’s beautiful, AND she’s nice.
“I’ll see you around, okay?” She smiles a smile full of pearly whites. It looks like she’s got a hundred of those things crammed in there.
“Okay,” I manage to say with a smile.
