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“Of course, Mr. Apollo. I would be honored to join your world tour.”
Chapter 10
Thalia
Ithadbeenthelongest day in the history of my life. I certainly hadn’t woken up that morning thinking I’d be leaving to go on tour soon with one of the world’s biggest rock stars. But there was no backing out now. The rest of the day had been a blur of phone calls and preparations for my career move.
As I told my mom when I called her earlier in the day, I was painfully aware that every decision I made didn’t just impact me, but also Luna. I was fortunate to have her and my sister as a support system, and she assured me they could handle Luna while I was away.
Another bonus, Sadie informed me, was that the new position came with a substantial pay raise while I was out on the road. I was shocked at the number and realized it would go a long way toward helping me provide for Luna. I had grand delusions that the extra money could even help me move us out of the apartment and into a house, although it would certainly be tight.
But I pushed all of that from my mind as I picked Luna up and we headed to the grocery store. I was beyond grateful that my friend Pat was able to get my car up and running with a new battery, so I strapped Luna into her seat and we were off. I decided that given the events of the day, we deserved a, admittedly very tiny, splurge. So we went to theslightlynicer grocery store in town. I wasn’t so careless with my money to go to the expensive, fancy store.
“We’re here!” I told her as we stopped in front of a clean and inviting grocery store. I had never seen Luna’s eyes shine so brightly at the sight of the countless varieties of products through the panoramic windows of the store.
Luna was absolutely giddy, jumping up and down in place.
“Mommy, come on, let’s go!” She pulled on my hand with her adorable little arms and, man, was she strong for a four-year-old. Like an ant hauling a stick, she pulled me into the grocery store. But I wasn’t really fighting back either.
“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” I chuckled, pulling one of the grocery carts. The wheels didn’t stick or squeak and the floor was smooth and brightly polished. I hadn’t been to this store in years.
“God, rich people have it good,” I muttered under my breath as Luna started to pull me toward the produce section. She started naming off all the different fruits she saw and as we moved through the store, Luna’s squeals of delight peeled through the space.
There were some things we both wanted to try that weren’t usually stocked at our typical budget supermarket and so we each picked out a couple of new treats.
I had to keep an eye on Luna unless I wanted to see an entire pyramid of canned goods fall over because she was being such a busybody, it was hard to keep track of her. I was so focused on keeping ourselves out of trouble that I didn’t realize the change in our environment.
“Mommy, I want to try this! Can I have it?” Luna asked, voice booming throughout the aisles. Not only that, it echoed throughout the entire place, and it was then that I noticed the lack of sound coming from people. This whole place seemed busy earlier, now it was like a ghost town.
“Uh, sure, Luna, put it in the cart,” I replied, though I wasn’t really fully paying attention to her. I looked around the ends of the aisles and saw no other people passing by. I couldn’t hear footsteps or people talking at all. It was so eerie that it almost scared me. For a split second, I set my sights on Luna again, but I only saw her happily browsing through the colorful rainbow cereals on the lower part of the shelves, quite unaware that it seemed like the only people in this middle-class grocery store were just us in a matter of minutes.
I looked back and forth at the end of the aisles again, and at the last second, two very burly men clad in all black with shades and an in-ear earpiece stood and nodded at me. My heart quickened almost instantly when I recognized that those two meatheads were part of the security team of none other than…
“You know, I wouldn’t think you’d take this long to choose a cereal,” Damian’s smooth, husky voice filled my ears, making me immediately turn around. I yelped as he stood right next to me, holding a canister of oatmeal. He didn’t have a basket or cart, but he looked at me with his deep blue eyes, brimming with confidence. His full lips were tugged up into a smirk and I could just make out his perfectly white teeth. “Aren’t they all the same?”
I was stunned. Absolutely speechless. But my mind started to fit all the pieces together. The reason why the grocery store suddenly fell silent was because Damian was here. Being an international sensation, it was probably a luxury for him to be able to roam around in such a public place like this, which led me to believe that his entire security team had a huge influence in shaving down the number of people inside this place.
Did I want him to go away? Kind of. That wasn’t going to happen, though. For one, there was no way that I had any say in what he could or could not do in this situation. For another, I knew I would kind of feel bad if he did leave. As I said, this must be a rare thing for him, and it felt weird pitying him for not being able to do something as usual and mundane as grocery shopping, but I really couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stop any of this, actually, so I did what I had to do… even if my heart was about to burst out of my chest. Man, wouldn’t that have been a scene?
I took the canister of oats from his hand, placing it in my cart.
“I think if that’s the way you see it, you haven’t spent much time grocery shopping.” I tried not to soundtoosnarky, but also tried to keep my cool and not act shocked over his sudden presence. “And this is oatmeal. Not cereal.”
God, I was talking about something as boring as cereal with Damian Apollo. My heart twisted at the fact this is what I always wanted with him. I wanted the boring, I wanted the chores, I just wanted a life with him.
Damian scoffed, but still retained his signature smirk. “And I suppose you’re some kind of grocery store expert or something?”
I rolled my eyes.
“It doesn’t take an expert to realize one is cereal and the other is oats.”
“But it says ‘hot cereal’ on the package.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped past my lips. This was all so strange.
Wait…
I stopped my cart in my tracks. Did he follow me here?
