Page 57 of After All This Time

He shakes his head, mouth gaping open. “I thought you said it was a small list.

“It is a small list.”

He walks over to me, grabbing the list out of my hand. “This is two pages long, Dani.”

“It’s a small notepad.”

“It’s still two pages long.”

“Will you just get what I told you to get?”

“It’s a good thing you’re not lactose intolerant.”

“Noah!”

“I’m going.”

When we’re done getting what we need in the dairy section, I make my way to the deli which is on the other side of the store. We missed the cut-off to get freshly cut meat and cheese, but it’s fine.

I’m standing in front of a refrigerator full of various meats and cheeses that are pre-sliced and packaged in Ziploc bags.

I turn to Noah. “What deli meats do you eat?”

“Does it really matter? I’m a guy. I’ll eat pretty much anything.”

“Oh, that’s right. I totally forgot.”

“How did you forget?”

“Sometimes you act like a girl,” I blurt out and immediately cover my mouth with my hand.

“Take that back.”

“I don’t think I will.”

It takes us around thirty minutes until we finally make it to the self-checkout line. Our cart is pretty full which is good because it means we won’t have to come back here for a while.

I stand in front of the scanner. “Stand next to me.”

“I am standing next to you.”

“On the other side of me, dumbass. I need you to bag the groceries.”

He sucks his lips inwards, looking up at the ceiling and moving to the other side of me. “Are you just going to keep staring at me or are you going to start scanning everything, so we can go back to the house?”

I bite down on my tongue and scan the groceries at lightning speed which I can see is making Noah dizzy.

“Okay, slow down there Wario.”

“You said you want to get out of here,” I say.

“Yeah, but I’m a human. I’m not a machine. I can only go so fast.” His tone is high-pitched.

“Stop complaining.”

Once I finish scanning the groceries and bagging them up, we head out.

When we make it to the car, I open up the hatch.

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