Page 14 of Totally Opposed

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I walk the distance to the grocer by Gramps’s place after training is finished and start filling a cart. I start with the essentials to not forget them. He’d have a fit if Precious didn’t have her expensive food pouches and salmon treats. Kelly was right about him preferring me to do his shopping, mostly because, like she said, I get him all his favorites, so basically, all the unhealthy things she refuses to get him. I figure he’s old, so he’s lived a long enough life doing what he’s doing, and if he wants to eat a few Chips Ahoy with his cup of tea and start the day with a bowl of Lucky Charms, who am I to stop him? I grab the cereal first, and when I see they have an offer to buy two, get one free, I load up.

“Cat food and Lucky Charms. Okay, so you have a cat and a massive sweet tooth,” Ryan says, suddenly leaning over my cart.

“It’s for my gramps. He doesn’t get out much, so I do his shopping.”

Ryan’s cheeky smile softens. “That’s sweet of you.”

“Thanks. Wait, did you follow me?”

His face flushes a pretty shade of pink, but he shakes his head.

“No, I live up the road now. I moved in with Duckie and Ian.”

“You took Harry’s old room?” I ask, pushing the cart forward to head towards the biscuit section.

“Yeah. It’s been…interesting. I mean, they are pretty quiet guys, not that you would know it. The place is filled with ducks, like there is one in every corner. I thought I was going mad because it was like they were multiplying, but then Duckie got another package of them, and the bottom fell out while he was taking it to his room. There were like fifty red and white ducks strewn across the floor.”

“He can get a little obsessed.”

“Yeah, but he’s not the funniest thing I have to live with.”

“Really?” I ask, half hoping he’s about to tell me Ian sleepwalks or something, anything other than the words that I’m pretty sure are about to come out of his mouth.

“There is this old guy that lives across from me.”

Here we go.

“He’s always sitting at his window with his cup of tea and chocolate biscuits, checking out the street with binoculars like he’s some detective on a stakeout. Only this guy’s partner is a cat that I was pretty sure was dead the first time he held it up.” Yep, he’s totally talking about Gramps.

“Yeah, old people can be funny,” I say, grabbing a few of the different chocolate biscuit varieties and dropping them into the cart. My gran was from the UK, and growing up, Gramps used tocorrect Gran every time she called cookies biscuits, but after she passed, he never called them cookies again. I have no idea when I stopped calling them cookies and starting only calling them biscuits too.

“He’s hilarious. Asked me the first time I met him why I don’t play real baseball. Oh and don’t even get me started on the sound his cat makes in the middle of the night. I swear it’s like a demon has possessed it.”

Precious hates me. The demon cat hisses at me the second Gramps opens the door, and if it doesn’t attack me, it’s threatening to the entire time I’m there. I reach across from Ryan, grab the big packet of black tea bags, and put them in the cart, too.

His gaze moves down to the cart, across the contents, and then back up to me.

“Where did you say your Gramps’s place is again?”

Chapter seven

Ryan

When I spotted Alanin the corner grocer, I thought this was my chance to chat in a totally neutral setting. I mean, it has the potential for a really adorable meet cute. Except my life rarely goes the way of romance movies, no matter how much I wish it would, and instead of the sweetest interaction in the world that makes him fall in love with me instantly, I bag out his grandfather in the first minute of conversation.

Alan grabs another couple of packs of chocolate biscuits and puts them in his cart. “Gramps gave Harry a hard time, too. Sorry,” he says moving slowly down the aisle.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine. Has he asked you to buy curtains yet?”

“The first day I moved in, and every day since.”

“Yeah, he tries to convince me to break in and install them whenever I’m at his place, too.”

“I was going to get some, but there is so little light that comes in as it is, and I like having the window open to catch the breeze.”

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