Page 46 of Trying Sophie

“Oh,” I exhaled.

“Oh,” he repeated.

Standing in the middle of Tesco staring at each other, my heart thudded heavily in my chest. Declan O’Shaughnessy had just admitted he liked the way I smelled while touching my hair.

Again, the thought skittered through my brain.

Oh, indeed.

A bottle shattered in the next aisle over, breaking the spell and snapping me out of my stupor.

“Um, okay,” I said nervously. “I’ll take this one then.”

I tossed it in my cart and studied the shopping list gripped tight in my hand, the ink having turned blurry from my sweaty palms.

“So um, that’s it then,” I stammered. “I should probably check out.”

Declan glanced into his cart and nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ve got everything I came in for too.”

“Alright then, I’m just gonna …”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Okay then.”

Neither of us moved. We remained standing there, staring at each other like fools in the middle of a supermarket aisle.

“One of us should probably go first,” he said on a small chuckle.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I agreed, shaking my head.

More silence. More staring.

“Is it just me, or has this become pretty fucking awkward?”

“Ha ha!” I barked out a little too loudly. Then, tempering my volume, I said, “No, it’s not just you.”

Pointing to the cashier to my left, I said, “I’ll take this one and you take that one,” indicating the open lane at the other end of the store.

Ten minutes later when we exited at the same time, Declan let me precede him out the doors.

“I’m over this way,” I said, notching my head to the right.

“Me too,” he answered. “Under the street lamp.”

“Me too,” I said, wondering if he’d recognized my car when he’d pulled up.

“What a coincidence.” He smirked.

“You knew that’s my car, didn’t you?”

“I might have.”

“But you didn’t know I was here? Before?” I slanted my head and tried to read his reaction.

He laughed. “No, how would I have known that?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “But we seem to be running into each other an awful lot lately. I still think you might be stalking me.”

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