Page 6 of The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie
“I’d be happy to help you sort through while we’re waiting?” Eliza offers.
“No, that’s really… That’s not…”
But Eliza is already reaching into my cart, rifling through my potential purchases. “I’m sure we can get rid of one of these. Do you really need…” She picks up a box from the cart. “Lice shampoo?”
Oh my God. I didnotrealize that was lice shampoo! Although now that she mentions it, there is a drawing of a dead insect on the bottle. I thought the insect just meant the shampoo was all natural.
“Oops,” I say. “You’re absolutely right. I don’t need lice shampoo. So I’ll just put that back…”
But Eliza isn’t listening to me. She is looking through the other items in my cart, and now her fingers are resting on the bottle of prenatal vitamins. She lifts her eyes, which are wide with slightly clouded lenses. “Alice, are you…?”
“Oh my gosh!” I clutch my chest in a show of fake surprise. “Prenatalvitamins? I thought those were just regular women’s multivitamins! What a stupid mistake! They should really label them better!”
“It says prenatal vitamins right on the label in big pink letters,” she points out.
I try to laugh. “I just sawvitamins.”
“And it says for baby brain support.”
“I should really read the labels more carefully, shouldn’t I?”
“And there’s a picture of a pregnant woman on it!”
I yank the bottle of prenatal vitamins out of Eliza‘s hand, hoping to finally shut her up. “You know what? I’ll go put these back. And the lice shampoo. Can you watch my cart please?”
“Yes, I can,” Eliza says, “but I can’t hold your place in line if your turn comes up.”
Of course she can’t. “I promise, I’ll just be a minute.”
I don’t know what to do at this point. The prenatal vitamins were the only reason I came to the supermarket in the first place. I don’t want to leave without them, but if I get back in line to buy them, Eliza will figure out my secret. And that woman is a huge gossip.
So I do what I have to do. I put back the two items, knowing that I’ll have to make a second trip later to purchase the vitamins. It’s worth it to keep my private business from being spread all over town. And anyway, I can only purchase ten items.
I hurry back to the cashiers to make sure not to lose my place. But as I am approaching the checkout line, my eyes are drawn tothe large windows by the exit. When I was standing in line, all I saw through that window was the parking lot outside the store. But now I see something else.
Or should I say,somebodyelse. There’s a familiar-looking man standing by the window, his blue eyes staring into the supermarket. He is wearing an expensive business suit, and his blond hair is immaculately styled. His gaze is unmistakably pointed in my direction. And this time, when our eyes meet, he doesn’t look away.
It feels like an icy cold hand has gripped my heart inside my chest. I look over at Eliza, who is flipping through an overpriced magazine she found at the checkout aisle.
“Eliza,” I hiss.
She lifts her eyes from a photograph of the royal family. “What’s wrong?”
“Do you see that man over there by the windows?”
Eliza squints in the direction that I’m pointing. “Yes…”
“Doesn’t he look just like Grant?”
She blinks at me. “Like Grant? What on earth do you mean, Alice? He doesn’t look anything like Grant.”
I swivel my head back in the direction of the window, ready to plead my case, but then I stop short. There is a man standing in front of the window with a sack of groceries, but he has gray hair and a potbelly. Eliza is right—he doesn’t look anything like Grant. But there was another man standing there a minute ago. I’m sure of it.
“I have to go,” I gulp.
“But, Alice!” Eliza exclaims. “You can’t just leave your cart with all the items! You have to put them all back in the proper locations!”
But I’m not listening to Eliza. I squeeze through the checkout line sans groceries, and I sprint through the automatic doors so quickly they almost don’t open in time for me. I finally burst intothe parking lot, gasping for air. I search the lot, scanning every row for the man with the expensive business suit and blond hair.
