Page 46 of The Lies I've Told
How long had she been standing there?
“The car is filled up,” she said, dragging her eyes away from mine. “I came in to grab a few things myself.”
“Right,” I mumbled. “Of course.”
With a clenched fist, I watched her step past me as I headed for the counter, feeling like the world’s worst fool.
Setting my crackers on the counter, I quickly grabbed a bottle of water from a nearby cooler and set it down in front of me as well.
“My dad used to knock me around like that. Yours, too?” the cashier said, not bothering to look up at me as he rang up my purchases. He was an older gentleman with more gray on his head than brown. He sported several tattoos, most of them weathered from years gone by.
“Yeah,” I said. “Something like that.”
He didn’t say anything more, just let out a long sigh as he looked up at me and handed over the small plastic bag with my things inside. I saw it then—the same pain I saw when I gazed into a mirror too long or reminisced with James about our childhood after one too many drinks.
It was the same pain that little girl would carry for the rest of her life.
Like a goddamn brand.
“Thanks,” I said before I walked away, still shaken to my very core. I didn’t wait around for Millie to finish. Instead, I headed for the car and soaked up the silence inside for those precious few seconds as I tried to push away the past.
Thankfully, by the time Millie returned holding a giant paper bag, I’d regained some of my composure. Seeing her fumble her way into the car with that bag didn’t hurt either.
“Did you buy the entire store?” I asked, taking the bag from her arms before she fell into the car.
“Well, not quite. But pretty close,” she said as I began to snoop around at what she’d purchased.
“Jesus, there is enough food in here to feed an army. Not very well, mind you, but still.”
“I have a bad habit of eating a lot of junk food when I travel,” she confessed.
“Don’t you travel for a living?” I asked.
Shit, was I supposed to know that?
“Um, yes,” she said, giving me a curious glance as she buckled in her seat belt.
“You mentioned it the other day at lunch with Dean.”
Her eyes lit up. “Right!”
Good save, I told myself.
In truth, I knew she’d actually just walked away from her job and felt like an absolute failure for doing so, but if she wanted to keep up this ruse, I’d allow it.
After all, she’d forgotten everything about that night.
I might as well, too.
“So, basically, you eat terribly all the time. Is that quite accurate then?” I asked, pulling out a bag of beef jerky as I made a face.
She laughed. “Okay, so I don’t have the best eating habits.”
I couldn’t help it; my eyes roamed the length of her body. “Couldn’t tell from looking at you.”
That earned me a faint blush and a smile. “I work for this body. This is the result of hours and hours in the gym. I earn my junk food.”
“Well, what would you like first?” I asked, waving the beef jerky as she turned the ignition.
