She couldn’t blame them. Several times she wanted to take a cab, so she didn’t have to walk, but she was keeping the money left over after rent for food.

Sofia walked into the grocery store and pulled out the bills from her pocket and counted them. Twenty dollars. She had no clue what she could get with twenty dollars, but she was going to try to get as much as she could from her list.

Something that was different, here in Missouri, was they added tax onto her purchase after she got all rung up. In Chile, the prices were with tax so she didn’t have to think about adding extra to cover them. Just another thing for her to worry about.

Sofia went and grabbed milk first, before finding the eggs and bread. She had no clue if she had enough money to buy ham or not. For now, she was just going to make do with milk, eggs, and bread.

She turned down the aisle where the candy was and stopped.

Shit.

Jaxson was standing there, looking at some candy.

Right before she could turn around and leave, he looked in her direction.

“Sofia?” he called out her name.

She gave him a small smile and waved. How was she going to get out of this? She didn’t think he would shop at this store.

“Do you work tonight?” Jaxson asked as he walked closer to her.

Sofia looked at him funny. Wouldn’t he know if she worked tonight? He was the one that scheduled her and all the other employees.

“I’m trying to make conversation,” he softly said.

Her mouth opened slightly when he said that. Crap. Right. People had conversations with other people.

“I do,” she replied. “I come in later and work till close..”

“Do you enjoy working until closing?” he asked.

The question caught her off guard. He had asked the same question when she was in the interview with him, and she told him she didn’t mind. Was that partially a lie? Yes, it was, but she had needed and wanted this job. She was going to say anything she could to get it.

“Yes,” she replied, keeping up her little lie.

He studied her face before he nodded his head. Was he trying to see if she was lying? Sweat formed on her forehead and she so badly wanted to wipe it away, but she didn’t want to bring any attention to it. Then he would know she was lying.

“If it ever changes, you let me know,” he said.

“Yes, sir.”

She wasn’t going to and part of her thought he knew that as well.

“I mean it,” he said, looking directly into her eyes.

Crap. He knew.

“I know,” she whispered, trying to ease his worry or whatever he was feeling right now.

It was hard to read him and what he was feeling. She was normally good at reading people, but Jaxson was different. He was closed off and didn’t give away much. Well, most of the owners were like that.

“Doing a little shopping?” he asked as he looked at what she was carrying in her arms. Worry flashed over his face.

Why was he worried? It could look like she was buying just the staple things because that was all she needed. But Jaxson always knew things, even if people didn’t tell him those things. Sofia had witnessed it several times while she was working.

It was freaky.

“Yes,” she whispered.