Taking No Prisoners

The headache is persistent and won’t leave her alone although alcohol has been banned since she came home late at night and thought she saw J-Man, Ace and Ken in the living room. Matt reassured her that she was imagining the worst case scenario. Spidey giggled and UniCorn took her to the bedroom and helped her into bed. Everything else is a blurred memory. Something about a reception and being let down, but then some Chinese food and great conversation. UniCorn says she doesn’t remember the latter, though.

Matt ordered her out of the flat. She’s been lying about in bed for days oozing laziness and bad vibes. So she’s gone to the supermarket to find some comfort food and pass the time. Just for the heck of it, she picks up a cucumber and a bag of carrots. Not sure why but they match the shopping basket. She heads for the bread aisle. Bread. Bread is bad for you. But she settles for bread despite the fact. It’s quiet in the supermarket. It’s early and customers have not yet felt the need to turn into shopaholics.

A left turn. The cheese and milk aisle. She listens to her mp3 player, succumbed to bad pop music that was popular five years ago. No cheese. Perhaps some milk. She looks up and zooms in on the milk.

Oh my god.

Her heart skips a zillion beats, her throat dries up, her stomach turns into a knocked out punch bag. She backs away, goes back to the bread aisle. Gasps for air, mentally kicks herself for being unprepared, having greasy hair and having slapped next to no makeup on before she left the flat. But there’re no customers around. There’s nobody to disturb the scenario. So she takes a deep breath, goes back to the aisle with milk and marches forward.

He has no idea that she’s closing in for the kill. Oblivious to her quest, he keeps putting milk on shelves. She walks up to him. Takes out her ear plugs. No reaction from him. He keeps putting milk on shelves. He’s taller than her even when he’s not standing on his toes to reach the top shelve. She remains frozen next to him and doesn’t know how to begin the conversation. Is he ignoring her? For a brief moment she thinks he has seen her but decides not to speak to her. She is standing so close to him that she can reach out and touch him. Finally he acknowledges her, looks down at her, utters a subdued “oh” and backs away a step from her. It’s her turn. This is the worst examination she’s had in her entire life.

He looks at her for a second then turns away his gaze. He seems unsure of her. It’s like he doesn’t know if he should keep putting milk on shelves or wait for her to say something. She can’t make out if he’s shy or scared of her. At least he hasn’t said anything rude to her yet like she had thought he might.

She’s aware that her hair is greasy and that she didn’t bring an umbrella so she’s very wet, almost dripping from her nose. She feels an urge to sniff but overcomes it. She doesn’t look at him but begins the chat up line.

FridayNext: I’d like to ask you something and it’s not about the supermarket…so it’s a bit awkward perhaps. But I was wondering if you’d like to go out for a cup of coffee?

Brief moment of silence. He looks surprised – how can he be surprised? He’s been looking at her a couple of times when she’s been in the supermarket. She knows he’s been looking at her. They have had eye contact. It can’t come as a surprise that she’s asking him out.

He glances at her, and then looks away again. He goes back to putting milk on the shelves.

Ken: A cup of coffee? Well…

Brief silence

Ken: …I’m not sure I have time for that…

Brief silence

FridayNext: Sure you have time off work now and again.

Brief silence

Ken: Yeah…
FridayNext: *interrupting* It’s okay. Saying no is an okay answer.
Ken: Oh. Then I’m afraid that it’s a no.
FridayNext: Okay then.

And she puts her ear plugs back in, walks away, puts some unspecified groceries in the basket and goes to the check out.

Feeling like the ugliest sheep in the world. Not even attractive enough to lure Ken into having a cup of coffee with her.

A phone conversation:

Ken: Spidey?
Spidey: Yup.
Ken: Is Matt in?
Spidey: Out running. Wanna hang out?
Ken: Working.
Spidey: Wicked.
Ken: Really you I want to speak to.
Spidey: ‘Kay.
Ken: FridayNext just asked me out.
Spidey: What!
Ken: She came up to me and politely asked me out.
Spidey: Oh no!
Ken: Thought you should know.
Spidey: What did you tell her?
Ken: No.
Spidey: Good. And bad. She’ll be in a terrible mood when she comes home now.
Ken: What else could I say?
Spidey: Right.
Ken: Sorry. Hang out soon?
Spidey: Will web you.
Ken: Nice!