Madly

Chapter Three

Rowyn proved she was as terrible at giving directions as she was at drawing maps. He ended up missing two turns because she was playing with the buttons on the dashboard instead of dutifully navigating their route. 

"I should have used the GPS," he said.  

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. "What? You have GPS? You lied! You didn't need me!" 

"Not exactly," he admitted, "but you can't blame me for wanting to spend some time with a beautiful girl. And for the record, I didn't lie. I omitted a minor detail." 

She looked down and wrung her hands in her lap, then shifted her attention out the window without a reply before she got a massive case of the giggles. 

"What's so funny?" 

"At the fact that I'm so gullible," she said in between a fit of laughter. "Seriously. Who uses hand drawn maps anymore? Everyone has gps or a smart phone. I can't believe I actually drew you a map. That's kind of embarrassing." 

He parked the car. "I think it's cute."

"Being gullible is cute?" 

"Nah," he said. "Being sweet enough to offer a total stranger super awesome juice and a map is though." 

"Fair enough. Do you have a list?" 

Wes grabbed a cart. "Nope.  Not at all. Impulse buys all the way." 

"That could be deadly.”

"If we were on a car sales lot, maybe," he agreed. "In a grocery store, not so much. I can exhibit serious self control when it comes to going crazy with carrots and pomegranate." 

She hoisted herself up on the edge of his cart like a little kid. She had series of small, nearly invisible freckles on her face covered by strands of hair that the wind whipped to the side. The mischievous grin on her face, her brown eyes, the little crinkle on her nose when she laughed as he started to push the cart; these were all things about this moment that he wanted to remember.  

"I can walk," she said, stepping down. "I was just messing around like I used to when I was a kid." 

"You're never too old to ride on a grocery cart," he said, stopping the cart. "Go on. You know you wanna." 

She laughed and stepped back up on the edge. "If you insist." 

He steered through the lot and into the store, heading straight for the produce. Rowyn jumped off to grab a bag of carrots. "Did you know that carrots are not only beneficial to your eyesight but they're excellent for your skin?" 

"I did not know that," he said, "but by all means I want perfect skin. Toss 'em in." 

She laughed and set the carrots in the cart. 

Wes selected a lemon. "Lemons clean your blood." 

She pointed to the watermelons. "Oh yeah? Well watermelons fight heart disease like a freakin' super hero."  

By the time the cart brimmed with an extraordinary amount of produce, they headed to the aisles for other essentials. Rowyn had moved to the front of the cart, and she pushed it while Wes piled more and more food inside.

A large pyramid display of peanut butter jars sat at the end of the row and while Wes inspected the ingredients on a box of cereal, a loud crash startled him. Rowyn's eyes were saucers, her hand covering her mouth while color flushed her cheeks. She moved it long enough to mouth the words, "uh oh." 

She stood, immobilized, as jars of peanut butter continued to fall around her like building blocks crumbling. 

He made a split second decision, set the box of cereal down and hurried to the cart, positioning his body behind hers. He lightly kicked the bottom of her feet until she was on the cart again, then planted one of his feet next to hers and used the other to gain traction on the floor; same as he would skateboarding. Adrenaline gave way to momentum and they ripped down the aisle, away from the scene of the crime in enough to time to miss a baffled store employee, scratching his head looking at the damaged display in confusion.