It Started With A High Five

4. The High-Five & Unexpected offer

Sundays I usually worked a couple of hours and this one was no different. Being the newest in my department, I usually closed. My friend Cari had slight seniority over me but she stays to close with me more often than not. This Sunday would be no different. We work well together. Sundays are notoriously busy in Grocery stores so we all usually worked and overlapped to make sure there wasn't gaps in coverage.

Cari asked me about my date. I told her how underwhelming it was. There was just no attraction towards him or anything. I legit felt nothing for Kyle.

I took my break in the Cafe again with my book, and Theo walked by. There was a younger looking blond girl with him. He looked over at me while, it looked like he was walking her out and he called over, "Hi Jade," with a smile at me.

Surprised, I just said, "Hey Theo," and smiled at him.

Later on he stopped by the courtesy counter and half laughing asked, "Did you really shake Kyle's hand at the end of your date?"

I could have died, but told him, "Yeah, why? What should I have done?"

He kept eye contact and said, "You could have hugged him or kissed him on the cheek."

I explained, "If I did that he could have misunderstood, so instead I left it friendly with no room for that to happen."

Theo nodded and out of nowhere mentioned that he noticed I got rides home most of the time and offered to take me if I needed a ride. I thought that was sweet of him, we had started chatting some and were definitely working towards being friends at this point.

During our shifts we occasionally have to go find something for a customer down one of the aisles. At one point I needed to go get something for someone that they couldn't find. As I was walking down the aisle Theo was walking the other way towards me. Normally the aisles have at least one person in them. This one was just he and I.

When we were about to reach each other, Theo randomly said, "High five." And he put his hand up. I reached up and slapped his hand.

Holy crap. This is probably the most lame thing I've ever thought, but it was perfect. Our hands hit and it was like they were meant to touch and fit at that moment. As we continued walking away in opposite directions from each other, we both turned back to look at each other at the same time. Our eyes connected and we both smiled. The look we shared was sweet and left as much of an impact on my mind as the tingles in my hand from the high five.

I was dazed the rest of my shift. A high five isn't supposed to feel like that. I didn't think something so simple could consume my thoughts. I have high fived dozens of people, hundreds of times. I've never had one feel quite like that one though.

Cari drove me home that night and we just chatted about work and her boyfriend coming to visit this week. She had a couple of PTO days coming up for it. I needed to remember to ask my mom about the car.

*

I woke up and went to work the next two days. Mondays high five still on my mind. What is wrong with me? This simple action felt as personal as some amazing kisses I shared with people, how is a high five making this much of an impact on me?

Okay Jade focus. It's Thursday, you magically have off Saturday again get through these next two days and you're home free.

I go in to work that Thursday afternoon and it's around 2pm. I close the courtesy area around 11pm. Most other departments go down to skeleton crew at 10-10:30pm.

I notice Mark is walking over to me and he's got a hand behind his back. He's sweet but so young and I don't want people getting the wrong idea. The poor kid isn't getting it. I don't want to be mean though. Being mean sucks.