7. Viviana
Viviana
“ T here’s just so much stuff!” I exclaim as I look around the store.
Nox is being a good sport and letting me walk around the store before we head over to the grocery section.
I stop at an end cap with packages of sparkly gel pens, grabbing a package and tossing them into the cart with the other awesome things I’ve found.
There’s a set of fuzzy, baby pink throw pillows I grabbed for the couch in my apartment, and I even found a little rug that matched them.
This store has just about everything I could possibly think of.
“Capitalism at it’s finest,” Nox says, looking around us like he’s trying to see the store from my point of view.
“Do you think they sell tarps and bleach here?” I look around like it would be just on the other side of the stationary aisle.
A choked laugh leaves him, but he shrugs. “I know they do sell bleach, and they probably have tarps in the garden section.”
My eyes go wide. “They have a garden section?”
His lips curve up just a bit as he gives me a nod. “Do you want to go see it?”
I nod my head vigorously like I can afford to shake the few ounces of sense I have left free. Nox starts pushing the cart and I rush to the front to hop on. With my fingers threaded through the gaps in the front of the basket, I look around as Nox pushes me through the store.
I jump off a few times to grab little odds and ends to throw into the cart, and Nox puts up with my antics without complaint.
I just know if I’d ended up here with Cain, he would not have looked at me fondly as I spent twenty minutes deciding between a ‘midnight sun’ and a ‘pink sand’ candle.
What exactly do those things smell like?
I had no idea, that’s why it took me so long to decide.
We finally make it to the garden section, and I look around at all the plants, pots, and bags of soil. “I think I want to be a plant girl,” I say softly as I take in the colorful leaves and flowers.
Nox snorts at that. “What the hell is a plant girl?”
I shrug, looking at him over my shoulder. “You know, it’s a girl who has so many plants her home looks like a jungle.”
Nox nods as he considers that. “You’ve got your whole apartment. You can get as many plants as you want.”
I frown. “What am I supposed to do with them when school starts back up though? I can’t take all those plants to the dorms.”
His face falls and his brows crinkle. “I figured you would just stay in the apartment when school starts. You don’t have to move into the dorms.”
“I can’t just stay in your house, Nox. You’re not even letting me contribute to rent or utilities,” I argue.
“Viv, you don’t have to pay to stay with us. If you start working with us we can call it good. All costs come out of the money we make before we divide it up equally,” he tells me.
My brows rise at that. They’d mentioned wanting me to help with jobs, but I wasn’t sure how serious they had been about that. “You really want me to work with you guys?”
“Of course. You’d be a great addition.”
I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment before letting it out slowly. Then I grab two plants off a shelf and add them to the cart. When I slant my eyes toward Nox, he’s grinning at me. “Okay, I think I’m done looking around. We can grab what we came here for now.”
We walk slowly over to the grocery section.
Slowly because he goes through a different section of the store we hadn’t been through yet.
Why does a store need to sell groceries, home décor, plants, and bicycles?
That seems a little over the top if you ask me.
I still love it though. I hadn’t expected so many different things to be held in one store.
I knew people said that Walmart has everything, but I was skeptical.
Apparently, some things can be what they seem.
Though I did notice the distinct lack of lye in the garden section, so I guess I can’t completely write off hardware stores yet.
Nox walks around, picking out just the right produce, and I watch him pick up four different weirdly shaped tomatoes before he decides on one.
Then he does the same with the red onions, though he only picks up two before he decides on one.
He drags me down the bakery section and picks out a package of brioche hamburger buns next. “What kind of French fries do you like?” he asks as we walk toward the freezers.
I blink at him. “Um, the kind made out of potatoes?”
A laugh bubbles out of him and he stops walking to lean his forehead against the cart. When he finally looks up at me, his face has reddened from laughing at me. “I meant like sweet potato, shoestring, curly, or crinkle cut.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Sweet potatoes belong in pies or baked with honey butter. Whoever decided they would make good fries deserves to be stabbed and submerged into a kiddie pool full of hot sauce.”
I know he won’t understand my hatred for sweet potato fries, but he brought them up so he can deal with my rant.
He raises his hands and pumps them toward me a couple times like he’s trying to tell me to pump the breaks on that, and I huff but don’t continue with my complaints.
“Okay, no sweet potato fries. What kind should we get then?”
I bite my lip, looking around the selections before I point at a bag of seasoned curly fries.
“Those ones look good.” Nox walks over and picks up a bag lower than the one I pointed at.
It’s the same brand and style of fries, just in a family sized bag.
“What are we having for dinner tonight anyway?”
He starts pushing the cart towards the registers. “We’re having cheeseburgers. I’ve got the beef and cheese already, just had to get everything else.”
I walk in front of the cart down the checkout lane and start piling stuff onto the conveyer belt as an older woman starts scanning things and shoving them into bags.
I nudge Nox out of the way from where he’s standing in front of the card reader and he narrows his eyes at me.
I give him my most lethal glower. “Most of this stuff is mine. Don’t make me stab you in public. ”
Nox looks to the woman scanning my throw pillows, who is doing a great job of pretending like she can’t hear anything we’re saying. “I got groceries too though,” Nox defends.
“You put like ten bucks worth of stuff in the cart. Besides, I’m going to eat the food too.
So let me pay for it and consider it thanks for letting me waste an hour and a half of your time walking through the store,” I snap, before shoving myself in front of him to claim my spot just in time for the total to come across the screen.
I tap my card before Nox can even try to stop me, and the woman stuffs the receipt into one of our bags as we load them back up into the cart.
Then we head out to Nox’s car, which looks almost identical to mine.
I would consider getting a bumper sticker or something to tell the difference between the cars, but that would be too distinctive.
The purpose of it is so nobody can tell the difference between my silver Honda Accord and any other silver Honda Accord.
Nox’s car just happens to be one of those other silver Honda Accords that make mine blend in so well.
After we’ve got the trunk loaded and a few things in the back seat, Nox takes the cart to one of those little cart parking stalls and we head off.
When we pull into the driveway, Zane is just coming out of his studio.
The sun is starting to set, so the guys are probably pretty hungry by now, and I’m starting to feel a little guilty for taking so much time just looking around the store.
Zane walks over to us with a smile on his face. I hop out of the car when Nox puts it into park and grin at him. “Nox took me to Walmart!” I cry, jumping up and down.
Zane’s smile widens even more as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll go ahead and cross that off the list.”
After a few moments he looks up at me and my phone vibrates in my back pocket. Pulling it out, I open it to find a screenshot of the list from Zane.
Zane
Read smut
Stay out until the sun rises
Go on a date
Get drunk and sing karaoke
Have a slumber party with pillow fights, candy corn, and romcom movies.
First kiss
Go to Walmart
Learn how to cook
Lose virginity
I get so excited when I see that we’ve already got six things crossed out on my list and only three more to go.
I’m so close to having done all of the stupid things I’ve always wanted to do during college.
There’s also a sad feeling that makes me realize I don’t really want to finish the list. If I finish it, then it’s all done.
After college I’ll be the head of the family.
I’ll never have the freedom to even go to the store without worrying about security risks.
Then there’s my father’s decree that I have to get married once I graduate.
I bite my lip and try to remind myself that I have three more years before that happens.
The list has become a symbol of my freedom. It almost being complete feels like everything I’ve gained is coming to an end. Like once I cross off the last thing on that list someone is going to come scoop me up and take me back home. My chest feels tight as these thoughts clash in my head.
Zane frowns at whatever face I must be making, but I wipe it away.
I know I’m being silly and that finishing this list isn’t going to magically take away what freedom I’ve managed to snatch for myself.
I can always make a new list if I want to.
With that thought in mind my smile comes back and Zane relaxes, not asking what was going through my mind.
Instead, he helps Nox and I bring in all the random unnecessary things I got while shopping for the three ingredients that Nox needed for dinner.