BW short stories.

Talking to strangers.

                  ☆inspiration: talking to strangers by Maisie Peters☆

No one's POV:

Win passed the old age home, waving at the old ladies that were sat outside, he was on his way to his second job, where he had been working for 4 years now, a two floor supermarket. You see Win had a well paying job, one that helped him buy the car and the house of his dreams, but he was a social butterfly, and well being in IT didn't really amuse him.

So he took this job after seeing it's flyer tucked safely outside of his door in between some envelopes and magazines, it wasn't very far so he decided to give it a try, and well it stuck, the salary they gave him was little and well frankly useless, so he decided that was his fun money, but the people and the interactions made it all worth it. He reached the market and as the automatic sliding doors did their job, the familiar scent filled Win's nose, and somehow he felt like he was home.

The owner, Boost greeted him as he greeted back, you see he knew everyone and everyone knew him here, the regular customers remembered him as the talkative charmer, and Boost would be annoyed that Win spent so much time chatting up his valuable shoppers but somehow these people always came back, Win was a great convincer too, and he took pride in that.

Win was on his daily stroll, checking up the expiration date of the alcoholic beverages, when he saw two young women stack up vodka in their shopping bags, "I didn't know day drinking was still a thing" he spoke cheekily, one of the women smiled at him and said "We're going sky diving in an hour and this one here is shit-scared of heights so this helps" showcasing the bottles.

"I had an ex that was a scaredy cat when it came to doing things that involved heights, his solution was to chug half a bottle of champagne, somehow, it always worked, you should try that" Win advised with a sweet smile, the women put half the bottles back on the shelf as they took two bottles of fancy champagne, thanked him and left.

It was an hour till the supermarket closed, with only an old man and a middle aged woman quietly finding their wanted things, Win was stacking the cans of beans while talking to his friend, Prem, when the woman called him, Prem gave him a pleading look and Win instantly remembered how much he hated social interactions as he stood up to help the lady.

"I cannot seem to locate the Mexican spicy candy, dear" she spoke, "Ahhh follow me, those things barely sell anymore, so they must be at the back, I'll quickly check, are they for you Ms. Pretty lady?" He asked making small conversation as he dig throughout the back, she blushed and spoke "Oh no, I've got a son, and he's obsessed with this" she replied as he handed her the candy, "I can totally understand, I knew someone who was almost in love with this stuff, I can never understand though, like come on man it's freaking candy, how can you turn that spicy too" he ranted on, as she was about to say how much she agreed, when a commotion from the registers interrupted them.

There were two police officers and a man and a woman in a uniform that Win knew all too well at the entrance, they were from the nearby old age home, they were trying to get the old man inside the van but he refused to cooperate.

Prem informed him, about how the old man had dementia, and for some reason wanted hot cheetos so he mindlessly strolled in here and started a panic back at the old age home.

Win went up to the male caretaker and asked "Excuse me, I know it's none of my business, but health wise, is he allowed to have those snacks?", "Yeah, it's alright, but he has no money and he was just gonna take these outta here and that's not okay at all" the caretaker replied.

Near the register, the old man was mumbling coherent words to himself as he refused to let go of the two large packets of hot cheetos and kitkats, Win walked over to him, "Sir, can you please give me those?" He asked gently and the man looked at him angrily, "Well you will need to take them out of here in a bag, so just let me bag them up, okay?" He tried again and succeeded, as the man handed him the snacks.