Aisleland Paradise

Chapter 1

Ok, so admittedly that guy from the meat department was found responsible for the death of a guy but that isn't actually murder and Anna didn't even know that when they dated so its kinda bullshit that people say she dated a serial killer, and honestly even if he were a murderer it probably wouldn't have been her worst option; when your pool of potential boyfriends is limited to your coworkers at the grocery store, your odds were good but the goods were odd. Obviously there was the guy that killed a guy (ONCE), but then there was the player in the deli who told her he loved her midway through dinner, and then the aspiring social media influencer in produce who secretly live streamed both their dates, and then there was the old guy in the party center who she dated for over a month before he told her he saw her as a daughter, a mother, and friend with benefits. Every one of them seemed quirky and fun at first and all of them ended up as just another story for her counselor. Anna moved through the ranks of her professional life like a retail assassin but her personal life was one romantic disaster after another.

"Good morning, Anna!" said the kind old man out fetching carts.

"Good morning, Walt!" she beamed back.

The old men all loved her.

She walked in the main entrance of Titanic Grocery on a bright and sunny autumn afternoon. To her left were the check lanes, already understaffed and overwhelmed. That's not a good sign, but Anna was used to it. She turned right and headed to the courtesy counter.

"Hey Anna!" chirped the teenage bagger as he trotted past her to his station.

"Hey Max!" she said as she smiled knowingly and playfully, recievingly, but not quite encouragingly.

The young men all loved her too.

"Anna. Let's go. We're behind." snipped Nancy.

She was like three years away from retirement and definitely did not love Anna.

Nancy wasn't stupid though; Anna knew that Nancy knew that Anna was good at her job. Damn good. Anna started years ago, sweating away at carts like Walt and Max out there but she was promoted to cashier on her 17th birthday and never looked back. There were a bunch of cashiers at her store that had been doing it for two or three decades but, unlike them, Anna hadn't been complacent. She kept busting her ass and taking on more and more responsibility and now she was in charge of the courtesy counter, the highest spot you could have on the front end without being a manager. She was responsible for keeping track of tens of thousands of dollars a day while doing all the managerial duties that her managers couldn't be bothered to do; She was only 23 and basically in charge of making sure the store didn't fall down. For many associates, this would be a crowning achievement, a position granted as a capstone on a distinguished career to be ridden out to the sunset. Anna wasn't cocky by any stretch but she knew what she brought to the table, and she knew that this was just a stepping stone. She knew that the store needed her. And the store knew it too.

"Sorry Nancy." It was only two minutes past the scheduled start of her shift so she didn't really need to apologize for anything but a momentary kowtow was worth it to keep the peace. She walked past the counter to the time clock and punched in, then walked down a hall and into the locker room. James was already at his locker; Anna thought it was weird how he always happened to be around when she clocked in. And by weird, she meant hilariously transparent. But it was cool, he was her work husband and bumping into him was something that she looked forward to.

"They should fire you for being tardy. You're stealing from the company." said James, who openly hated the company and was tardy all the time. He opened his locker and reached past the green apron that he was required to wear but had absolutely no intention whatsoever of putting on, and pulled out an energy drink.