Addicted

Chapter 15: Shopping

As Shane and Maree ordered their food, Maree's phone began ringing, causing her to jump as she pulled it out of her pocket. She sighed looking at it, then answered. "What?" she asked angrily into the phone. "No, we haven't been by there yet," her voice softened as she talked. "We're getting some food then I figured I'd just follow him; I've already finished my shopping." Maree folded her hand in half, in mockery of whoever was talking on the other end of the phone, then rolled her eyes. "Yeah, got it, outside at six, and that's nice of him but I wish he'd stay out of my business a little bit." Maree shook her head as she retrieved her Styrofoam container from the man behind the counter and followed Shane to a table. "Okay. Yeah. You too. Bye." She put her phone back in her pocket then opened her fork, looking at the container of food, her face turning a slight shade of green.

Maree took a bite of her food and without swallowing jumped up from the table and ran towards the restroom area. Shane sat there in confusion, then sniffed the food on his fork. Finding it to smell acceptable he took a bite, nothing happening. He continued to sit and eat as he watched the restroom area for Maree to come back. Maree did come back, her face a mixture of flushed and green as she wound around the seating area, trying to avoid the looks of other people as she sped her way through. She sat down with an audible 'woo' then looked back at her food. Shane swallowed his food, "Are you sick? There's no way you're already going through withdrawals, it's only been a few hours."

Maree shrugged. "I'm not sick. No germ can survive in a body that is sixty-five percent alcohol. It's like, this food sounded so good when we were ordering it but when I took a bite, I couldn't force myself to eat it. Like my body just completely rejected the idea of it in my mouth." She eyed her food for a moment then decided to test another bite, this time actually enjoying it instead of throwing up. "Ooh, this is good." Her whole demeanor had changed from this morning and Shane had noted a glow to her skin as she ate her food, continuing to eat his own, glancing up to see her every few bites.

Once their food was done, they dropped their food boxes into the trash and began their march around the mall, if not to buy anything, to just enjoy a day out of the house. Their fingers interlaced as they pointed out random things in shop windows to each other. Maree had found an adorable pink lace dress in Jas's size and decided that it needed to be bought, electing for it to be wrapped in the store, just in case. They walked along for a while longer before Maree had spotted a baby store, to Shane's surprise, went in, her hands in her pockets, making her way straight to the check out counter to talk to a sales lady. Maree returned from the store with a wrap around baby-gate under her arms, glancing up at Shane and then back down to the gate. "It's for Debra, she's pecking at the furniture and putting holes in it." Maree's face looked guilty as she spoke. "I know that I need to make her go back in the coop, but I like having her in the house with me."

"Smart," he said, pointing to his brain. "Now she won't follow me to the bathroom." Shane took the gate from Maree, propping it up under the arm he was carrying her other purchases in. "We- uh- we need to talk about something else. Actually, I don't know if we really need to talk about it, you basically said your piece." With his free hand he scratched the back of his neck, then took her hand. "Marnie actually said something about it when we first started seeing each other. But do we need to be using protection? Cause I hadn't thought about it, and you didn't say anything, and you know how my brain works. Outta sight outta mind kind of memory."

Maree paused for a moment and then shrugged. "If you want to. It doesn't really bother me. I've told you that I don't have any hopes towards getting pregnant, it's never been in the cards for me. And trust me, I tried for a long time. It's not something I've really worried about with you because I know my odds and I trust that you should know yours by now."