Lucy:
Lucy peeled the wet clothes off of her. After trying to avoid the rain on Sunday, and today, they still managed to get soaked when the rain decided to descend upon them the moment they returned to their hall. She put in her headphones and danced around her room in her underwear. She had to sort out these groceries before the freezer stuff melted and the fridge stuff went bad.
As she danced around her room and bopped and weaved to the music, her mind was still trying to figure out if the man who almost crashed into Keisha was in fact Adam. She had not seen his face, but only his outline at the corner of her eye. But she knew that body. Had surveyed that body from head to toe on many occasions, memorizing it's lines and contours. If it was him...why the hell was he walking so fast! Who runs through a grocery store like that? Well, she had named him "Lightning" for a reason.
As she chucked the cheese in the fridge and kicked the door closed, she smiled as she remembered asking Keisha if she saw his face and about her suspicions, that Keisha made them walk down the vertical isle to see if he was there. He was not. At least they knew they were looking for a white skinned man, clad in black. But he was nowhere to be found. Keisha joked that he ran back to his car when he saw Lucy, since she was convinced that it was indeed him.
Lucy laughed at the absurdity. He would never do that...right? He would never go to such extreme lengths just to avoid her like that. They weren't really friends but at least... acquaintances. As she tossed the milk into her pantry (which was really a shelf in her closet), she remembered the eyes she felt on her as she was dancing in that isle after Keisha went to get her yoghurt. She figured that she was just being paranoid and she was in the isle by herself after all. But if it really had been him...and he had been in the store....
She shook that train of thought out of her head, almost hitting her head on the closet door. That whole notion was ridiculous.
She smiled when she remembered Alex. The man who walked up to her and Keisha when they were trying to decide which detergent to buy. "This one is amazing, trust me!" he said to them. Lucy smiled at him and eyed him suspiciously as she asked him how he knew it was good. He said he had been using it for years and it gave the clothes an amazing smell. Lucy sniffed it. It indeed had a wonderful smell. She smiled at him and thanked him. After almost crashing into Adam/the stranger in black, they were trying to find Keisha's preferred seasoning. Alex had somehow found them and offered a certain type of spice. He then introduced himself as "Alex" and asked Lucy her name. Lucy answered him and felt the sly grin on her face before she could stop it. She was oddly comfortable with the stranger but soon realized it was because she did not detect him as a threat.
After going to the counter to check their groceries in, Alex had suddenly appeared again and was offering to put the groceries onto the counter. Lucy stopped him and informed him that they would have to do it because it was a mixture of both their groceries and they needed to sort it out.
That really should have been the first red flag. When he left them, he went to the other end of the isle to bag their groceries. Lucy stopped dancing, mid twist. The packets of cookies falling into her designated snack bag under her bed.
Had Alex been a customer or a bagger? Had he been a bagger that was following her around? Or a random customer who bagged her groceries? Neither one of those things sat well with Lucy. In fact it made her a bit sick that she did not realize that in the first place.
After bagging the groceries and Lucy cringing at the price on the screen, Alex ushered them out, totting their groceries in the trolly. He propped the bags on the bench and said the inevitable. "I would really like to get to know you". Lucy smiled gently and said "I do come here to shop". She did not want to flat out reject him since he seemed like a nice guy. "I mean I would love to take you out sometime". Lucy racked her brain quickly for a nice reason. She softened her eyes and looked at him "I'll be leaving here very soon" she said in an apologetic tone. She understood how hard it was to be rejected. God knows she experienced her share of that. She did not want to hurt Alex or make him feel bad.
To Lucy's relief, he said "Ok, I understand, it was lovely meeting you guys" and he walked away. Immediately, Lucy and Keisha turned and touched shoulders when Keisha whispered "That was cute". Lucy nodded and said "It was. I knew he was going to though". Keisha looked at her with wide eyes. Lucy confirmed "People don't put in so much effort unless they want something from you". Lucy had not expected herself to have understood that much, until she heard the words coming out of her mouth. And the reality of it was that she would never go out with a man she just met. The man, no matter how sweet he seemed externally, may be a serial killer, rapist, mad man, all of the above. Plus, Lucy was not even physically attracted to him. She did not know him. And she knew any man who asked her out immediately would want sex. Would expect it and expect her to want it from the moment she agreed to go out.
There were so many factors that she would have to take into consideration that is was scary to know that if Adam had asked her, she would have said "Yes" without a second thought. In all honesty, in her entire twenty-five years, Adam had been the only man she had ever wanted to have sex with. From movies stars, to crushes to the attractive stranger who called her 'beautiful', there was never anyone Lucy wanted to have sex with.
Adam had been the only one. It made her wonder if he would always be the only one...
Lucy also knew how it felt to be the friend to be not asked out. She experienced it many, many times when she had been out with Priya. She knew the emptiness it left you feeling, no matter if you did not even want to person to begin with. So she did not dwell on the subject. Instead, she asked Keisha if she wanted to go to Starbucks since they mentioned it earlier. She saw the conspirator's grin on Keisha's face and instantly knew the answer. So with a grunt and a hall of her bags, Keisha said "3,4,5 Diaphragm stay alive!". Lucy cackled as they left the store and repeated the mantra. As they walked, she felt someone touch her arm so looked up and saw one of the doctors from the hospital. He waved her as she said "Heyyy!" and walked away.
She always found his determination admirable. He was a doctor with Tourette's syndrome. The random muscle spasms had once frightened Lucy when he was talking to her and she had to make a conscious effort to not jump. But he was so sweet that every time Lucy passed him in the hospital, she made sure to go say "hi", pat him on the arm, rub him on the back. Some form of recognition and camaraderie. He always returned the favor and she appreciated that the most. Even if Lucy did not see him first, he would reach out and touch her too. Once she was in a classroom with her head down and he passed by to rub that tight spot between her shoulder blades. She would never forget the soothing effect on her. On her body and soul.
They entered Starbucks and just sat for a while, basking in the soft hues of light, gentle music playing and of course, the intoxicating scent of brewed coffee. It was a bit loud of course, with all the grinding machines and blenders, but it was not overpowering. Lucy suddenly said to Keisha, "You know, that is the first time I've been asked out". Keisha gaped at her with a "Really?" She seemed genuinely surprised.
Lucy smiled shyly. She knew Keisha had been asked out before so she knew it was not bad territory to discuss. But it really was a first for Lucy. It had not even been a half-assed attempt. The man took a shot and she appreciated that. She really wished Adam had been the one to take the shot. God knows that man could have been blindfolded and spun around a hundred times before he took his shot. He could not have missed Lucy if he tried.
She turned to Keisha who was sharing a story about her sister being asked out and she saw someone glance through the large window. She did not turn since she could see the person already leave, but she felt odd. She felt the glance fall on her, but as if it were ripped away quick as a Band-Aid. Normally if someone glanced into Starbucks, it lingered. They did a quick sweep of mostly everyone. But this look seemed...intentional. She felt she was being delusional again and decided to ignore that prickling feeling.
When they were ready to head back to the hall, Lucy stepped out of the noise of the room and stood outside. The cool night air greeted her and it was already so dark that the stars were out, barely visible of course, above the many lights blinding her to them.
As she spoke on the phone, she felt eyes on her again. There were so many vehicles in the parking lot that she did not doubt someone may see her, but so what? It was not the first time she had that uneasy feeling of being watched, in public or in private.
And she knew it would not be the last.
