You Were Mine for The Summer

Costco

“Okay. What the hell is this place?” Marcus asked, looking bewildered, he pulled his flat-bed trolley over to the side of the ginormous store. Alli and I looked at each other trying not to choke on our laughter; we had taken the boys through membership check, as they stared straight on at everything, looking amazed that we had to have a membership to go shopping. The best part of having anyone from out of your country over is the amazement they possess for the little things like Wal-Mart or Costco, which is completely ordinary for us.    

“This is Costco; it’s a membership-only retail warehouse. You can buy basically everything here, it’s a bulk store.” I explained, “This place is arranged basically like a warehouse! You buy everything in bulk, so you don’t have to go grocery-home-office shopping as much.” I finished, pulling the shopping lists out of my pocket. Both boys looked less than convinced, both swirling their cameras around at the massive stacks of product.

“We normally split the lists into; House/Office and the Food list. Alli is taking House&Office… Just because she isn’t even paying attention right now.” I said, stuffing the sheet of paper in her pocket, she didn’t look up from her phone, much less flinch. “And I’m taking food. So, Alli needs one of you, and I need one of you, because we both need at least two carts. And we might need some help.” I finished, looking over and smiling hugely at the two, now bemused boys. Alfie pulled his cart over to me, as Marcus pulled his cart over to Alli.

“Wait! The new vlog is live. I just tweeted! Rio, you gotta retweet it!” Alli interjected, tossing her phone into the child basket of her cart, as I pulled my phone out to retweet her completely forgetting my lock-screen was a screenshot of Alfie. I felt my face getting warm up tie. I felt my face getting warm up to my ears, I spun around but it was too late. Alfie was smirking at me; he nodded down at my phone.

 “Well, We can watch that when we get home, Alli!” I said, moving down the main aisle, and towards food, leaving Alli and Marcus to go over to Home goods, and leaving Alfie to chase after me.

“That’s a pretty cute photo of me.” Alfie said from behind me, I laughed embarrassedly and kept moving, fishing the list out of my pocket. “Is that list double sided?” Alfie asked, staring at the full sheet of paper in my hand.

“Sure is, this will be enough food for all of the next month.” I answered glad to be off the topic of my lock-screen, making a sharp turn down the aisle closest to us.  I stopped in the middle of the aisle pulling my cart over to one side; the list was balanced on the child basket of my cart. I started reviewing what I needed, so I could systematically go through the aisles. Alfie had parked his cart just behind mine, He walked up behind me looking over my shoulder at the massive amount of shopping to do, I could smell his cologne. It was a sweeter scent then what Sawyer wore, but not sweet enough to be girly. Sawyer’s was sharp, almost bitingly sharp, but Alfie’s was more subtle.  

“This list is nuts. It’s a grocery list… Divided into categories! Please explain to me what I am even looking at! Honestly, do we need this much food?!” He yelped, from behind me.

“Well, it’s just really helpful to be organized when you go grocery shopping every other month! There are six categories.” I started explaining to him, when I spun around I learned that he was a lot closer than I expected; I inhaled sharply and took a small step backwards. “Then there are about forty sub categories, under those are the items we need from that category. Then next to each item, in brackets, is how many of each thing I need. At the bottom is the estimated cost without discounts or coupons. This way I know how much money I need, what I need, and it’s all organized!” I finished, I had been looking down at the paper while I had been explaining it, in case there might be some kind of judgment in his eyes like there would have been for nearly anyone else. When I chanced looking up, he was all smiles, grabbing the list out of my hand he marched forward around me with his cart.

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“So now, we have completed the canned goods and Packaged Foods category!” I said happily, turning around to face Alfie.

“Yeah, half an hour and like sixty items later.” Alfie said, following after me towards, Candy and Snacks. Alfie was slowly losing his pep from the beginning, and I was afraid he would become a toddler in a matter of moments.

“Look, Alfie!” I said, stopping in the middle of yet another aisle, “Free samples!” I left my cart in the aisle and scooped up two of the little samples of a new frozen pizza they had stocked. I skipped happily back to him handing him the slice. I turned to my list to see where we would be heading next, when I turned around the pizza was gone.

“I’m starving!” Alfie said, shrugging his shoulders, “its really good though.” He added, laughing at my shocked face. I handed him my piece, and turned back around marching forward to the Candy and Snacks section.

As we reached the next aisle, Alfie was already happier. ‘I guess all he needed was a little food’ I thought to myself.  

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“It’s nearly two and a half hours later now. We have filled two carts, and I’ve eaten nothing but a slice of pizza all day.” Alfie said to his camera as we approached the checkout line, Marcus and Alli we’re at the register next to us. Our order was so large we needed two transactions; I pulled my coupons out of my pocket.

“That stack of coupons is bigger than my whole face.” Alfie said, as the cashier rung up our purchase.

“And we’ll need all of them.” I retorted, watching as the total rang up at eight hundred dollars even. Alfie’s jaw dropped, he held his camera up to the total then watched me hand her my coupons. I watched as across the register Alli was doing the same.

Nearly five minutes later, our cashier was done ringing up our coupons, “Your final total is one hundred dollars, even.” The middle aged blonde said, nodding appreciatively at me. I handed her a one hundred dollar bill from my pocket and walked over to Alli’s register.

“You just got four carts full of everything, for one hundred and eighty dollars?! Are you kidding?” Alfie said, in wonder.

“Well, one-ninety. We pay them ten dollars to truck it to our house, same day. We have a very presages membership, to be honest.” Alli said, linking arms with me. We strolled to the doors and kept strolling right out to the jeep.