crème glacée [the fate of coincidences 1]

8: Jade

Jade was strolling through the supermarket aisles, pushing a half-filled shopping cart in front of her and pressing a phone to her ear.

"They only have barbeque flavor and the sour cream ones, so pick," she said.

"Fine, get the barbeque ones then," Cam replied on the other end.

"How many?" she asked, reaching for the chip bags on the shelf.

"Wait, no, get two of each." She heard April's voice in the background and after a few moments Cam corrected himself. "Never mind, get four of each."

Jade grabbed eight bags of family sized chips and dumped them all into the cart.

"Anything else?" she asked, shifting the phone and starting to roll the cart.

"Um... I don't know, let me ask April." There was a cacophony of voices on the other end and she heard Sebastian chanting "ice cream, ice cream!"

"Okay, so," Cam's voice came back on the line. "Get m&m's and-- like a lot of m&m's, yes, and a tub of chocolate ice cream." Jade heard Mika whining about strawberry ice cream in the background. Did they want her to go broke? "And a strawberry one, too," Cam relented.

Jade stepped onto the cart and rolled down the aisle, where the frozen foods were. "We're ordering pizza, though, right?"

"Yep, already ordered it. It'll arrive by the time you get there. Oh, do you have enough money to pay for everything? If not, just use your credit card and I'll pay you back."

Now she felt bad. Opening one of the fridge doors, she grabbed a tub of strawberry ice cream and dropped it in the shopping cart as Cam spoke. She switched her phone to a different ear and opened the next fridge to reach for the chocolate ice cream.

"I have a job, Cam," she replied exasperatedly. "Stop insisting that you'll pay for everything all the time."

He chuckled on the other end. "Okay, sorry, it's a habit--" There was a clacking sound, as if someone took the phone, and Mika's voice came on. "Get your butt here before I starve, bye."

The line went dead and Jade pocketed her phone, used to Mika's rudeness. It was her charm, more than anything. But she still wanted to wring her neck every time.

Waiting for her turn in line, Jade glanced over the magazine rack ("Why Kim's marriage didn't last: exclusive interview with her maid who Saw Everything!" "How to lose 30 pounds in just 2 days: some organs you Don't Really Need." "Is Lindsey on hardcore drugs? Or is she just mentally unstable? Read page 8 for her full medical report." "People's top 50 most gorgeous celebrities list and how much they paid to get there." "Can tanning beds cause breast cancer? Or is that just a myth created by conservatives to get you to stay as white as possible for their twisted patriotic reasons?"). She considered buying Cosmopolitan just so she could see if there really was a full medical report on page 8, but after a second thought she just grabbed a pack of Spearmint gum and added it to the conveyer belt instead. Her phone began ringing and she fumbled with her purse until she dug it out from under a pile of makeup and old receipts. The screen just showed a number without name, but she picked it up anyway. You never knew, she could have won the lottery or something.

"Hello?"

"Is this Jade Emerson?" a male voice asked.

She hesitated for a second, stranger-danger videos from freshman year of highschool flashing through her mind. "Yes... Who's this?"

"This is Glen Oswald, the owner of the car you crashed into the other day? The BMW?"

She almost dropped her phone.