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__LEIA ROBERTSON JUST WANTED SOME MAC AND CHEESE. Her three year old niece was coming over for the day tomorrow, and she had realized only the night before that her apartment had little but energy drinks, ramen noodles, and salad fix-ins. Then of course there was the issue of little Georgia Robertson being gluten free.
So there she was. Standing in the basket of a grocery cart, straining to reach the gluten-free mac and cheese at the very top of the aisle. Sure, she would tell people, being short has its perks. But this certainly wasn't one of them. In fact, most often Leia was okay with her short and stout, 4'11 figure. But now, in a crowded Wal-Mart, seconds away from falling to a broken bone, she was feeling a bit silly.
What was most baffling, was that even with the added height her squeaky grocery cart gave her, she couldn't seem to reach the mac and cheese, pushed to the very back of the shelf . Maybe she could jump, but that had only a few possible outcomes and none of them were good. Her thought process was cut off, when she heard a curt cough from behind her.
"You look to be in need of assistance.." Leia turned her head only slightly, keeping her arms nervously grappled onto the shelf to steady herself. She scowled at the bemused expression on the boys face; quirked eyebrows, and sly grin. She would have decked him, had she not been standing in an unsteady shopping cart, and had he not been easily 6'6.
"I can handle it." She let out an agitated noise, studying the boy suspiciously. With his curly black hair, tanned skin, and swirling green eyes he looked just like every asshole that attended her business class.
"Right. That's why you're standing in a shopping cart." he stepped forward to steady the cart, glancing up at her screwed up face. "Now get down from there before you break your cute little face." she narrowed her eyes further, but slowly lowered herself, until she was sitting in the metal cart, hair ruffled, expression appearing annoyed yet relieved. She ignored the compliment, probably because he has pointedly included the word 'little'.
"Would you like to explain what exactly you're doing?" Leia asked, blowing a strand of brunette hair from her face. Her eyes glinted with curiosity.
"Random acts of kindness." he paused. With an obvious intent of teasing, he dramatically reached towards the mac and cheese, easily reaching the crimson box. "For example; retrieving mac and cheese for a helpless young lady." he grinned saucily at her.
"I am not helpless. I'll have you know I did 4 years of martial arts. I can be so scary I send people running." Leia muttered, crossing her arms adorably.
"Sorry, a short young lady." she wasn't sure how to argue that. "If that's all, I'll be going.." he said in a sing song voice, turning to walk away.
"Wait!" Leia called, immediately wincing at the fact she had just shouted at the unnamed, attractive, no aggravating stranger. "I- I can't get out." She really wanted to slug him now, with one look at his face as he whirled around at her exclamation. With a smile cheesier than the mac and cheese box he has thrown into the cart moments ago, he secured his annoyingly large arms underneath her neck, and knees. With one fail swoop she was pressed to his chest in a position that belonged in a cheesy rom-com, not a Wal-mArt aisle.
"This certainly wasn't how I was expected my trip to the grocers to go." He said saucily, quirking an eyebrow.
"Oh put me down you weasel." She grumbled- "I'm filing a complaint with Wal-Mart for making their shelves so damn high." she continued, this time quieter. He smiled so wide his eyes crinkled into acute angles, and his cheeks were dimpled.
"You know I do have a name- and it's not Weasel." she looked up at him expectantly. "James." He said simply, releasing her tiny frame. She wobbled a bit, her legs not fully prepared to work again, and he placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.
"Pleasure. Leia." She folded her arms over her chest. Leia pulled her purse from the basket of the cart, and rifled through it for a few moments, leaving James entranced in her scrunched up face. Finally, she pulled a silver pen from her wallet. His eyebrows knit further and further until they were practically mended together, as she took a regular box of mac and cheese from a shelf she could reach, an scribbled something across it.
"I didn't actually take 4 years of martial arts. I just tell people that to intimidate them." And without another word, she dropped the box into his basket, and directed her cart out of the aisle. James was left among the boxed foods, starring down at the messily written phone number across the box, and smiling like an idiot.
