A holiday for redemption 2

Domestic

She was quickly exasperated. He'd taken to dropping items haphazardly into the shopping cart. She'd had to take them out and leave what was necessary. There were ingredients here that Jan had never used or even heard of.
  "Stop dropping things in the trolley." She put back the cans of chicken broth, he'd just put in.
"I'm buying."
James thought she'd argue but she surprised him again.
" Just because you buying doesn't mean you have to drop all nonsense in the cart."
She walked away with the trolley and he spent a moment watching her butt move in those jeans.
  She wore a maroon baby t-shirt , blue jean shorts and slippers. He liked her casual look, especially those jeans.
  He shook his head. He needed to focus.
He followed her into the next aisle. She stood next to the soap talking to a woman.
He couldn't make out what they were saying, but as he moved closer he could tell that the argument was somewhat heated.
  He stopped next to Jan, put a hand on her shoulder and smiled down at the woman who'd just called her a fool.
  Jan barely flinched, she'd forgotten about him, she shrugged off his hand before glaring at him.
  He tightened the hand on her shoulder and said.
"Hey, Jan , who's your friend?"
She turned towards the woman. James sized her up. She looked about 50. She wore a yellow sundress and bright red lipstick.
"This is my aunt Linda. Aunty, this is James ."
  It's was Linda's turn to size him up. She stared at him like he was a piece of meat. For a moment, he felt like bolting.
  Jan said something in Patois that seemed to snap Linda from her reverie. She smiled and for a moment, James saw Stella in that smile.
She said something back and Jan took her trolley and left.
"It was nice meeting you , Miss Linda. "
She nodded and stared at him a moment before going in the other direction.

How dare her!  If James hadn't come around Jan didn't know what she would have done. She'd gotten angry.
But she felt like she had every right to. Her aunt had called her a whore and deserter. They were the ones who deserted her.
She'd walked off when Linda had suggested that she was selling herself to a white man.
Linda had always been her favourite aunt until Jan had seen the way they'd treated her mother. And now they were torturing her.
Torturing her because she refused to give them a share of what Stella had left behind; a life insurance policy that was meant to pay any remaining debts she had.
  But Linda hadn't understood, she thought she deserved a piece of the pie because she was Stella's sister.
  It was true that James' money had gotten rid of that debt but she wasn't going to give money to  a woman who'd actively called her a white man's whore and had refused to visit her mother when she'd been alive.
She began to put items for the cashier to scan. She was trying her best not to cry.
He appeared next to her, oblivious to the way she felt at the moment. She didn't want him touching her, not in public.
She stepped away from him and tried to keep things neutral.
He paid for their things, he could tell that she was in a mood. The one where she didn't want him touching her.
Whatever that woman had said had gotten to her. She kept her eyes downcast and barely looked at him.
  When they got to the car, he put the things in the back, she was helping but she still refused to look at him.
When they were done, she sat in the passenger and put her head on the dashboard.
James got in, he could hear sniffling and he watched as her chest heaved. She was trying to hold in the sobs.
He started the car and began the drive back.
When the sniffling got louder, he stopped the car near the side of the road.
They were about 10 minutes away from the house but he couldn't take it anymore.
He rubbed her back as she sobbed and then he kissed the side of her head.
Jan hated this. He didn't understand, she was frustrated not sad. That's what these tears were. She'd wanted to slap the look off her aunt's face and she would have if he hadn't appeared.
She sat up and rubbed her face. Her chest still heaved from the sobs she'd been trying to keep in but she wanted to get home and she sensed he wouldn't let up on trying to comfort her if she didn't do something.
"Can we go home?" She asked, her voice raw from her crying.
He took his hand off her back and started the car.
It would be a long afternoon and he didn't look forward to it.