Corner Store

01 | chocolate

Rice

Polen needs rice.

She's making some kind of welcome home dish and apparently, according to her inventory, Emre has been living off takeout and the occasional bowl of homemade oatmeal the entire time he's been gone. She calls him in a bit of a panic as he's wrapping up his orientation session with Deren and it sounds too much like Emre for him to argue--he really has no idea how his brother manages to keep himself slim

and so, a couple hours later, once he's read his fill of old campaign files, the quest for rice sees him turning onto a dark and narrow street on his way back from the office.

There's bound to be a store around here somewhere , he thinks, eyes scanning the similar looking buildings for a sign that might indicate a grocery shop. He knows he could have probably gone to a supermarket-- but the night is quiet, his nerves are at about the maximum he can take, and he really doesn't think he can stomach the droning of a crowd.

It doesn't take him long to find the small shopping center for the neighborhood he'd turned into. He sees a beauty salon, a couple ladys finishing up their appointments, chatting and laughing with the stylist. A butcher shop, two or three patrons still lined up, waiting for a cut of meat, and in the corner, aha , Leyla Bakkal.

The store is small, but even from his spot on the outside it looks clean and well kept. He sees the grocer, a young lady, perched on a two step stool restocking something that looks like packets of sweets. She drops a handful of them all the sudden, as he's patting his jacket for his wallet, bends out of sight to pick them up and then she's ripping one open, eating it with a vigor that he can't help but find amusing.

He enters the storefront with his wallet open, already looking for a bill, shuffling past his license, the parking voucher from this morning...

He's not entirely aware that he's waiting for a greeting until it doesn't come.

He looks up from his task to see that the woman still has his back to him, obviously enjoying whatever chocolate it is she's eating.

He coughs a little, to make his presence known and the woman stills, mid bite, turning slowly to look at him from over her shoulder. She sees him standing there and quickly averts her eyes, drops the wrapper, and pulls a napkin from nearby to wipe her mouth.

It all happens in a blink and then she's turning, smoothing out the sides of her straight hair and the crumbs from the top of her black turtleneck. Her pink tongue shoots out to scoop whatever might be left on her face before she's entirely ready to address him.

"We're closed, sorry" she says, muffled still by the last bite of chocolate.

"The door was open" he tells her, motioning behind him

She tilts her head a little, shiny hair falling over her shoulder like a curtain

"Okay" she drawls the word out long enough to stuff the wrapper out of sight "but its past eight and I have to close the store-"

"The sign says open" he interrupts again, this time adding "and I need rice"

Her eyebrow turns up a little, perhaps at his insistence and he's inclined to include " -Please"

She looks at him for a moment, openly for a couple blinks and then perhaps a bit shyly.

"Okay" she says again, moving out from behind the counter, deep purple pants on full display as she goes. He watches her move across the store in a couple skips, sneakers taking her there quietly. Her eyes are dark, wide, and expressive as they look around for her materials, a plastic bag, a scooper--her nails are a pale shade of pink and she wears a simple bracelet around her wrist, the tiny beads catching the light as her hands move quickly, probably in a rush to get home