hey had gotten home not five minutes ago, and Joe was already being sent out to grab some milk, on his mom’s orders. It was incredibly unfair that, out of the two brothers able to drive, Joe had to go out and not Kevin. But Kevin was oldest, so he always got his way, and Kevin was in the mood to be lazy and “reunite” with the lovely Danielle. Bastard. Really, he just wanted to make out with her. The two of them could have gone together and then made out on the way home. That would have been perfect for them.
Joe drove over the speed limit on the way to Target, even though it was only five minutes away, annoyed that he couldn’t plop down on his bed and take a long nap like he had been planning. They had just flown home and been gone for nearly a month, and all he wanted was to go to sleep in his own bed. Nothing sounded better than that at this point. Well, seeing Chloe would definitely be better. It would be the best thing ever. But when Joe called after the plane landed, she didn’t answer her phone. He called five times. And left five voicemails. And he still hadn’t gotten an answer back. He figured she must be at work or her phone had died. Joe refused to believe that she was ignoring him, although in all reality, that was another, easy, possibility.
As Joe pulled into Target’s parking lot, he saw a slightly beat-up black Jetta parked near the back of the lot. It was Chloe’s car; Joe would have been able to recognize that car anywhere, rain or shine. So she was working then. Joe was relieved that she hadn’t been ignoring him. Maybe they would run into each other. Joe secretly thanked Kevin for being such a bastard.
He smiled to himself while walking through the parking lot, thinking of different ideas of how he could surprise Chloe. He couldn’t wait to see her smile again. It was so hard for him to remember it these days.
Joe set out into the store, heading straight to where he knew the milk was located, head turning left and right as he walked. No sign of Chloe yet. He stopped when he reached the dairy section and located the correct kind of milk – 2%, the best kind, of course. As he was reaching out his arm to open the door and grab the milk, he saw something out of the corner of his eye – a figure stopping at the end of the aisle. He paused mid-reach to look up at the person, but they abruptly started walking away. Forgetting the milk, Joe straightened up and squinted down the end of the aisle, catching the last glimpse of a brown ponytail hurrying away. It was Chloe. Joe knew without a doubt. The whole occurrence happened in probably less than a second, but Joe was certain it was her. But why would Chloe walk away from him? Didn’t she want to see him? Maybe she didn’t realize it was him. But Joe didn’t think so. Slightly confused, Joe left the milk aisle in pursuit of the brown ponytail and red shirt.
She must have heard his footsteps following her, or expected him to pursue her, because as he rounded the end of the aisle, the ponytail was just disappearing down a new aisle. Joe didn’t want to look crazy running after this girl, but he hurried his footsteps nonetheless. He rounded the corner again to see her face looking back at him as she rounded the other end of this aisle. He saw her face for barely two seconds, but he could still tell that the look on her face was not one of playfulness. She was deliberately walking away from him. Joe was confused, and hurried his pace a little more, an unwilling participant in this chase game. He just wanted to see his girl. He had absolutely no idea why she would literally be running away from him.
Finally, after rounding several more corners and half jogging, half walking down about twenty aisles, Joe just started sprinting after her. He was sick of this. When he finally caught up to her, he grabbed her arm to pull her around; he grabbed it lightly, and was in no way hurting her, yet she yanked her arm out of his grip as she turned around and looked up at him with an almost defiant look on her face.
A look of confusion spreading across his face, Joe said, “Hey.”
Chloe, avoiding looking directly into his eyes and looking instead at the shelf of cereal behind him answered with a short, “Hi.”
