She moaned and shook her head, tugging that bottom lip with her teeth. Her lids lowered, and it was like she was having some kind of fucking out of body experience.
“Holy moly. I cannot believe my eyes right now.”
Red clouded my vision. It made no sense. I hardly knew her. She was probably ten years younger and way too sweet. About as far from my type as one could get. Why should it matter to me if she got all hot and bothered over some fucker in a grocery store warehouse?
What was her type? Nerdy computer guy? Fancy doctor? I turned my head to see who she was ogling, glad that Costco had that no gun policy because I didn’t need to go to jail today.
5
LEXIE
“The fuck?” my grumpy companion snarled.
“I know, right?” I gazed lovingly at the bright orange bags of Reese’s animal crackers. “I can’t even comprehend what I’m seeing right now. An animal cracker topped with Reese’s peanut butter and covered in Reese’s chocolate? Can you even imagine something so delicious?” I sighed, picturing how wonderful that would taste. “Ooh, and how about crumbled over a bowl of vanilla ice cream? Oh God,” I moaned again, closing my eyes.
“Animal crackers? All this,”—he waved his hand in front of my face—“is for fucking animal crackers?”
I opened my eyes, blinking away the images of food porn. “Um, were you listening? Those aren’t just animal crackers. They’re Reese’s animal crackers. I’ve never seen them here before. They must be new. Sorry, I guess I got a little excited.” I chuckled knowing I’d actually gotten a lot excited.
He mumbled something that sounded a lot like “Goddamnit” and pushed our cart next to the display. Then he stuck out his giant, muscled arm and swept all the bags into his already overloaded cart.
“Bear!” I laughed, shaking my head. “You can’t do that. Those aren’t on the list and we’ve got to stick to the budget.”
He shrugged, looking ridiculously hot in his grumpy state. Although, how Reese’s animal crackers could make anyone grumpy, I had no idea. Maybe grumpy was his default. Like he had resting grump face.
“Consider them part of your tip. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
He pushed our cart to the check out and we began unloading the items onto the belt.
“I’ve got it,” he huffed out, apparently still in his feelings. Maybe it was a guy thing of him wanting to load up the groceries, but come on. They were just groceries.
“And I can help. Besides, you need to let Alex scan your Costco card so he can ring you up.”
He groaned, knowing I had him there, and reached for his wallet. I glanced over as he opened it and couldn’t help the gasp of wonder that escaped me. How had I missed it before?
“You have a black card,” I said, awe in my voice.
“Yeah, babe, I do.” His expression changed to a smirk, as if he’d finally figured something out. “Is that important to you?”
I watched as he pulled out his card and handed it to Alex. “Absolutely,” I said, nodding while he shook his head, looking disappointed. He shoved the card back in his wallet and took out a second black card. An Amex if I wasn’t mistaken.
“An executive membership means you’re a frequent shopper, and you get 3% back at the end of the year. I’ve never spent enough to make the extra membership fee worthwhile, but one day I will.”
He stared at me, a look of confusion over his face. “Executive membership?” he asked. “Don’t you mean ‘American Express’?”
I chuckled, tossing more items on the belt now that Alex was scanning. “Uh, no. I don’t care about credit cards. Debt is the last thing I need in my life. But an executive Costco membership?” I sighed. “Now that is sexy. Especially now that they let you in an hour before everyone else. You did know that, right? That you didn’t have to wait outside with the rest of us gold members?”
Alex laughed as he rang up the final items. “Preach, Lexie girl. Who needs the country club when you can have the warehouse club?”
“Right on. I’ll take the $1.50 hotdog and soda over stuffed pheasant with blueberry sauce any day.” I burst into laughter and looked at Bear. His mouth was twitching, and the weight on my chest lightened.
I said goodbye and asked Bear if we needed to grab any boxes to organize the food in. He shook his head, saying there were storage bins in the back of his truck. As we waited to have our items counted at the exit, I bumped my shoulder into his side.
“Are you okay? You seemed a little put out when we were loading up the groceries.” I was pretty sure it was a him problem and not a me problem. But growing up I’d learned it was best to apologize for whatever imaginary slight I’d done. Apologizing would give him his power back. He could blame everything on me and we could move on. It sucked, but I needed this job to be successful. If only ten out of the hundred guests spread the word about my skills, that could lead to another job. And then another and another. But first, I needed to make sure Bear and I had a good working relationship. Even if I kinda wanted to jump his bones.
He sighed and looked at me. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. As long as you stick toogling animal crackers, it won’t happen again. Unless you want to ogle me.” He grinned and his brown eyes sucked me in.
My mouth dropped. That was not what I was expecting. An apology and—did he just hit on me?
