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What the fuck was I thinking?
I pause long enough to watch him dig through some cartons of yogurt, fucking up the whole lot of them before he finds the one with the latest expiration date.
Call it nosiness or fear or just plain stupidity, but whatever the reason is that I stopped, I stopped just long enough for him to notice me.
The gasp that falls from my lips is practically audible from where Nate stands as I hightail it around the corner and curse this stupid small town grocery store and myself.
“Lauren?” I hear Nate call and in my panic to get away from him, I take the corner a little too sharply colliding with an end cap filled with potato chips. I send about half the chips to the floor and then proceed to run the bags over with my cart.
Fuck my life. How and why does this shit happen to me?
I can hear Nate’s feet jogging toward me and my chip debacle, and I do what any self-respecting woman avoiding her ex who left her at the alter would do. I ditch my cart full of groceries and beeline for the nearest aisle.
I nearly run until I reach the end and hide at the end cap on the opposite side, my heart racing and my breathing coming in hard pants as I realize I should really hit the gym more often. Not that I expected to be trying to outrun my ex in the grocery store today.
I’m spread out; my back against the shelving full of pickle jars with my legs wide, making sure the end cap hides my entire body. I look ridiculous and I know it, but I’m still standing like a boozy teenager hiding from the cops after an underage party bust.
I pull my phone from my purse and text Ellen. She’s my voice of reason since clearly my voice was left back with the smashed bags of potato chips.
Me: OMFG!! Nate is in the grocery store and I’m hiding from him. What should I do????
Ellen: Um, wtf. Just leave.
Me: He’s going to see me.
Ellen: So just walk out and don’t acknowledge him. I’m about to get on the Matterhorn so figure this shit out.
Me: ELLEN!!!
This is the best advice I’m going to get so I guess I gotta go with it.
I peer around the corner in an attempt to be stealthy and ninja-like but I fail miserably because I come face to face with Nate.
Fuck my life once again.
Instead of acknowledging him, I turn on my heel and attempt to walk in the opposite direction, but he grabs my arm, stilling me.
“Lauren, where are you going?” he asks like we’re friends and I’m the one being rude.
How dare he be here on my quiet shopping day! How dare he show up here when he doesn’t even live in this town!
When I finally stop moving and make eye contact with him, he’s smiling and I want to claw his eyes out. He still acts like he didn’t try to ruin my life, that he didn’t take control of something and make it all about him. He obviously thinks embarrassment fades faster than my pre-wedding spray on tan. He’s wrong.
“What are you doing here?” I hiss, yanking my arm from his grasp.
“Shopping,” he replies holding up his basket of perfectly selected cartons of yogurt.
“You don’t live here!” I shout and a man walking by mutters something about people not living in grocery stores. I really want to tell him to mind his own damn business, but I’m distracted by Nate’s ability to ruin everything.
“It’s a grocery store, Lauren. It’s open to the public…”
But I cut him off before he can say anything more. “You’re here because of me and you fucking know it. Leave me alone.”
Nate chuckles and shakes his head. “I’m here because I’m shopping and if I happened to run into you on a Wednesday morning, then great.”
He had absolutely no interest in the things I did while we were engaged and the fact that he remembers my shopping schedule makes me irate.
“Listen, Nate. I have no interest in getting back together with you and I’m not just playing hard to get. I’m happy, happier than I ever was when we were together, so for the love of fuck, leave me alone.”
