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“No, I’m not on the pill,” Carly muttered.
“You’d better grab some of your girly shit while we’re here.”
Carly’s blush remained firmly in place at his words. She walked the few paces over to the feminine hygiene aisle and grabbed several boxes of tampons, which she stuffed to the bottom of the cart. She didn’t know why she was so embarrassed about it when Justin didn’t seem to be.
He came back with a small shopping basket filled with drugs.
“What is all that?”
“Antibiotics, mostly. A few pain-killers, though the junkies already got most of those. A couple other odds and ends.”
Carly wondered why he thought he’d need so many antibiotics. Maybe he had some health issues.
They collected what food was left on the shelves. Very little in the way of canned goods remained. Sam bumped Carly’s leg twice more with cans in his mouth. Justin stared. “Did you train him to do that?”
Carly shook her head. “I think he just figured out I want cans, so he’s bringing them to me.” Sam couldn’t differentiate between the cans, though. One had been a diet soda, which she opened and gulped down on the spot, only afterward thinking she ought to have offered Justin a drink. She flushed again and dropped the empty can, but he shrugged and said he disliked diet soda, anyway.
They went into the next aisle, and Carly struggled to push the cart past a fallen rack of batteries. Justin took control of it and swung the cart to the side with ease.
“Hard to believe I once went to the gym twice a week,” she said.
“You haven’t been eating enough. That’s what this is for.” Justin held up a can of powdered weight-loss shake.
“How’s that going to help?”
“You mix up a shake to drink along with what you’re eating. It gives you the extra calories and vitamins you might be missing.”
Justin headed back to the stock room but paused in the doorway and told her to wait where she was. Carly wondered what he’d seen but shrugged and spent the next few minutes in the health and beauty aisle, where she selected a few sticks of deodorant and some leave-in spray conditioner that might help contain the frizzy mess her hair had become. She saw a row of baby wipes and flung a few large packets into the cart. If she couldn’t shower, she could at least wipe herself down. It was better than nothing, she supposed.
Justin returned, carrying a case of liquor. Carly’s eyes widened. “Headed to a kegger this weekend?”
“Trade goods,” he explained and dropped the case into a second cart that had been abandoned nearby. “It’s a pain-killer, a disinfectant, and a good time, all rolled into one.”
They rolled the carts back up to the front of the store, and Carly pulled her checkbook out of her pocket.
“Don’t worry about it,” Justin told her. “Besides, I hate waiting in line behind someone who’s writing a check.”
Carly gave him a small smile. She knew he was joking to soften the reaction his words were bound to have, and she appreciated it. She considered for a moment and then put her checkbook back into her pocket. He was probably right. Even if the owner of the store returned, who would be at the bank to cash her check? “How are we going to carry all of this?” Her tote wouldn’t hold it all.
“We’ll just wheel the carts back to your place.”
Carly swallowed back a protest about stealing the carts when she considered the fact everything inside the carts was stolen as well.
“Is there a gun shop here?” Justin asked.
“On the other side of the bridge.”
“Care to take a stroll with me?”
Carly smiled at him. “Certainly.”
They walked down 10th Street toward the bridge. Sam trotted beside her, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. He looked happy, and it made her heart lighten a bit. “You said you were from Omaha. Is that where your family is?”
For a moment, Carly didn’t think he was going to answer, and she regretted asking the question.
“I don’t have any family.”
“Are they all... gone?”
