Close Call (900 Words)

Justin was turning thirty in two weeks. It wasn’t just getting older that was depressing; it was that he was doing it alone. He would have given anything for a family, a woman to talk to, or just a person to call on the phone.

After trying church groups, reading clubs and online dating websites, Justin was still shopping at the supermarket by himself, for himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t meet people; it was just getting the point that anyone else that was single at thirty was single for a reason. Maybe I’m the same. He thought, Maybe I’m somehow dysfunctional. Maybe I should have stayed with Kristen, she cheated on me, but, well…

It was his Sunday routine, go to the supermarket, buy food, toilet paper and wallow in self-loathing. Maybe I should take drinking more seriously? He wondered as he walked down the aisle lined with fruit juice.



Ashley hated taking her kids shopping with her. She loved them to death, always would, but as any parent knows; kids in a supermarket become intoxicated by the new things that they see.

Tommy just couldn’t help but touch everything he could reach, laying his hands on ever product along every aisle. When Ashley told him to stop he would ask why, she would answer and he would ask why again. The cycle was repeated over and over and over and over. The word why was a magical utterance that got mommy to just leave him alone if he said it enough.

Alexis would bring things back to the cart and try to sneak them in when Ashley wasn’t looking. It was her own game, get mommy to buy things she didn’t want to. Sometimes Tommy would pick up on this game and start playing it also. When it got to two on one Ashley was hopelessly outmatched.

Part of her just wanted to break down, between keeping Tommy and Alexis in line, to keep them from opening boxes and looking for the prizes promised by cereal companies, took the majority of her attention. Ashley practically ignored baby Hannah in the seat of the basket. Even as a little being that couldn’t walk yet her eyes seemed to be studying how Tommy and Alexis pushed their mommy to the limit. Baby Hannah was a young grasshopper learning the oldest art of humanity.

A man, a good man, was all that Ashley wanted. Her husband had left her while he was on duty across seas. That lousy bastard didn’t even have the nerve to come back and tell his kids goodbye, instead he sent a post card saying that he wouldn’t be back and that his heart had been stolen by a brown skinned Thai woman. Ashley would have given anything to have an adult on her side, a hand here and an eye there. A date once a week, or once a month, would be well worth the price of a baby sitter. She would have given almost anything for a good man, but she didn’t have the time, and wouldn’t know where to start looking anyways, approaching thirty with three kids… the last time she had dated was nearly a decade ago and exclusively involved bars and nightclubs with her friends.

Ashley sighed and looked down at her shopping list; she was up to apple juice. As she turned the corner to the juice aisle Tommy reached for the bottom can of a display. Ashley was a master in the ancient art of mothering, her hand flashed out and grabbed Tommy’s arm before it could get a grip on the key structural support of the can tower. Her eyebrows rose as a warning not to try those shenanigans again.




In the center of the juice aisle there was a curse of pain as a shopping cart ran into the back of Justin’s heel. The curse was followed by profuse apologies from Ashley, who began scolding Tommy for what happened because she had to watch his every move, while Justin rubbed the back of his foot with his hand. Alexis slipped a pack of Squeeze It’s in the bottom of the basket and baby Hannah discovered that her fingers tasted amazing.

Justin looked up just as Ashley did and their eyes met.

He saw a tired woman, pretty though, with kids, who was probably married. A woman who, he assumed, would never know the misery of being alone.

She saw a nice looking man shopping by himself, he looked successful, a man who had the ability to shop in peace.

Ashley opened her mouth to apologize again, then a crazy thought crossed her mind, maybe he was single? She snapped her mouth shut again, after saying that she was really sorry. A nice looking man like him wouldn’t be single, and if he was he’d have a whole cart of issues.

Justin told her it was ok, he understood. He flexed his ankle and then looked back at the woman who was beginning to walk off, just because she has kids doesn’t mean she’s married, he thought. His mouth was opening up, he was about to be friendly, but he thought the better of it. Instead he would go get a bottle of some hard alcohol and play Halo tonight….