Sally was standing in the checkout queue, bored, waiting for her turn at the till. Her mind was empty, eyes focussed upon nothing in particular as she went through the ritual sequence of the family shop. A necessary job, but one that she found utterly thankless as her husband and family took it for granted that the fridge and cupboards would be full and bountiful whenever they looked for a snack or a biscuit as the urge took them.
She listlessly placed the items in the trolley onto the conveyor, and then packed the groceries into carrier bags one by one after the dull girl behind the till had scanned them. Just as Sally had placed all of the bulging plastic bags into her trolley and collected her bankcard she looked up to see a tall man looking at her from another aisle. He was gazing so intently at her that Sally felt a blush bloom hotly over her cheeks. Surely, he's not looking at me? She thought as her eyes dropped instinctively, avoiding his gaze.
Sally surreptitiously checked to see if the man was in fact looking at her. As she looked at him from behind her hanging fringe, he actually had the audacity to wink at her, smiling to himself with amusement when he caught her in the act of checking.
With her round, pretty face glowing with embarrassment; Sally hurried away from the checkout, pushing her trolley hurriedly in her haste to be free of the man's stare, when suddenly she was accosted by a voice from behind. 'Excuse me... excuse me, but you dropped your card.'
Sally stopped and turned; the man was holding her bankcard out towards her. 'You dropped your card,' he repeated.
'Oh...' Sally's face felt hot and glowing as she took the proffered card. 'Thank you...' Not knowing what to say, her voice trailed off.
'I saw you in the queue,' the man said. 'Sorry I was so rude; staring like that,' he continued. 'I hope you'll forgive me, but I think you're very attractive.' His bluntness made Sally blink in surprise. She had never been spoken to so forthrightly before, especially with regard to her attractiveness, or lack of it as she had come to regard herself. Ever since she'd reached forty, four years earlier, Sally had resigned herself to the view that she was now well within dowdy middle age.
In her younger years she had turned a few heads, but nowadays she regarded herself as too 'mumsy' and was very surprised to hear anyone speak to her in such a tone. She still had the generous bosom she'd always possessed, and did her best to keep herself presentable, but even so the man's comment took her by surprise.
Flustered, Sally thanked the man once more and turned to continue her journey out to the car park. She opened her car's rear door when she arrived so that she could place her shopping bags on the back seat and was startled by the man's continued presence. 'Jesus!' she exclaimed when she noticed him standing there. 'You scared the wits out of me.'
'Sorry,' he said quickly. 'I didn't mean to scare you.' He held his hands out and took a step backwards as though to show Sally he had no malicious intent.
'What do you want?' Sally asked, her voice rising sharply.
'Well...' he began. 'I'd like to ask you out for a drink sometime,' the confidence slipping out of his voice before he hurriedly continued, 'I'm not a lunatic or anything β I just think you're really sexy, and I'd like to get to know you a bit better.'
'You don't waste any time, do you?' Sally said as she slowly regained her composure.