Page 32 of One More Shot
She hasn’t noticed me yet, so I get a few seconds of unashamed ogling as she slowly pushes a trolley down the aisle. Her brows are furrowed as she squints at something on her phone. Whatever it is makes her roll her eyes and shake her head before she grabs something off the shelf and tosses it into her trolley.
Even under the almost fluorescent lighting in this supermarket, Eliott makes me stop in my tracks. It’s like I’ve got tunnel vision and she’s the light at the end of it all.
Her dark curls are pulled into a bun with a silk scarf loosely wrapped around the front, and the leggings she’s wearing are practically a second skin, showing off delicious, soft curves.
Curves I’d very much love to have pressed up against me right now.
She chooses that moment to look up. Her eyes widen as she spots me down the aisle, and her perfect lips drop open in surprise. For a second I think she’s about to turn and run, but then she seems to remember the promise she made back at the restaurant and the look of surprise makes way for something else.
It’s a weird mix of delight and irritation and I wonder which of the two is going to win.
‘Let me guess,’ she drawls as she rolls the trolley to a stop beside me. ‘You were hoping to bump into me?’
Well.
Yeah, actually. I’d be a terrible liar if I couldn’t admit to myself that I’ve spent the last week trying and failing to come up with an excuse to message her again. If I’d have known all it took was to just rush out to the supermarket for some emergency snacks, I would’ve done this days ago.
I flash her an easy grin. ‘Am I that easy to read?’
Eliott hums and looks me up and down. When she meets my gaze again, she’s smiling and I swear my heart forgets how to beat. ‘An open book.’
Tension I hadn’t realised was thrumming through my body suddenly evaporates.
Delight, it is.
I lean across her trolley and drop my voice just a little. ‘So, tell me. What else are you picking up on?’
Eliott’s got the kind of face where, every time you look at her –reallylook at her – you notice something new. Like the smattering of dark, tiny moles that crest along her cheekbones. Or the way she bites her bottom lip slightly when she’s holding back a laugh.
‘What’s so funny?’ I ask.
‘Nothing,’ she says, eyes twinkling. ‘I just… I was just wondering.’
‘Wondering what?’
‘Do you ever switch it off?’
I blink. ‘Huh?’
Eliott leans against the trolley. ‘You know…’ She gestures in the general area surrounding me. ‘This wholeshtick.’
Another blink. Another, ‘Huh?’
She looks at me curiously for a few long moments before she shakes her head. ‘Nothing. Don’t worry about it.’ She starts pushing her trolley back in the direction she came from and I follow without hesitation.
‘Do you live round here?’ I ask, praying I’ve managed to keep the blatant hopefulness out of my voice.
Judging from the amused look she gives me, I’ve failed. But she doesn’t mention it. Instead, she shakes her head again. ‘I don’t. I’m closer to where we met that one time…’ She clears her throat and pointedly looks away. ‘The warehouse? Remember?’
That’s right. She’d only been a fifteen-minute Uber ride from the party two years ago.
‘So, what’re you doing here?’ I ask. We’re a good thirty minutes away from her place, and I’m sure there are closer supermarkets around.
‘My grandmother lives down the road from here,’ she says, after a brief moment of hesitation. ‘I’m heading overto hers now, and she asked if I could grab her a couple of things on my way.’
I glance at the trolley. It’s packed to the brim with groceries. Definitely not what I’d call ‘a couple of things’.
‘What about you?’ she asks. ‘Do you live close by?’
