"Coffee."

Connie held out the jar to Max who was pushing the trolley behind her.

"Coffee."

He repeated as he took it and nestled it into the shopping at the bottom of the trolley.

"Do you have milk?"

She asked, wondering briefly where the dairy aisle was. She had a vague feeling that they'd already passed it.

"Max?"

She glanced round. Max was leaning against the metal shelves, head bowed, seemingly deeply engrossed in a packet of tea bags.

"Max?"

She crossed the aisle back to him and he raised his eyes, quickly looking over his shoulder at a woman who was retrieving something from a shelf and placing it into her basket. She was young, blonde, and startlingly pretty.

Connie watched her as she backed out of the aisle having found what it was that she was looking for.

"She's gone."

She said flatly, and Max relaxed, his shoulders lowering and he pushed the tea bags back onto the shelf so that they were facing the wrong way.

"Who was that?"

She asked, turning the tea bags around so that their label faced outwards.

"Oh...ex-girlfriend."

He muttered, avoiding eye contact and looking down at what they had in the trolley.

"You didn't want to see her?"

Connie asked, watching as said ex-girlfriend reappeared and passed by the top of the aisle.

"Um...no."

He paused, his cheeks were flushed.

"She cheated on me with a friend...a female friend. Nothing to do with my sexual performance I hasten to add."

"These things usually aren't."

She murmured and he began pushing the trolley into 'frozen foods'.

"So you're not quite over her?"

She asked slowly, watching him out of the corner of her eye. Watching how he shook his head.

"No, I'm over her."

He said and glanced at her, her eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"I am! She kissed like a hoover. Even if she were the last woman on the planet...and the leader of an alien attack force forced me at ray-gunpoint to kiss her on the cheek, and I'd already been warned, through an interpreter, that he would blow up the world if I didn't, I still wouldn't. That's how much she means to me."

He gushed and she smiled at his discomfort – it was oddly endearing that he felt it necessary to justify himself to her.

"Good answer, but betray the whole planet for a kiss? - A bit cavalier, isn't it?"

She mused, by passing the frozen deserts.

"I said there were no other people left...It wouldn't matter."

He muttered, quickening his pace to keep up with her as they moved into long gleaming aisle of bottles of alcoholic beverages.

"They might come back? They might be hiding on another planet."

She let slip a smile of amusement as she spoke, and he placed a hand on the bar of the trolley to stop it, realising suddenly that she was not only winding him up, but that she was enjoying it.

"Well, I would kiss her and then fall on my sword."

He stated firmly, his hand still next to hers on the trolley, a finger raised, running along the top of her knuckles.

"You have a sword?"

She smiled and he bit the skin of his bottom lip, nodding.

"Yep. And It wouldn't even be a proper kiss."

He added and she drew in a breath, frowning slightly, contemplating his words before looking back up at him.

"What's a proper ki-"

Before she could finish her sentence he dipped his head to hers, kissing her with a suddenness that startled her. His lips were warm and soft and pressed so firmly against her own that she had little choice but to kiss him back..to touch her tongue against his...shivering as he placed a hand to her jaw, his fingers just touching the skin behind her ear whilst his thumb rested at the very corner of her mouth.

"Good to see you two are getting on so well."

A voice that they both recognised startled them and Max broke the kiss, stepping back away from her so quickly that he stumbled into another customer, who swore under his breath as Max mumbled a half-heard apology while the other man moved away.

"Charlie!"

Connie touched her fingers to her lips. She could still feel Max's kiss, could still taste him in her mouth. She glanced across at him.

"Just be glad it wasn't your sister."

Charlie said, still smiling, and he nodded to Max who stood very still in the middle of the aisle, unsure what to do with himself.

"We were just..."

Connie began, but tailed off when she realised she could think of no other reasons as to why they had been doing what they were doing.

"You were kissing."

Charlie said matter of factly, and Connie let out an exhale that sounded as strangled as it felt.

"I'm glad to see you're looking happier, Connie."

He added, and he placed a hand against her arm, squeezing it gently as he moved passed them, giving a brief nod to Max as he went.

More soon! xxx