Alternate Ending 2 Chapter 4

"You could have had me anytime you wanted me!" Mac exclaimed.

"How was I to know that, Sarah? You were as good at keeping your feelings a secret as I was."

"All these years…if we had only…"

"Broken regulations?" AJ asked when she trailed off.

"No, that wouldn't have been right for either of us." Looking around and realizing they were still in the middle of the store, she asked, "What should we do now?"

"Why don't we finish up our shopping and then go somewhere we can talk?"

She shyly nodded, the look in his eyes was something she had always dreamed of seeing and now that she was, she was unsure how to handle it. Shopping would give her some time to get a handle on things.

Pulling a model of coffee maker off the shelf and putting it in her cart he said, "Let me recommend this one, it has a timer so you can set it to start brewing before you are up or when you are in the shower and a sensor so if you forget to turn it off it will do that itself, it also makes up to fourteen cups at a time and has a very strong setting on brew selection."

"Wow you read my mind, that's exactly what I need! How did you know?"

"We're more alike than you know, Sarah. That's the same one I have at home."

"Oh," she sighed softly. With a smile she told him that was all she had come for and asked what it was he was shopping for since his cart was still empty.

"Actually I just flew in this morning and stopped here to get groceries. McLean doesn't have a super Wal-mart yet."

"Well then let's go and get your groceries."

"But if we're going to your place to talk then I have to unload the perishables so they won't spoil and then when I am ready to go, load them back up again to take them home. It might be better if I just waited to get them until I was actually going home."

Disappointed that she wouldn't have a little time to adjust to the situation, she sighed and said, "Well then I guess we can leave now."

With an understanding smile he said, "I think our talk will take some time. Why don't you stop and pick us up a pizza for lunch while I pick up a few things to throw together for dinner? If that is alright with you, Sarah?"

"That's fine," she sighed in relief. It would also give her a few minutes to race home and do a mad dash to clean it while she waited for a pizza to be delivered.

As AJ shopped for special things to make Sarah for dinner, he found himself whistling. He received a broad smile from the check out clerk and an offer of her phone number. With a feeling of shock at her boldness, he politely declined, telling her that he was taken. Or at least he hoped that by the end of the night that statement would be true.

Carrying the groceries down the hallway to Sarah's apartment, AJ knocked on the door and waited for her to open it. After an unusually long wait the door swung open with the breathless Sarah motioning him inside. Just as she closed the door behind him the doorbell rang. Turning to watch her go back to the door, he asked, "Were you expecting someone else?"

"No it's probably just the pizza. I had it delivered."

"But I thought that you were going to pick it up on the way home?"

Thinking quickly she told the first lie that came to mind, "I couldn't wait to get home and plug in my new coffee maker!"

Hiding a grin behind a cough he gently asked, "Oh, you mean the one still here on your coffee table?"

"Yes, well I got a phone…okay you caught me I raced home to clean up a bit! There are you happy?" she sighed.

"Sarah, you didn't have to go to any special trouble for me. I don't care if you dust or not, I just want to talk about what you said to me in the store."

"I didn't have time to dust, I was picking up the laundry that I had sorted this morning in the middle of the living room floor!" she admitted with a blush.

"Oh I see," he laughed at the thought of arriving amid piles of her under things. A tempting thought indeed.

To be continued…