Piper picked up a melon.
She inspected it thoroughly as she slowly turned it over in her hands.
She lightly pressed her thumb in a strategic spot, near where the vine was once connected.
Once more with her other thumb.
She brought it up to her nose and inhaled. "Perfect."
She moved onto the avocados. For every fruit and vegetable Piper had a particular way to see if the fruit was ripe enough to consume, but not overly ripe. She'd read countless articles and took this task rather seriously.
Piper had been in the produce section for nearly half an hour now. She had a grapefruit in each hand when she heard someone laugh and looked up, having completely forgotten she was in public, so absorbed she was in her shopping.
"Those are very nice." said the woman on the other side of the produce stand looking briefly down at the grapefruits Piper was holding.
"Thank you." She said as she placed them in her cart and moved on to the limes.
"You seem to have this whole... process all worked out."
"Picking fruit isn't rocket science, but it's not as easy as just not picking the bruised ones. There's an art to it."
"An art?" She says barely holding back a laugh.
"Yes an art." Piper states matter of factly.
"How does one learn this art? Or is this a talent you've gotta be born with?"
"Well, I took a class at the farmer's market a few months ago and-"
"You took a class?!" This time the woman laughs a little louder.
"Yes I took a class. What's wrong with taking a class?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all." She says with a smile still lingering on her face.
"Not that I have to justify myself to you, but ever since I took that class, I've never gotten fruit that wasn't perfect."
Making her way around the stand she stops about two feet away from Piper. "Alright then. Let's see you in action. Help me pick out some limes."
Piper sighs exasperatedly.
"I'm serious! I need limes. Please help me, oh wise fruit lady."
Piper can barely hide the smile she's threatening to give the other woman. "Ok, the trick to picking a good lime is making sure they're smooth. And also that the peel isn't too thick."
"Why?"
"Because then they'll be bitter and juiceless."
About 10 minutes later Piper hands the woman a bag with half a dozen limes. "Ok here you go. Perfect limes."
"Well, would you look at that. Perfect limes. Since you're so good at this, how about you help me pick out a few other things." And she walked towards the other end of the stand where she picked up a plum and a mango.
"Ok for mangoes the trick is to smell them. And also the greener the peel, the more unripe it is. Go ahead and try picking one out."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"Oh, come on, don't be like that. Try it, it's fun!"
The woman rolls her eyes but still picks up a mango. After a few minutes of sniffing mangoes she speaks up, "I can't tell the difference between any of these. They all smell the same."
"No they don't. Keep trying." She goes back to picking out the best ones.
"This fruit is defective."
Piper smiles at what she hears and hands the woman two produce bags with the most perfect mangoes and plums. "Here you go."
As Piper handed her the bags the woman hands her a grapefruit. Piper doesn't understand why, but still accepts it.
"l picked that one myself. Let me know if I did a good job choosing the perfect grapefruit." And just like that she walked away from the produce section.
As she looks down at the fruit she sees a name and phone number written on it and smiles to herself.
For the next couple days every time Piper walked into her kitchen she'd stare at the grapefruit. She positioned it so the name and number were visible from pretty much anywhere in her small kitchen.
On Friday Piper was on her way back from yoga when she texts her best friend.
I'm almost home. Come on over.
And so a little after Piper arrived home she hears the front door open and someone call out, "It's me!"
About to shower she just calls out from her room, "hey, Polly. I'm gonna take a shower really quick, ok?"
20 minutes later Piper walks out of her room and down the hallway. "Ok now tell me everything about your date. Don't leave out a single detail."
The two make their way to the kitchen as Polly talks.
"First off he was late. Not like 'I stopped to help a little old lady cross the street and I'm so charming you won't be mad late", no he was forty minutes late. I almost left-"
"Coffee?" She asks as she pulls a new brick from the cupboard and opens it.
"Yes, please. I was getting up and had even already paid for my drink when he just strolls in. Can you BELIEVE that?!"
Piper's emptying the coffee grinds into a jar and goes to toss the wrapper away when she notices Polly took out her trash. "Hey, thanks, Pol. You didn't have to do that, you know."
"Yes, I did, honey. It smelled… foul. Worse than the time in college you started composting."
Piper smiles fondly at the memory, but stays focused. "So, did you stay or not?"
"Of course I stayed. He's cute and has an accent."
Piper smiles as she's fixing them coffee. "So come on tell me more about him!"
"He's so sweet! He nearly punched a guy for swearing in front of a lady. And I was the lady."
Piper laughs and sets the mugs down on the small table in the kitchen. "What's this sweet, possibly violent, gentleman's name?"
As Polly takes a sip from her mug and sits back a little in her chair the counter behind her becomes visible. Piper absently looks for her grapefruit. THE grapefruit.
"His name is-"
"Alex"
"No, it's Pete."
"Where's Alex?!"
"Who's Alex?"
"The grapefruit"
"...you name your fruit?"
"What? No! Did you see a grapefruit on this counter? It was the only one left. Did you see it?"
"Yeah. I got hungry while you were showering. I would've eaten breakfast at Pete's but all he had was beer."
"Polly, I'm going to ask you a yes or no question: did you eat the grapefruit?"
"...yes?"
"Polly! You can't just... walk into someone's kitchen and just... eat their fruit!"
"Way to over react, Piper. I mean, seriously, it's a piece of FRUIT."
"No, it's not just a piece of fruit, Polly! I needed that grapefruit. I wasn't done yet."
"You aren't making any sense!"
"YOU ATE ALEX."
"WHO IS ALEX?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WEREN'T DONE?!"
Piper tries to calm herself down. "Alex is the woman from the grocery store."
"Woman from the grocery store? Oh! The woman from the grocery store." Polly nods in understanding. "Wait, what does a grapefruit have to do with her? And why on EARTH did you accuse me of 'eating Alex'?!"
They both sit again and Piper explains the whole thing.
"Why didn't you just write it down somewhere?"
"Because I didn't expect anyone to throw the peel away after they ate it. And then take my garbage out."
"I'm not apologizing for cleaning up after myself."
"Wait. You said... you would've had breakfast at Pete's... oh my god Polly you did not!"
"I did!"
"Is he any good?"
"Have you honestly ever seen me smile this much this early?"
Piper smiles at her friend, "here let me get you more coffee."
Piper had lost Alex's number. And the only logical way, to Piper, of getting it back was to run into Alex again at the one place she'd seen her before. The grocery store.
She sat down and worked out all the variables. She concluded that since it'd been a week since she had gone, Alex would also need to go again this weekend. So she worked out the possible times that she might stop by. But since she didn't know a single a thing about Alex, she didn't have a clue as to when her usual time was or if she'd even go. The only option left was to go to the supermarket every day at varying times on the off chance that she'd see Alex. She'd repeated all this to herself enough times to make it sound logical and normal.
Piper grabbed her purse and her canvas bags and off she went to the grocery store.
Eleven hours. That's the combined number of hours she'd spent in the grocery store the past weekend in hopes that she'd see Alex.
She had a basket hanging on her arm with a few random items inside she'd picked up while not so casually walking around the store looking for Alex.
She was ambling along when she reached the dairy aisle and froze then immediately backed up. Slowly she peeked around the corner and spotted a tall woman with long dark hair. So, of course she stood there and just watched her for a few minutes. The woman had been in the dairy aisle for ten minutes already and didn't show any signs of leaving.
"Why is she so interested in cheese?" She whispered to herself and as the woman turned slightly she got a better view of her face. Ugh, that's not her.
"Because it's fucking delicious."
Piper nearly had a heart attack. She never expected to be caught spying.
"Hey, calm down, Blondie. I don't wanna have to call an ambulance."
After having composed herself Piper got a proper look at the person she was speaking to. A woman maybe half a foot shorter than her wearing white clothing and an apron that was also once white but was now stained with what looked to be blood.
The woman caught Piper's eyes widening and laughed. "Don't worry, it's not human blood."
"Oh ok."
"I'm a butcher. I work in the meat department."
"Oh, ok now that makes more sense."
"I know you."
"You know me?"
"Yeah, you're the one that's been in and outta this place all weekend. You should get a job here if you love it so much."
"I already have a job."
"Part time then."
Piper stared at this woman with narrowed eyes.
"I'm fucking with you, Blondie. Sheesh. I would never encourage anyone to work in this hell hole."
"Why do you work here then?"
"Because my landlord expects rent on a monthly basis. I thought it was a yearly payment."
Piper snorted.
"Yeah, he didn't find it so funny when I said that to him."
Piper smiled at her and saw her wearing a name tag. "Nicky N. The name suits you."
"Thanks. You gotta a name too or should I just keep calling you Blondie?"
"Piper C."
"Oh, you're so cute aren't you?" Nicky says sarcastically. "Alright now that we've got the pleasantries outta the way, I have a question."
"Ok, what is it?"
"What the fuck are you looking for?"
"Excuse me?"
"You've spent a worrisome amount of time in here this weekend. So, tell me what you need and I'll help you find it."
Piper glances in her basket and then looks back up at Nicky.
"Or actually tell me who you're looking for and I'll help you find 'em."
"What?"
"Oh, please. Don't act like I didn't catch you spying on the cheese lady over there." Nicky points towards the dairy aisle.
"I wasn't- no! I do not spy on people. That's impolite."
"Oh, Jesus." Nicky rolls her eyes. "You sound like my fucking mother. 'That's impolite'" She imitates her mother speaking.
"I beg your pardon."
"Not saying thank you is impolite. Spying? That's just fuckin' creepy. I'm gonna have to call the cops."
After staring at each other in silence for an entire minute Nicky cracks a smile.
"Oh, fuck you, Nicky. Jeez."
Nicky laughs and says to her, "now you sound like my friends."
Piper laughs a bit. "Thank you for an entertaining experience, but I'm afraid I've gotta go. I've begun drawing attention from the locals."
"Yeah, yeah. Don't be a stranger, Blondie."
Later that day Nicky walks into her apartment and goes straight to the kitchen for a beer. She leans on the counter, opens it and begins drinking. A few moments later Alex walks into the kitchen.
"You should wear that outfit for Halloween. That way if you make anyone bleed again this year no one will notice."
Nicky flips her off and holds it up for a bit.
"Aw for me? You shouldn't have."
"I go the extra mile for my friends."
Just then the doorbell rings.
"I ordered Thai, hope you're hungry."
Alex comes back and places the food on the counter. Nicky hands her a beer.
"How was your day?"
"Long and annoying. Every single one of the people that walked into that store is a fucking idiot." She passes Nicky a plate. "You?"
"I caught someone spying today and I'm pretty sure I nearly gave her a heart attack."
"Explain."
"Some blonde chick was spying on some lady in the dairy aisle. Then tried to deny it."
"And of course you were involved."
"You know it. But you know what the weird part was? She's been in and out of the store all weekend. At all different times and even more than once a day."
"Yeah, that is weird."
"At one point she got overly friendly with some grapefruits."
Alex puts her fork down. "Blond chick. Did she smell the grapefruit?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"Just a wild guess."
A few days pass and Piper finds herself, once again, in the store. She'd even stopped by and said hello to Nicky. Feeling defeated in not having run into Alex she makes her way to a register. She lays all of her four items on the belt and waits her turn. She senses someone get in line behind her but doesn't look away from the magazine in her hand.
Reading a piece on celebrities without makeup she has an annoyed look on her face and scoffs as she puts it back as she mumbles, "they're people too, god."
"They are?"
Piper looks up only to see Alex right behind her in line. "It's you. You're… here."
"Yes, I am here. You're not hallucinating."
"No, I mean that you're here today but weren't the other days."
"What other days?"
Having accidentally kind of told Alex that she'd been there multiple the past few days she begins to turn a rather bright shade of red. "No other days. Just today."
"Nuh uh, you're not talking your way out of this. What other days? Were you here other days… looking for me?"
Wishing that something large and heavy would fall on her at that very moment she attempts to distract Alex. "You have eleven items."
Alex looks down at her stuff, "yeah so?"
"The sign says '10 items of less'."
"Are you the grocery store police? Do you patrol the registers to make sure not a single rule is broken?"
"No, I just think that if there a rule it exists for a reason."
"So is my eleventh item gonna set in motion a chain of events that'll bring the world to total destruction?"
Just then the cashier that had just started ringing up Piper's items stops and speaks up, "you can't be in this line. The sign says '10 items or less' not '10 items or more'. You can't be in this line."
"Thank you for explaining the sign to me. I admit I was a little confused, but not anymore."
Piper looks at the cashier. "Don't talk to her like that."
"Sorry, but she can't be in this line."
"Ok," Piper looks down at her name tag, "Gina. '10 items or less' right?"
"Yeah, that's right."
In the most over the top fashion Piper grabs the bag of persimmons on Alex's side of the divider and places it on her side. "Now she has ten items. She can stay."
They stare at each other as if they're in some sort of Old West stand off and tumble weed will roll by any second.
"She can stay."
The two walk out of the store together and all the way to Piper's car. "You've showed me how to choose limes, stalked me at a grocery store and now defended me from the mean old cashier lady and you still haven't told me your name."
Piper smiled so wide that Alex felt her chest tighten a little.
"Piper."
"Alright, Piper, why don't you let me buy you a drink. To say thank you and all. For saving my persimmons. I have a thing for soft fruit."
Piper smiles remembering the mangoes and the plums. "Ok. Where?" Alex is about to speak when she says, "are you gonna write on fruit again?"
Alex can't help but smile at this woman she barely knows but is incredibly drawn to. "You know Red's? On the corner of Madison and Pine?"
"Yeah" Piper nods.
"Meet me there at eight."
"Tonight?"
"Yeah, you got anything better to do?"
Piper smiles, "see you in a few hours."
"See ya."