Cold coffee, warm laundry

Today my head hurt and I didn't have any coffee. I tried to stem the pain with liquidgel store brand pills but the hurting continued. I felt like I should go to work but after a phone call to my boss, opted out. I went to the store and got coffee.

Even though my head hurt, it was a pleasant enough excursion. I waited in a fast-paced checkout line, the woman at the register efficient and pleasant. I've always kind of liked her, anyway. When I got to the front, I commended her on her speed. "You are like a check out machine, it's really great." Having had her job many times in my life, I recognized deft skill in the task and having been in many check out lines where the ringmaster (checkout employee) sucked and had no skill, I appreciated her's. She laughed at my lauding and said, "Yeah, I feel like I died a little inside." I reassured her that wasn't true and she should be proud of keeping the line moving and told her I was very proud. We laughed and smiled at each other. The woman in line behind me almost smiled.

Meanwhile, there is this mysterious guy who works there who is tall and dark and sinewy, kind of. I've noticed him before, usually when I was in the back door line (as I was today). He would trod past, not unlike a hulking superhero and glance out of the corner of his eye at me. I would see him coming and see him start to look and would usually stare boldly at his furtive gazes, as if daring him to stop and speak to me. For the ten seconds of eye contact I would often imagine us in the stock room downstairs being intimate strangers with each other, like Superman and Lois Lane before they knew each other. Well, I guess before she knew him. Anyway, it was a fun fantasy to imagine and a groovy place to go in my head and as he did his half-glance checkout saunter I proceeded with my usual brazen stylings but as I did I thought of a certain guy who I am seeing, which is a departure from my usual situation during our eyeful trysts and I wondered if I was going to go into the place where I didn't overtly flirt like I have been for the last two years.

It was a strange thing to think about.