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El had always been a frequent shopper at the closest Super Target to her on the outskirts of Chicago, it was at the point where she knew the store like the back of her hand. When things changed, she noticed, for example when all the cash registers had switched to a new system she realized and pointed it out and held a chat with her cashier over that topic. She was sure that if she wanted to she could walk into the store with a red shirt and a nametag on and just work.
That’s why she instantly noticed the new cashier when she came into the store late on a Monday night in late October. She took a moment to just stare at him as he looked nowhere in specific, visibly bored on a night where the store was basically a ghost town. She took her time as it felt like all the air was knocked out of her lungs, his black curly hair was a mess on the top of his head, and she just wanted to run her hands through it. His jaw was strong and the curve of his cheekbones graceful, she felt herself swooning when she didn’t know a single thing about the man she found herself oh so attracted to. She managed to compose herself and walk further into the store where she could no longer stare at the man.
She attempted to complete her grocery list for the week but with how distracted she was, she knew she was going to get home and discover multiple missing items, and all she could hope for was that the cute new cashier was working on the day she came back in for those items. With that thought El made her way to the checkout lanes, and finding that the man's lane was unoccupied, with him sitting down at the back of it, looking bored out of his mind, she made her way up to him.
Then he stood up, and El’s stomach swooped dangerously when she found herself having to tilt her head upwards to look him in the eye. El was aware that she was short, but she knew for a fact that this man was six feet tall at least. Then he looked at her, and El’s heart all but stopped, unable to stop herself from falling into the depths of his dark irises. Then he smiled and El could’ve sworn she had just melted into a puddle on the floor.
“Hey, would you like paper or plastic?” The man asked, and El had to recenter herself and remember that she was in a checkout lane, and there were things she had to do, so she started loading her groceries onto the conveyor belt.
“Um, paper please.” She responded, trying to tame her heart, partially convinced that the cashier could hear it from where he stood behind the belt. The cashier responded with a smile and started to bag her groceries, he seemed to still be getting the hang of it, constantly removing items and rearranging things in the bag. He didn’t seem like he was going to continue the conversation though, and not wanting to waste what could be one of few interactions with him, El decided to take it upon herself to make sure they talked.
“So, are you new here…” She trails off as she squints and attempts to read his name tag, noticing the new team member scrawled below his name, confirming her suspicions, “Michael?” She finishes her question once she’s satisfied that she read the tag correctly.
“Oh god please don't call me that, it makes me feel like I'm being scolded by my mom all over again” He all but groaned and El instantly locked away this new information she has discovered about him, he didn’t like his given name, and she was already itching to find out more.
“So, what would you like me to call you, Michael?” She responded, accentuating his name with a wiggle of her eyebrows. As she did it though she couldn’t stop herself from giggling, and when he began to laugh along with her she just felt something click, and wanted to make Michael laugh more and more.
“Oh my god, literally anything would be better, but I go by Mike. I can not wait until I get a new name tag so I can put Mike on it, I’m not sure how much longer I can handle being called Michael.” He said with a playful grin on his lips “and to answer your question, I am very much new here, you’re actually the third customer I’ve checked out, if you couldn’t already tell.” He said with a vague gesture to the only bag he had managed to fill so far.
“Well I’m honored to be one of your firsts, and you aren’t doing too horribly. I also don’t mind waiting a little bit longer if it means I can talk to you for a bit longer as well” El said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, looking up at Mike with what she hoped were her cutest please like me eyes. She couldn’t help but grin as a crimson flush rose to Mike’s cheeks.
“Well I appreciate your patience, the training here isn’t exactly rigorous, they talked me through the basics and then threw me to the wolves, also known as shoppers. I understand though, considering it’s late October and they have to be prepared for the holidays.” He said with a shrug as he reached the halfway point of El’s groceries and she felt panic rising in her chest, their interaction was already coming to an end and she was so not ready for that to happen.
“So are you a seasonal employee?” She asked, desperate to keep the conversation going, no matter what it was they were talking about.
“Yeah, they pay pretty well here and I’m a broke college-sophomore so I’ll take anything I can get. I’m hoping they’ll keep me on past the holiday season though.” He said as he continued to bag, getting far closer to the end of El’s items than she cared for, so she latched onto the part of his sentence she thought could bring the most information about him out.
“You’re in college? I’m a sophomore at Northwestern myself, and definitely experiencing the struggle of being a broke college student as well” El said, hoping he would pick up on where she was going and tell her the college he was attending.
“Oh my god I go to Northwestern also!” Mike all but shouted, and El could feel giddiness rising up, now they had something in common, that was big, she could work with that, and she was going to. “Me and 3 of my friends came to Chicago for college, two of them are at Northwestern with me and one of them’s at the Art Institute. We’re all living together in a decent apartment near campus.” Mike rambled off all the new information at an insane speed and El found herself struggling to keep up
“Wow, that’s cool that you have such great friends, only one of my high school friends stuck around Chicago but we are living together in a nice little apartment now so I’m enjoying that. Even if I seem to always be stuck on grocery duty.” El said with a shrug, “It seems like grocery duty has been a good thing this time around though.” She continued, adding what she hoped was a flirty trill to her words, and judging by the blush that once again sprung onto Mike’s cheeks, she succeeded.
“Well you might see some of my friends around, we all got jobs here actually, this store is very desperate for employees. Watch out for Will specifically, we’re both guest advocates, which is just fancy speak for a cashier.” Mike said as he finished up El’s third and final bag, pulling up the screen for her to pay.
“I’ll definitely keep my eye out for a Will.” She said with a giggle as she pulled up her Target app and the barcode for him to scan, only to find him looking at her with confusion evident in his eyes, eyebrows furrowed and looking very adorable in El’s very biased opinion.
“Um, if I’m being honest I have absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do with that.” He told El hesitantly, embarrassment shining through his body language and flushed cheeks. El barely controlled the laugh that threatened to break through her defenses, knowing Mike would pull away from her if she laughed in his face.
“Oh my god they really didn’t train you at all did they?” She asked, and Mike attempted to laugh it off but El could tell it wasn’t natural, after having heard his beautiful real laugh just a minute earlier.
“Not really no, would you mind telling me though?” He asked with a slight hesitancy that shot off a pang in El’s heart, she knew some retail shoppers were downright mean but how could anyone not want to help such a cute man who was on his literal first shift of the job.
“Of course, you just use the hand scanner, point it at the barcode, and the computer should do the rest on its own” El explained and Mike followed her directions, face lighting up as it worked and her transaction was completed. He handed her the receipt with a little bounce in his step that was so boyish and so cute and El wanted to complain to whoever allowed Mike to be so damn perfect.
“Here you go, I hope you have a great night,” Mike said, happiness fading and El felt a glow in her heart when she realized he was sad that she was leaving, that he might have felt at least some of what El had felt as well.
“Well I hope you have a good rest of your shift, doesn’t seem like you’ll be getting many more customers though,” El said gesturing around the nearly empty store, definitely filled with more Target employees than customers.
“Yeah, I’ll probably continue to sit around for another 2 hours and then go back home, so not much different from what I would have done anyway, with the exception of getting paid 15 dollars an hour for it,” Mike said with a happy grin, and El felt the sadness pull at her as she slowly walked away.
“Well goodbye, I hope I see you around though Mike,” El said with a soft smile on her lips, and watched as Mike slowly returned it.
“I’ll keep my eye out for you, but I would need a name to work with, it is pretty unfair that you got to just read mine off of a nametag.” Mike shot back, and El giggled lightly, happiness overflowing at the knowledge that he seemed to want to talk more as well.
“El’s my name, and don’t you forget it.” She said as she shot him a playful wink and finally turned around.
“I won’t,” Mike said lightly under his breath, the words barely making it to El’s ear and she shivered at them, something about the way he said them made her believe it, and she walked out of her favorite Target with a new pep in her step.
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The next time El made her way to the Target she was highly regretting telling Max that she would just take over grocery duty permanently seeming as Max never went anyways. At the time it was a desperate attempt to get as many opportunities as possible to see Mike again.
Now that she was driving through a November blizzard at 8:30 PM on a Tuesday night all thoughts of Mike had been banished to the back of her head, her primary focus becoming simply surviving the drive. She and Max had run out of Eggos and milk during breakfast that morning, leaving them painfully aware that a grocery visit was desperately needed.
When El pulled into the parking lot she quickly replaced the image of the parking lot from the previous week with this one for her definition of ‘Ghost Town’. There were maybe 20 cars in the parking lot maximum and she had to assume that every single car was an employee’s. El threw on her coat and forced herself out of the warmth of her car into the cold Chicago fall, but what was more similar to winter.
Once she walked into the store she felt a wave of heat blast her and she wondered if they were trying to recreate hell in their own store and immediately removed her coat, leaving her in one of her favorite flannels Hop had given to her before she left for college. El looked towards the check lanes and her eyes instantly locked onto a familiar mop of black hair that seemed to be in a deep conversation with a shorter man who had brown hair and kind brown eyes as well.
Her mood instantly lightened and she tried to run through the store grabbing the few things she needed before checking out. She didn’t need much so she flew through the store, making sure to grab a couple extra boxes of Eggos just in case she needed them in the future. With her basket in hand, she made her way back to the front of the store.
When she made her way to Mike’s lane, she found him still in a conversation with the cashier in the lane next to him. This wasn’t a surprise to El as she was pretty sure she hadn’t seen another customer in the entire store. El found herself getting anxious as she realized there was a very high chance Mike wouldn’t remember her. She was one customer of what was probably hundreds through a week of work, why in the world would he remember her?
El was just about to take a turn for self-checkout when she heard a voice call out to her from the lane.
“Hey, you can come to check out here!” The shorter man shouted pointing towards Mike’s lane. Well, her fate was sealed now she would make a fool of herself when she remembered him and he didn’t remember her, she was convinced that this was about to be the worst social interaction of her entire life.
What she didn’t notice while she was stuck in her own head slowly walking towards Mike’s lane was Mike slapping the shorter man on the back of his head and cursing him out to a colorful degree. When she did look back up Mike was slipping back behind the register and his shorter friend was doing the same.
“Sorry about that, Will doesn’t seem to know how to keep his damn mouth shut,” Mike said, with a pointed glare at the back of Will’s head, seemingly trying to drill into his mind and wreak havoc. After a second of glaring Mike turned back towards her. “El, right?” He asked, a hesitant smile on his face, and El could have fainted right there in the middle of lane 8 if she wasn’t painfully aware of her desire to make a good impression on Mike.
“Yeah El is right, I’m surprised you remembered.” She said as she slowly loaded all her stuff onto the belt.
“Well you asked me not to forget, so I didn’t” He said, ducking his head slightly, a crimson flush overtaking his face, “so, paper or plastic?” He asked, obviously trying to get off the subject.
“Paper is good, so, how’s the day going?” El asked, once again trying to get some conversation going.
“Honestly, this has been the easiest shift of my life. It is absolutely dead here and I’m loving it. I’m basically getting paid to do nothing.” He responded as he started bagging her things.
“Yeah, it’s horrible out there, I’m not sure I’ll ever get over November blizzards like these, even after having lived here most of my life,” El said as she stood in the middle of the lane desperately looking for something to do with her hands
“Honestly, I don’t mind the snow. It’s calming to me and I mean I will never complain about getting a shift like one of these. Will and I were having a great conversation about our next…” Mike trailed off as if he regretted bringing it up in the first place. “Nevermind, that was about to be super nerdy and I will now be shutting myself up before I say anything more I shouldn’t” Mike rambled seeming to lose all semblance of composure as his entire face turned red and El giggled at the sight.
“Okay, I’ll let you off this time but I will be finding out about how big of a nerd you are, don’t you forget.” El teased with a finger playfully jabbed in his direction. As she did that Mike got to the end of her items and playfully held up the four boxes of Eggos.
“Are you having a waffle party or something? Because this seems a little excessive for one tiny little person.” He teased right back, the flush of his cheeks that seemed to take permanent residence on his face when she was in his lane receding slightly.
“First of all, I am not tiny, and second off, that is a very reasonable amount of Eggos for one person and I will not back down on that.” She said squaring her shoulders and trying to show off all 5’4 of herself, which wasn’t much as she still had to crane her neck to look up at the giraffe that was Mike.
“Okay, you seem to be passionate about the eggos so I’ll give you that, they are pretty tasty. I will not be letting you off on the whole tiny thing though, I could definitely lift you no question.” He shot back at her, and almost immediately started sputtering as he realized how openly flirty he had been.
“I’d like to see you try.” She flirted back, shooting a wink at Mike, and it seemed to entirely implode his brain as he stood there simply staring at her, in that moment El decided she really liked flirting with Mike, especially when he got all red and embarrassed like this. “I think you have to click the pay button right there, you know, so I can pay.” She told him when he continued staring and she waited patiently for his brain to catch up and turn to let her pay.
“Oh my god I’m so sorry, I swear I always forget that I have to do this.” He said pressing the button and turning around, scanner in hand, while El pulled up her app to pay with. Mike scanned it and before she knew it their interaction was over.
“Well I hope you have a great rest of your shift, Mike, maybe I’ll see you again next week.” El slowly turned around and left the lane, Mike simply waving to her as she left, a shy smile on his face. She noticed the shorter man she now knew as Will immediately turned around with a shit-eating grin on his face.
As El went to leave the store she couldn’t help but pick up on the conversation that started back up between the two friends, and she was curious so why wouldn’t she eavesdrop a little bit, just to see what Will was like of course.
“Wheeler, that was some of the most obvious flirting I’ve ever listened to, I could have sworn you two were going to start making out right on the goddamn check lane.” Will chuckled and El just knew that Mike was burning up from the comment.
“I will crucify you Will, and then go back to your grave 3 days later to make sure it fucking worked.” El could hear Mike whisper shout at Will and barely failed to hold back the giggle that threatened to break out of her, not wanting to alert them to the fact that she heard their little conversation.
El nearly floated out of the Target, absolutely not regretting her decision to come to get groceries during a blizzard on a Tuesday night, at this point she was pretty sure she would do anything just to flirt with Mike for 5 more minutes. She quickly found herself already searching for her next excuse to go back to the store.
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On Monday night a week later El was super excited to head back to Target, and apparently, it reached a point where Max had noticed it and started to ask questions, such as the one she had just asked.
“El, why are you putting on makeup to go to a Target at 8:00 PM, I know you’ve been desperate recently but I highly doubt your elderly cashier is going to want to jump your bones, no matter how dolled up you are,” Max said sarcastically, standing behind El at her vanity mirror.
“Not all the cashiers are elderly.” Was all El managed to come back with, hoping it didn’t reveal too much, but it seemed to be all that Max needed.
“Ahhh I get you, you’re falling in love with a cashier who you’ve probably had a maximum of four interactions with because he’s cute and is quite literally forced to talk with you.” Max said with a knowing grin that caused El to scowl at her through the mirror.
“Two interactions,” El mumbled as she got up and went towards the door to grab her keys and her coat.
“Oh so you’re admitting it now, well I’ve gotta come with to see who this guy is, make sure he comes up to the Max standard of excellence for El’s boyfriends.” Max said walking up next to El to put her shoes on.
“You are absolutely not coming, I do not need you scaring him off with your craziness thank you very much.” El said, as she grabbed the keys and all but ran out the door and out to her car, giving no thought to the shouts coming from behind her, simply focusing in on the hope of seeing Mike again very soon, and hopefully flirting with him a lot more.
An uneventful 15 minutes later El pulled into the parking lot, her thoughts all but consumed by Mike as they seemed to be more and more often lately. She got out of her car and made her way in the front door, instinctively looking towards the cash registers, once again finding her new favorite mop of black hair, but only this time seeing Mike staring right back at her.
He gave her a shy smile and a slight wave before he turned back to his lane as a guest approached him. That shy smile was all El needed to see to know she needed to get her groceries quick. El quickly ran through all her items and made her way to the lanes. She found herself stuck in a short line at Mike’s register but didn’t mind one bit even if there were open lanes elsewhere, she really had no desire to talk to any other cashiers.
After a few minutes on her phone, El was up next and Mike was waving her down to the belt, with a goofy smile on his face.
“Hey, El, paper or plastic? I’m pretty sure I already know the answer but I’ve been told to always ask.” He said, with a half-opened paper bag in his hand, a carton of milk in the other.
“Yeah, paper is perfect, as you seem to have deduced. So it seems like you actually have customers today.” She said gesturing to the person already lined up behind her. Mike just looked back at the short line with a wry expression on his face.
“Sadly, yeah. I’ve had a few busy days recently, Saturdays here are just a different beast, and I definitely had some...” Mike took a deep breath as if he was contemplating what to say “ interesting encounters that day.” He went back to the bags with a quick shake of his head.
“Ooooh what happened, I want to hear all the stories about annoying retail customers. It’s always fascinating hearing what some idiots do when they’re shopping” El said, as she leaned in slightly.
“Okay, you are absolutely not gonna believe me when I say this, but I was just minding my own business checking out a customer, and maybe 10 feet away from me, somebody just shit on the floor.” He said gesturing wildly, and El let out a giggle at just how insane that was. “I see that you don’t believe me but I swear, I had to get a manager to help me out because I mean, why would I know how to clean that up? I bet that not many people have had to deal with that in their entire careers at Target, and I had to within the first month, it’s absolutely insane.” He finished his story with a wild hand wave that did nothing to quell how El had been feeling about him. The way he told stories with such passion was so cute, no matter how crude the story had been. She wondered if he had ever considered becoming a writer.
“Okay well, that person has to just be insane, I mean who chooses to just squat down in the middle of Target?” El asked, still reeling from the insanity of the story that had just been presented to her, and Mike seemed to be just as dumbfounded.
“I’m pretty sure for however many years I work here, that will always be the weirdest story I ever have from here, I’m honestly still processing it and it’s been a couple of days since it happened.” Mike continued shaking his head as if trying to force the situation to make sense in that mind of his.
“That would make sense, if I didn’t trust you I would for sure think you’re lying.” She said slyly looking up at Mike.
“Oh so you trust me now, I mean I guess I have been handling your groceries. That must be like the highest honor to be bestowed upon a man in the 21st century.” He said, throwing in a dramatic bow that left El clutching her sides trying to recover well enough to speak again.
“So you’re a funny guy now, that’s your new strategy, gonna make me laugh until I can no longer even process what’s going on.” She said, still recovering from the giggle fit she had been sent into.
“You act like I have a strategy coming into this, working here is the only place I get to really turn off my brain and just let it be filled with thoughts of produce numbers and where barcodes are, don't you come here and make my brain try and introduce strategy to it.” He said as he scanned the last of El’s items and pulled up the pay screen.
“Well, I guess turning off your brain works here, maybe you should try it more often.” She told him as she pulled up her barcode and he scanned it.
“Now that you’ve said that you know I’m going to be overthinking everything the next time you come in, but I’ll sure as hell try my hardest,” Mike told her as he handed her the receipt and turned to face his next customer, a light blush that still lingered on his cheeks which El desperately wanted to kiss. Sadly she couldn’t though, so she turned to leave and go face the inquisition that would surely be waiting for her from Max after that exit.
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The next two weeks were similar to the previous ones, El would come in on Monday or Tuesday as she had discovered those were 2 days Mike was always working, get her groceries, go to Mike's lane, and they would talk about their lives, or often about the crazy customers Mike had to deal with on a daily basis, of course with some flirting thrown in for good measure.
“I swear, they had 2 carts of groceries, and then they had the audacity to ask me to bag it in plastic, that is both a killer to the environment because it’s like 60 bags, and a massive pain in my ass” Mike told El as he was bagging her groceries
“Oh my god those people are the worst, honestly why would you ever use plastic for that many items” El responded, legitimately lost as to how somebody could be like that.
“That’s not even the worst part! After I was already prepared to murder these people they made me price match like 15 items and used like 30 coupons. Then at the very end when one coupon didn’t work, they yelled at me, I swear some people need to get their heads out of their asses.” Mile bemoaned, and El found herself agreeing, and wanting to kill the customers who had been mean to Mike.
Then on the first day of December El came into the store only to find that Mike wasn’t there, she couldn’t help but let out a frustrated huff at the lack of his presence, but she did have groceries to buy and she didn’t need Max on her back for another reason, so she went around the store with a noticeable lack of energy.
Once she was at the check lanes she just went to the first one that was empty and went in and started loading on her items.
“Hey, El.” The cashier said, and El jumped and shot her head up to find Will standing there with a grin on his face. “Would you like paper or plastic?” He asked and El was still trying to calm herself down, so she took a few seconds before she responded.
“Paper works.” She said with a low voice that closely resembled a squeak, Will started bagging with a grin still on his face, and she finished placing her items on the belt. The silence between them was just a little awkward and El did not plan on breaking it.
“So when are you two going to sleep together?” Will did the work for her, and El immediately sputtered at the question as a blush crawled up her neck, Will continued bagging groceries like he hadn’t said anything.
“W-What do you mean?” El managed to stutter out, full well knowing what Will had meant, but not having any form of an answer to his question. Will’s smirk only grew larger as he looked up at her.
“I think you know exactly what I mean, but if you have multiple people who you’re flirting with on a weekly basis to an obvious degree I’ll specify for you. I was talking about Mike.” He said with that annoying smirk not once leaving his face, it was at the point where El was pretty sure it never did leave his face.
“So what if we flirt, I mean I see him once a week it’s not like anything more is going to come from it.” El responded, trying to convince herself as well no matter how much the concept of nothing more coming from her and Mike’s flirting made her stomach twist up.
“Okay, you might be a little more oblivious than I thought, so I’m going to help you out a bit and stop teasing you. Mike is obviously infatuated with you, I’ve known him since we were like 4 years old so you can trust me. It also seems like you’re just as into him as he is with you, and if it means anything I think you two would be a couple. Mike’s never going to make the first move though, so just take your shot, trust me when I say it will work.” Will finished his speech by bagging the last of El’s groceries and pulling up the screen for her to pay, a genuinely friendly smile on his face as she pulled up her barcode and he scanned it. El was still processing everything Will had just told her so she just grabbed her bags with a small wave.
As El drove home that night she continued to think about what Will had said and considered it further. Now she had as close to confirmation of how Mike felt towards her as she could get, now she just had to make her move.
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One week later and El had a solid plan and now she just had to execute it, but she also had pesky groceries to buy first because no matter how much she wanted to, she probably couldn’t just walk into Mike’s lane and start chatting him up without groceries. As she walked into the store nearing 9 PM she saw Mike in the furthest back lane, an obvious attempt to try and avoid actually working. It seemed to be working though as he was just sitting on his phone.
El made her way to the grocery aisles going over her plan, which she thought had a pretty high chance of working and it involved a lot of flirting with Mike which she knew she could pull off. Her grocery list was longer than normal this week as she had been trying to get anything possible added to lengthen her interaction with Mike as much as she could.
It took about 20 minutes but El’s list was finally completed and it was time to initiate the first phase of her plan, the flirting. She made her way to the far back lane which was still empty, and El understood why not many people wanted to spend their Monday night in a Target. But she did, and that was for a very good reason, and she felt justified in that desire when Mike looked up at her as she entered her lane and a smile instantly overtook his face.
“Paper or plastic?” Mike asked, already grabbing a paper bag knowing exactly what El wanted. El didn’t even bother to answer the question, and got straight to the point.
“Where were you last week?” She asked with a mock pout on her face, and Mike just laughed.
“Believe it or not I’m not only a cashier here, I was over at order pick-up last week. It’s definitely an experience over there, I prefer the workload better but I don’t get to talk to you and that is one of the biggest downsides of it.” Mike told her, and him saying that was the last bit of information she needed to be sure her plan was going to work.
“My weekly trips to Target have definitely become a highlight of my week, so I’m glad you like talking to me as well.” She told him honestly and Mike’s face heated up and he looked down with a bashful smile forming across his face.
“Yeah,I really missed talking to you last week, especially when some people who do order pickup are just insane.” Mike said, shaking his head and looking back up to make contact with her. El caught that he was trying to change the subject and she decided to indulge him on it.
“Ooooh, do you have more crazy customer stories for me? You know how much I love those.” El said as she started bouncing on her feet in excitement. She always enjoyed hearing about some of the crazy things people would do.
“Oh, I’ve got some good stuff for you. So I get an order and I see that it’s just one shelf that I’m going to have to check and those are usually pretty easy to do so I head to the backroom.” Mike started his story already gesturing with whatever hand he wasn’t using to bag groceries, and El was instantly sucked in. “and when I check the shelf I realize that this person bought 16 La Croix 8 packs, I mean seriously, who drinks that much La Croix?” He continued and El let out a giggle at the absurdity of it.
“How did you even carry that?” She asked, having never used the order pickup service and barely knowing how it worked.
“I just went and grabbed a cart but still, with all the heavy lifting I had to do over there, it’s like they’re trying to make me buff up. How am I gonna keep up my perfect stick-figure physique lifting like that?” He rhetorically asked, gesturing to his thin physique and El took it as an open invitation to thirstily drink in his form.
“I agree, I think your body is perfect.” She told him with a wink and it seemed as though she broke his brain as he just stared at her with his mouth hanging open slightly and El worried for a second that she had gone too far. She was just about to start apologizing when Mike’s face turned red and his slightly open mouth turned to a shy smile and he put his head down and started bagging again.
“Thanks.” Was Mike’s simple response and El was ecstatic, that was the most outright flirty she had been with him and he didn’t shoot it down. Now she just needed one more thing for the second part of her plan to be a success, and considering that Mike was almost done bagging her groceries she needed to get it done quickly.
“So, what time do you get off of work tonight?” She asked simply, having never figured out his shift times in their previous interactions, only knowing that he was usually in the store at 8 or 9.
“Uh in like 30 minutes, 10 PM. Why?” He asked, but El wasn’t going to let him on her plan that quickly, so she just stored away the information and went to deflect.
“Oh no reason, I was just wondering.” She told him as he bagged her final groceries and she pulled up her barcode to pay.
“Well, okay.” He seemed skeptical but went with it, he scanned the barcode and handed her the receipt. “I hope you have a great rest of your week, El.” He told her as she started to leave.
“See you later, Mike.” She responded and quickly left the store, a slightly perplexed Mike in her wake.
Once El got to her car though, she didn’t drive away like she normally would, instead she played around on her phone as a way to try and stall for the next thirty minutes until she could execute phase two of her plan. She knew Max was going to get annoyed with her for taking so long with the groceries but she really couldn’t care. El had purposefully forgone and freezer items, even sacrificing Eggos for the occasion.
She was pretty sure she had identified Mike’s car in the lot, it wasn’t a difficult endeavor considering the few cars parked but she noticed one noticeably further back than most, and that fit with him having been there earlier when a good spot was harder to grab. Once the clock neared his 10 PM clock out time El was staring at the front door of the store and occasionally checking back towards his car to make sure he hadn’t made his way out before she had caught him.
Around 10:05 El saw her favorite mop of black hair slightly obscured by a red hoodie making its way to the car she had deducted as his. Immediately El threw open her car door and made her way into his path making sure to get there before his long strides passed her. Once she was in his field of vision he stopped and looked over at her with a confused but curious glance.
“Hey El, what are you doing out here, it’s been like half an hour?” Mike asked, a little bit of concern in his gaze, “Oh my god is your car broken down or something, I can give you a ride or something if you need it and you don’t think that’s creepy since I’ve basically only interacted with you as your cashier--” Mike rambled on until El stopped him with a simple finger to his lips, she was touched by his concern but really needed to get a word in.
“No my car is fine, I was actually waiting for you.” She stated simply, and watched as understanding slowly dawned in his eyes. “I was actually wondering if you would like to hang out sometime.” She felt nerves rise in her as he looked at her with his mouth gaping slightly but El didn’t back down, only walking closer into his personal space.
“Like a date?” He asked, and she saw the nerves immediately appear on his face with his question, and El immediately wanted to reassure him, she got as close to him as she could and nodded slowly.
“Yeah, a date.” She stated, and slightly rose on her toes to look him in the eyes easier, and noticed how easily she could kiss him right there, and decided that she wanted to. “Can I kiss you right now?” She asked him, putting on her biggest puppy dog eyes she had, Mike didn’t verbally respond, he seemed to have short-circuited a bit, but he did manage a nod.
That was all El needed and she closed the small gap between them, El could feel electricity coursing through her body as soon as their lips met. Her hands slowly made their way from his sides up to his hair as the kiss deepened, the hair she had so desperately wanted to run her hands through for months, and it was all she could have ever wanted. His hands also began to roam and once they made their way into her hair it felt as though everything was right in her world. El never thought she was the type of person to make out with anybody in a target parking lot, but she had a feeling Mike would be turning her world upside down real quickly.