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“King!” Luz chastised her cat. “Honestly, why do I even bring you?” King was attempting to get into the bag of marshmallows in her cart. Why she had her cat in the grocery store? Because she wanted to and it was like 10 pm so nobody else was there. Only lunatics were out grocery shopping at 10, and lunatics didn’t mind cats, they were quite fond of them actually. However, now King had jumped out of her cart and was sniffing around, probably searching for the meats. “Get back here!” Of course, King didn’t come back. Luz sighed and turned back to the shelf, scanning for the one brand that Eda liked, mind you it tasted like any other brand but as Eda loved to point out she owned the house..
“Excuse me, is this your cat?” The voice came from behind her, it was kind of quiet, but had a hint of determination that made Luz want to get to know it. Luz turned around and was met with a cute girl. She had longish auburn hair in a tight ponytail, the strands hanging out the front dyed a bright blue.
“Oh, yeah. That’s King. Was he... Bothering you?” Luz asked, staring at the girl.
“No, I guess I’m just not used to cats wandering around grocery stores in the middle of the night.” She smiled, placing King gently into her cart.
“I’m not used to people being around to see him wandering around. What are you here for?” Luz asked.
“Oh, I’m new. I work here.” She said, pointing to her dark green shirt with the store’s logo. Pinned to the shirt was a nametag.
“Nice to meet you... Amity!”
“Nice to meet you too, crazy cat girl.” Amity joked.
“It’s Luz, and you already know King.” Luz smiled again, this was not how she thought her shopping would go.
“Well, are you done? We don’t close for a while, but I can start ringing you up.” Amity offered, rocking back and forth on her feet.
“I’m not done yet, unfortunately. While grocery shopping at midnight is peaceful, it’s difficult to stay awake, and my feet hurt from my shoes and the hard floor.” Luz admitted, blushing a bit at what she just said to a total stranger who works for the store.
“Well then,” Amity started, “what. if. you. just. take. your. shoes. off?” Amity offered, punctuating each word with a robotics movement to take off her own converse shoes. Luz stared at her in amazement, as if Amity holding her shoes in a grocery store was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen.
“I guess then I’ll do just that!” Luz smiled at the ground as she slipped off her own shoes. Leaving her in her socks on the semi-cool floor.
Not wanting to create an awkward moment, Luz turned to put her shoes in her cart. Rubbing King on the head, she turned back to Amity.
“Since we’re the only ones here, and we’ve already broken the rules, would you care to help me finish shopping?” Luz asked.
“Sure, believe it or not it sounds fun.” Amity replied, taking the list Luz handed to her. “You’ll have to help me read some of this horrendous handwriting, but other than that I think I can manage.”
“I take great offense to that off-handed comment about my handwriting!” Luz said.
“You should, it looks like a seven year old wrote this. How can you read this?” Amity gawked, gesturing to go down a different aisle as she simultaneously cutely furrowed her brow.
“In my defense, I didn’t think anybody else was going to read it. It’s not like I go around showing everybody my grocery list.”
“Guess I’m pretty special then,” Amity said, “here’s your ‘oufmezl’.”
“I don’t know, I’m still deciding. Special enough to see the list, special enough to read the list, and yet you still make fun of me... keep that up and we’ll never talk again.”
“Oh no, woe is me!” Amity ‘exclaimed’, “What’s this?” She asked, pointing to a green scribble on the paper that looked like it was folded neatly and then stepped on by every person in the state.
Luz leaned in murmuring, “Sorry, I’m practically blind”. Amity’s hair brushed Luz’s cheek and for a moment she was too distracted by her breathing to focus on the list in hand. “That is... ‘yogurt- strawberry, blueberry, vanilla’” Luz said, making sure to pull back before turning her head to look at Amity again. This wasn’t a romcom moment, no matter how much she wished it might be.
They continued along in silence for a while, deciphering Luz’s list and grabbing things from aisles. King was uncharacteristically quiet from his perch in the cart-seat.
“Hey, have you met your soulmate yet?” Amity asked Luz as they pushed the cart to the check-out.
“No, you?”
“No, I don’t know if I even want to meet my soulmate. It just seems so awkward, like ‘hi, we just met but now we have to spend the rest of our lives together.’”
“I guess I get that. But I’ve always been a hopeless romantic, waiting for the day to find my soulmate. My friends think that’s why I’m so friendly, like when I meet them I’ll stop talking to strangers.” Luz admitted.
“You shouldn’t be talking to strangers anyway.” Amity said, rounding the corner to start checking out Luz’s items.
“Strangers are just friends I haven’t met. Plus, we’re strangers, aren’t we?” Luz said, lining up her items.
“True. And to think that all it took to bring us together was a cat.” Amity smiled at King.
“Yeah, what are the chances?” Luz smiled as they both bagged up the groceries. Amity stayed behind as Luz walked out of the automatic doors. They waved to each other before Luz packed the bags into the trunk of her car, got in, and drove away.
Amity returned to doing what she did before the strange girl, Luz, and her cat, King, had appeared, watching cars go by. Sometimes she’d count them, sometimes try to doodle them, all in all, she liked the late shift, less people. But she hadn’t minded talking to Luz. It felt natural. But as her unfocussed eyes stared out onto the nearby road, she realized that there were no cars passing. It was late at night but there were any coming or going, none pulling into any other stores. It was as if. the. world. froze.
But the illusion was broken when a car swerved up into the grocery store’s lot. Amity rolled her eyes, some people were such reckless drivers. She turned her eyes down to her sketchpad, she wasn’t very good, at all, but it was always something to do. She was looking through some of her old sketches when the door opened, the automatic door chiming. She still didn’t bother to look up, as long as they didn’t have any issues, such as a cat, the two of them wouldn’t have to talk at all.
“Amity!” Luz exclaimed, running up to her and grabbing her hands.
“What? Luz? What are you doing back here? Did you forget something?” Amity asked, startled.
“What? No, I didn’t forget anything. But I was driving home and there weren’t any cars in the street, and then the streetlights wouldn’t change and King kept on meowing like he wanted something. So I came back here and... and... and...”
“Slow down, Luz. What are you saying?”
“Amity, I think we’re soulmates!” Luz said, meeting the girl’s eyes, which blinked, once, twice. Luz’s face was hopeful, scared, and Amity’s was confused, excited.
“We're soulmates!” Amity whispered, Luz nodding, “To think, all it took to bring us together was a cat.”
“What are the chances?” Luz whispered back.
---
King meowed in Luz’s car, “That’s right, this was all my doing. On purpose.”