Date Night, Friday Night

When Husband asked if I wanted to go to the store with him, I knew he was saying Wal*Mart, because it means he can get almost everything on his list.

I said sure.  I mean what else would there be for me to do alone on a Friday evening?

Other than the dishes, which happened to be left overnight, scattered all over the kitchen counter and stove, not even rinsed or anything, until I loaded the dishwasher a few minutes ago.  Sometimes the weekend means relax, okay?

The rest of you folks have no idea about shopping with my spouse.  I’m not quite sure why he even asks me to come along, because it is one of the few times he goes into ‘single focus mode’.
He organizes a list according to walking in the front door, taking the first aisle on the left, then getting the items as he circles the departments and store shelves, ending up at a lane farthest from the door we came in.

If I have an item or two to buy from some other department, I try not to stray too far from the cart.  When separated happens, we usually end up on the cell phones.

Last evening, tho, I only had plain white index cards to add, and he had something else from that shelf, so we stuck together.

He was also in a good mood, which isn’t often after a long work week.  Little comments about oddities or advert signs, a sideways glance at a pretty lady.

At the checkout lane, we put our goodies on the belt, then I stepped around to the front to be able to grab the bags as they circled, while he dealt with the payment machine.

He read aloud the question; “Was your cashier friendly today?”  The cashier was about the age of our sons, and looked weary.

As he punched the key for a definite YES, I dryly mentioned that so far the girl hadn’t said a word, but she was scanning the items well enough.  Sometimes I can play the crabby wife to the hilt.

I was watching her reaction to this, but she was busy with her hands manipulating boxes to find the bar code.

Husband looked over at me and with a somewhat edgy voice responded,
“Hey, even if she SNARLS at me, I ain’t gonna rat her out to the MAN!”

Having lived with him all these years, I’m used to this, and I already knew he was in a good mood, so this was all in fun for him.  A Friday night shopping trip with the missus needs a little comedy.

At his words and accent, the girl grinned from ear-to-ear.
Then I watched the line of red ring her neck and the blood flooded up and across her cheeks all the way to the hairline.  I think even the tip of her ponytail went pink.

I “scolded” Husband, saying he had made her blush.

He looked back at her and saw the beautiful smile.

She says blushing has happened all her life, but I said we can’t help what Nature gives to us.

She was still grinning as she prepped for the next customer and we wheeled our cart away.

As we were putting groceries into the trunk of the car, Husband said she will probably be smiling the rest of the night, all because some old guy said there was good service.

Yes, we had a very ordinary, old married folks kind of evening.

I hope the young clerk will also remember the scene fondly.

~~love and Huggs, Diane