3) Encounter

I laughed when my friend pulled up to the nearest Publix.

"Is this your idea as a surprise?" I teased.

She elbowed my arm, and smiled mysteriously.

"I thought, since you love to cook, that we get some things, and surprise your parents by making dinner."

I smiled softly.  Truth was, I did love to cook, and if it was with Jordan, I'd love it all the more.

"Okay," I said, opening the car door, and jumping out, "but we better hurry.  My parents will be back in at least an hour, and Amy and Anne are sleeping over at a friends house, so looks like we'll have the house to ourselves."

I wasn't able to say more as she grabbed my arm, and we practically made a dash for the door.  We searched for all sorts of random food like ice cream sandwiches, and spaghetti sauce.

"Oh, look!" Jordan squealed, pointing upward at stacks of cheeses.  "We need parmesan cheese for the spaghetti."

"But, Jordan, how will we reach it?  Why, don't we get Colby Jack or something?"

"No," she said insistently, "your parents love parmesan.  It makes the sauce."

"Well, why don't we at least ask someone to get it for us?" I suggested.

"It would look like we can't get it ourselves."

I laughed softly.  "Well, can we?" I joked.

She didn't answer my question, but instead asked, "Can you hoist me up?  I think I could reach it if only I was a little taller."

I looked around the store, seeing if anyone was watching us make a fool out of ourselves.  I shrugged reluctantly, and hoisted her up on my shoulders.  She almost reached it when a Publix employee rounded the corner, surprising me, and Jordan and I toppled to the ground.  I think that was the moment I had never felt so embarrassed in all my life.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he laughed softly, helping us both up from the tiled ground.  "I do hope you two aren't injured," he said seriously.  "The boss has this weird thing with putting the parmesan at the top of the shelf.  If you don't mind me assisting, I will gladly get it for you young ladies."

I felt like a complete fool at that moment, and being polite, we just nodded our heads dumbly.  We watched silently as he reached up easily, and handed us the parmesan cheese that had gotten us into this mess.

"Goodness, you are tall," Jordan said in mock fun.  "I suppose we should've asked.  Thank you for the inconvenience."

"No trouble at all," he said smoothly, his dark eyes twinkling.  That was when I got a good look at him.  He was tall-- at least two feet taller than me with thick, dark hair, and a cleft in his chin.  Truthfully, he was very handsome, and looked very athletic.

"Well, we won't take up anymore of your time," Jordan said, and had to practically pull me away from staring at him.

When we had gotten out of earshot, Jordan nearly blew over.  "Goodness, what were you doing back there?  Goggling like some foolish schoolgirl," she laughed.  

I nudged her shoulder playfully.  "Well, am I ever glad that's over.  You sure know how to get us in a mess."

Before Jordan could reply, I heard swift footsteps behind us.  We both wheeled around, surprised to see our handsome assistant again.

"Well, so nice to see you again," Jordan joked.

He smiled softly, strangely making a shiver go up and down my spine.  

"I just forgot to ask you your names.  It was quite rude of me."

Jordan and I exchanged glances, but answered politely, "I'm Jordan Dale, and this is my best friend, Jackie Johnson."

He smiled again, and shook our hands.

"And I'm Ashton Harper.  Nice to meet you both.  Um-- do you need any help with your groceries?"

We followed his glance to our two full carts of food, and nodded appreciatively.

"We'd love that," Jordan replied, and winked at me.  I had no idea where this was leading, but I had a feeling it was yet another one of our crazy, wild, romantic adventures.

Author's Note

I'm sorry it's short!

What do you think of Ashton? :P

Reviews

[Short.Nerd]

Dude, I would totally do that in Publix! Me and my friends have ran around screaming follow the yellow brick road in there before xD I kinda like Ahton but I'm not sure yet.

[Krystal Nicole]

Reading on. .

[Miss Sally Sunshine]

I like Ashton, he seems okay, for now. He should have gone about trying to get Jackie's attention differently though... At least I think, but then again, I have no expirence in this area :/ So yeah... But I do like Ashton :)