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name in a singsong voice, like one of her students might.
“And I’ll bring an apple to school Monday morning.”
    “Very funny.”
    “Thanks for calling.” Roni took a sip of her
rapidly cooling coffee. “Give everyone hugs and kisses.”
    “I will.”
    After they hung up the phone, Roni took a
long drink of her coffee then set it aside. The morning had started
out so awesome. She had to get her mind onto the more important
things.
    Like tonight when she and John got together
again.
     
     
    Roni selected a head of lettuce and set it in
her basket as she picked up a few things from the produce section
at her neighborhood grocery store for her dinner with John. After
choosing some tomatoes, garlic, and onions, she moved on to grab
some lasagna noodles then ricotta and mozzarella cheeses along with
other ingredients to make lasagna. She chose a nice merlot from the
selection in one corner of the store.
    She’d spent the day catching up on things she
hadn’t been able to take care of during the week while she was at
work. E-mail, bills, laundry, yadda yadda yadda. She couldn’t wait
to see John later that evening. He’d said that he would be at work
until late that afternoon and would call her when he got off. She
wondered what security company he worked for.
    After her last load of laundry was in the
dryer, she had headed to the grocery store. She enjoyed grocery
shopping. It was kind of relaxing, taking her time as she made her
way around the grocery store. Especially when it was for something
special like tonight.
    After she picked up a pint of sorbet from the
freezers she went to the dairy case. She was taking a half-gallon
of milk off of the shelf when someone bumped into her. The carton
slipped from her fingers and slammed onto the floor, a flood of
milk rushing from it.
    “What—” She turned to see who had just hit
her from behind.
    It was Drake Pierson from the auction last
night.
    “Roni?” He sounded surprised to see her, then
said, “I am so sorry. Not exactly the way I envisioned us meeting
again.”
    “Never dreamed I’d be ankle-deep in milk.”
She shook her head. “But you know what they say about not crying
over it.”
    A store employee said, “You can leave it,
ma’am. I’ll take care of the mess,” as Roni started to pick up the
now empty carton.
    Drake’s brown eyes were warm as he smiled at
her. “I am glad to see you, though.”
    “Nice to see you, too.” Roni returned his
smile. Drake had the good looks of a male model—not to mention the
body—but a down to earth presence.
    She pushed her basket out of the employee’s
way so that the milk could be cleaned up. She cocked her head to
the side. “What are you doing here?”
    He raised a loaf of Italian bread that she
hadn’t noticed he was carrying. “It would go great with that pasta
and sauce ingredients you have there,” he said with a nod to her
basket.
    She nodded. “It would indeed.”
    “How about inviting me over and we can spend
a little time getting to know each other,” he said with a hopeful
look.
    “Tonight’s not good.” She would be really busy with John. At least that was the plan.
    He sighed and with mock sadness shook his
head. “My hopes dashed.”
    With a laugh, she said, “You still have my
number?”
    He reached into his back pocket and pulled
out his wallet. “Safely in here.”
    “You can call me later this week, if you’d
like,” she said. Who knew if things weren’t going to go well with
John? She hoped they went great, but it never hurt to have backup.
And as hot as he was, Drake would make excellent backup.
    “I will do that.” He returned his wallet to
his back pocket.
    “I’d better get home before my sorbet melts.”
She took another half-gallon of milk out of the dairy case and put
it into her basket.
    “Did you walk or drive?” He fell into step
beside her as she went to the closest checkout lane.
    “Walked.” She parked the cart and started
putting items onto the