THE MOMENT
"Sorry?" Hunter was minding his own business while enjoying the breeze on his break. He had a quick 15 minutes to kill, and the cool Fall weather was inviting enough to spend the time outside. He felt an uneasy flutter in his stomach when he saw Charlie approaching the store. He relaxed, knowing he was on his break, and maybe he wouldn't have to engage in any small talk, except she seemed to be heading straight in his direction. As he tried to guess what she could possibly want, and vaguely remembered how she was always talking about her daughter, she reached the spot he was sitting and blurted something out. His mind was distracted, trying to even remember the daughter's name, and he hadn't quite caught what she said.
"I know everything," she repeated it slower, and Hunter smiled. If she was going to bother him on his break, he was still going to have fun.
"I doubt that," he shook his head casually. "NO ONE knows EVERYTHING," he stressed the important words, and her face contorted in confusion.
"I mean about you!" she augmented the clarification with a stiff finger pointing at him.
"So did I," Hunter grinned as he stared into her eyes.
"I know why you work here instead of being an attorney!" she added. It was around then that Hunter realized this poor woman didn't have any sense of a plan. She was determined to pester him for no apparent reason; but, it didn't seem like she ever considered the implications of what she was saying. She was throwing out anything that seemed vaguely threatening to get him to open up. "You have a crush on my daughter," she said.
"Oh," Hunter shook his head. That was a rumor he couldn't allow to get out of hand. "No, I don't. Look, I don't know why you're hung up on bothering me, but I'd like you to stop, please. This is me formally asking you," and he pointed upward at a black sphere attached to the side of the building. "And, a camera keeping an eye on the break spot is recording this conversation," he added. It was a lie; that camera in particular was a dummy just to keep employees behaving, but most of them knew about it.
"I can't even remember your daughter's name. I just like simple work that doesn't involve a lot of thinking. I'm not saying I won't help you if you come through my lane, but if you start asking me those types of questions again, I'll have to get management involved, and they have the power to ban you from the store," he said. It was another bluff, because the management didn't back up their employees in most cases. But, he had to lay it on thick to get his point across.
"As if...," she let out a weak laugh and shook her head. "My daughter's too good for a cashier," she said, and thankfully, started walking into the store and away from Hunter. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't get any funny ideas. This is the most convenient location for me and the last thing I need is some lovesick loser trying to ask me for advice to my daughter's heart any time I'm trying to grab groceries," she moved through the automatic doors. "I'd appreciate it if you never bothered me again."