Sometimes the most meaningful interactions are the ones you’re not expecting. My mother said that this is what made her fall in love with my father, the small things that they didn’t plan. I hadn’t really believed her, never having found myself particularly interested in a serious relationship outside of my devotion to my education. But I think I understand now.
-_~* Week 10 *~_-
Santiago drags his feet through the aisles of the drugstore. Being sick is never on his agenda. He refuses to even think about his alternative plan when he’s feeling ill because he thinks it makes him weak. Instead, he prepares for “emergencies” so that he is covered if it happens, but specifically so that he won’t take a break for anything but an emergency.
That being his truth, Santiago couldn’t deny that he was feeling – off? His throat is scratchy, his sinuses feel swollen, and he’s been fighting a fever all morning. Unwilling to let it get worse, he committed to purchasing over-the-counter meds an hour ago so that he’ll start healing before it stops him from getting his work done.
If he were less stubborn, he would be calling his family physician.
But ‘stubborn’ is a vital part of his personality.
Even though this isn’t his preferred drugstore, Santiago manages to find everything that he needs with relative ease. As quickly as he can manage, he finds the register closest to the door where there’s almost someone checking out. The person is grabbing the bag from the counter just as he drops his things down. “I don’t have a rewards card,” he grumbles before anyone can even ask.
“Would you -” the cashier begins with a husky voice. It makes Santiago wonder if he should even be working.
Then the previous customer turns back around. “No,” a familiar voice says, “I’ll scan mine for him.”
Even though Santiago’s jaw doesn’t actually drop, on the account of his mouth being half-open already just to breathe, he feels his mouth get heavier as if it is opening more. No part of his mind even registered that she was the customer just ahead of him. How could he miss that it was her? From any angle?
“You don’t have to do that, Caroline,” he breathes through thick mucus building up in his nose and throat. While he protests, though, she has the cashier scan her card anyway. “I thought you were going to stay in your room all day?”
Caroline shrugs her shoulders. “As it turns out, I’m out of aspirin and my cramps are something awful today. I figured that I would buy a couple of greasy burgers on my way back home as a reward for not performing a hysterectomy on myself in the bathtub.”
This seems to be too much for the cashier, who interjects abruptly. “So, is this all?”
Santiago smiles and nods his head. “I’m paying with a card,” he mutters lazily, waving his card in the air awkwardly.
Caroline shakes her head and taps some buttons on the screen of the customer’s pin machine. Curious what she’s doing, he leans over the counter to see the screen of the cashier’s computer a bit more clearly. It takes some time to load, but then it updates in slow motion, changing his total from $19.24 to $0.00. It blows his mind.
“Holy shit!”
“Ah, yes,” Caroline hums victoriously. “That is the benefit of buying all of her feminine hygiene products form a drugstore with a rewards card. I don’t choose when I menstruate, so I’m always here racking up points and credits. I can’t do much for you in the ways of buying dinner and stuff, but I can do this.”
She doesn’t waste much time after that, though, and hugs Santiago before rushing out the door without saying much more. Still astounded that he didn’t have to pay even a penny out of his pocket, he tries to think of some way to pay Caroline back. People have been kind to him plenty of times, that’s not a foreign concept to him, but Caroline’s kindness was second nature. She did it without even bargaining a reward or saying that they were even – which is something she has joked about in the past. Caroline – just – did it.
Maybe nobody else would that think this is something extraordinary, but, to Santiago, it marks a turning point in his mind. Sharing her rewards with him, treating the purchase he was going to make as a “joint” purchase, in a way, made his feelings for her more solid. Her rewards balance paid for his items, but his purchase ends up adding back to her rewards balance. That cyclical repayment is subtle but powerful. It is silent validation for his attraction to her. His mind floods with oxytocin.
The little things about his relationship with Caroline, the little things about her, stand out the most in his mind as he trudges out to the Uber waiting for him. All the times that she asked for carryout boxes when they were waiting for the check, all the times when she grabbed his journal because he started walking away without it, all the times when she drove him places without asking for gas money or without him saying he needed a lift – it all stands out and makes him very, very happy.
“Back home, please,” he says gently, eyes scanning for Caroline’s car. He spots it in a corner parking spot, and he notices immediately that she’s not alone in the car. Casper and his girlfriend are inside, hands waving and turning all around. Kayla still hadn’t broken up with him, despite expressing that she wanted to – despite saying that she was attracted to Caroline instead. Santiago doesn’t know why she’s being so kind to them when they cause her constant misery.
As the car lurches forward, he closes his eyes and smiles.
Santiago hopes to be the kind of man that deserves Caroline’s kindness.
And look at that (>^_^)> the next chapter is ready for your hungry eyeballs!
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Ouranose for giving this piece a read and quick edit before posting it. I’ve been struggling to get the stories done on time due to a plethora of reasons that I’m not going to talk about here, and she’s been a champ about squeezing it into her schedule. I appreciate her efforts beyond words. She has her own project that is ongoing and themed throughout the year on her blog. It’s pretty great, honestly, and you should give it a look-see.
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