Maria’s breath caught and her heart sank like an anchor chained to her shoulders, hips, knees. Sheets of steel metal grating stared at her from the bottom of the empty refrigerators. In the space where tightly wrapped beef cuts the color of red wine were supposed to be, stood nothing at all.
She had decided on steak for her children, so where was it? Why wasn’t it out with all the rest of the fresh food? Costcart wasn’t doing their damn job.
And then it hit her like a slap to the face. It brought her down from the high of shopping for her children, back to the reality of pandemic and shortages of everything.
The refrigerator across from the beef held no chicken, no fish, no pork.
“No!” Rage welled inside her. She didn’t give a fuck that she could cook something else. She’d planned on steak, and now it was an unbreakable vow to her children far across the city playing happily in daycare with all of their friends.
A glistening, red wine color caught her eye and the world slowed around her.
The refrigerator hum disappeared; sound became absolute silence.
Ten feet away in a standup refrigerator a tightly wrapped steak sat on its white styrofoam tray like an escaped fugitive. Tubs of 32oz hummus and Fancy Spice! single-serving guacamole cups towered on either side of it.
Joy leapt inside Maria only to be punched down by the hot guy who’d been behind her in line outside. The one who’d helped her find her card. The one with the sit-on-my-face-right-now smile.
He’d seen the steak too, and was heading straight for it.
She dashed around the wide refrigerator separating her from the steak her children needed more than anything in this life.
But Hot Guy was closer.
She was ten feet away, he was five.
She was four feet away, his hand touched the clear packaging.
She was right behind him.
He turned around, his eyes as wide as saucers as he leapt backward, slamming into the refrigerator. “Aah! Hey, whoa! Holy shit! I didn’t see you there.”
Hummus tubs spilled sideways into the refrigerator.
The steak in Hot Guy’s hands was a massive tri-tip cut, beautiful beneath the taught plastic.
“I need that.” Maria pointed at the steak.
His face crinkled in a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about smirk that sent Maria’s anger into overdrive. “Umm--”
“I saw it first. I was over there and I started over before you.” She pointed to her abandoned shopping cart behind her. “I need it. I promised my kids.”
“Well I need it too, and I got to it first.” He was still pressed backward into the refrigerator, hovering over the toppled hummus containers. “It’s the last one left. It’s like gold, or diamonds, or heroin.”
He clearly didn’t understand. It was rightly hers.
His smirk had vanished. He inched sideways, trying to sneak around her.
She sidestepped. Every molecule of her being was focused on this man and his handful of meat. Her meat.
“Listen,” he held up the package of steak, “I picked it up fair and square, okay? We can take it up with Costcart management if you’d like, but I’m leaving now.” He started forward to get around her and she intercepted him, her breasts pressing into his arm.
The contact sent shivers through her chest, down her arms. Her nipples hardened beneath her shirt. “What do you want for it?” She’d seen it first, and she’d promised her kids that she’d make steak. Maybe it was stupid, and possibly irrational, but that steak was hers by right.
“What?”
“Listen.” It was as if Maria were looking down from outside herself, unable to believe the words coming out of her mouth. “What do you want for it?”
“I--” He said.
She pressed closer, wedging the steak in between their bodies. If he hadn’t felt her nipples against his arm before, then the look on his face said he did now.
The hard lines of his chin were a foot from hers. He smelled like salty sweat and cologne. He could have walked out of a damned Calvin Klein ad, straight into Costcart. His tight black T-shirt and form fitting jeans left nothing to her imagination. For a split second the steak took a back seat to another need burning inside her.
“I. Uh,” he said.
How long had it been since she’d let herself get away from work, or the kids? How long since she’d tasted a man? Too long. “Let me spell it out for you.” His scent was everywhere and she drank it in. “We’re going to check out of this place and I’m going to follow you to your car. After you put your stuff away you’re going to come to my car and I’m going to put my stuff away.”
His eyes were wide as an owls, mouth open as if ready for her kiss, or her nipples, or anything at all as long as it was a part of her.
“Then you’re going to climb into my minivan and I’m going to suck your cock.”
“Hey, I--”
She held a finger to his lips. They were soft, and warm, and begged for more. “And when you cum in my mouth, I’m going to swallow it like a good milf would.”
“Uh.”
“And then you’re going to leave that steak,” she tapped the tightly wrapped package, “in my van, and go on your way. Got it?”
His face had gone redder than the beef sign on the wall above them. “Got it.”
“Good.” She walked back to her cart, and with every step felt his eyes tracing the curve of her ass beneath her jeans. Her head sang with power, with purpose. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so alive, so in control. She looked over her shoulder, caught his gaze and winked.
He blushed harder.
◆◆◆
The sun shone brightly in the clear spring afternoon. It turned out that Hot Guy had parked his sleek, black Audi two spots down from Maria. A feeling of calm had
