bright lights, loud noises

We were in the 10 Items Or Less line and I sneezed.

I grabbed her wrist and said, “Bless me, you bitch.”

She lightly kneed me in the testicles and chose a candy bar.  The cashier asked for my ID, I gave it to her, paid.  We left.

She had an apartment in Burbank, her aunt helped her with the rent.  She had lived there in the 70’s she said that Diana should live there too.  Diana was an assistant to a struggling producer.  She told me she loved her job, I found it hard to believe.

The complex was small and built like a motel, there was a pool at its center.  I pulled our groceries up the steps and watched a lady in her late-40’s kick her legs while she held the cement.  She had a bathing cap on as well as sunglasses, the cap was white.

Diana’s apartment smelled great, which seemed impossible.  I was 28 and had lived in apartments decades younger and stank infinitely worse.  She was 18 and this was her first.  Somehow she had reengineered the thing, remodeled it from the doorstep of death, I was impressed.  I put the pre-made sandwiches in the fridge and the fruit and the liquor on the counter.  Diana took off her skirt and laid on the bed, bellybutton up.  I was in love with her, late on my car payment, and feeling better than I had in a while.