Zaria Joseph stepped out of the front entrance of her new apartment building and smiled. After a tense shopping trip where Gu Cheng was consulted more about what she wanted than the person that was going to be wearing the clothes, she was ready for a break. Thankfully, he set the shop assistants straight and stayed out of the selections other than to advise if something would be appropriate. Then, on the drive home, he suggested she take the night off for herself.

Having the evening free was something that she didn't anticipate. She thought of taking a shower right away and relaxing the rest of the evening, but she realized that she had not been to a grocery store yet, so she did not have soaps, shampoo, or even food to make dinner with. Pulling up the map app on her phone, she plotted out the smoothest course to a large shopping area that showed a grocery in it and switched to her new hiking boots. They had only been worn around the house for an hour or so the night before so they were not perfectly broken in yet, but the walk didn't look too far. So she laced them up and walked back out the door.

The weather was pleasantly warm, with a soft breeze catching in the billowing material across her back and tickling the hairs on the back of her neck. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it in her good hand while she walked down the long driveway past the parking areas. Almost all the street names were simple, first, second, and looking at a map as she went seemed like a better idea than trying to memorize the numbers.

There were other street names that weren't just numbers, or names of other cities. The translations that the amulet gave her made her wonder how much of the written language was losing it's nuance when translated. Big Wall Road was the last road she would be ending up on, the one that traveled the diameter of downtown. Was it named after a person? A thing? Was there a really big wall along it when it was first named? At the corner where the driveway met the next street, she paused and checked the map before turning left and walking down the gentle downward slope toward the skyscrapers in the distance.

The quiet road stretched ahead, and she checked the time as she reached the bottom of the long hill. She was surprised to see that it was 7 pm. Most people were probably already at home or out for dinner at that time, she thought to herself, listening to her own belly growl. She checked the map again, frowning when she realized that she had already been walking for fifteen minutes, but she was barely a quarter of the way to her marked destination. She had not checked the scale markers. Quickening her steps, not wanting her leisurely pace to be the reason that she didn't start making dinner until bedtime, she kept going.

Sometime later, she paused to catch her breath as she approached her destination. From her hand, there came a cheeping noise, like baby birds vocalizing in the nest. She sighed wholeheartedly when the name Big Boss Gu came up as a message alert.

"Where are you?"

Grumbling under her breath, she typed, "Out. Did you need something?"

"Out where? Did you walk somewhere?"

"No, I flew. My arms are tired now. Did you need something?"

...

She stopped outside the doors to the upscale grocery store and watched the dots on the screen that indicated someone was typing. After a moment, they disappeared, but no message arrived. Shrugging, she slid her phone into her pocket and walked into the store. No sooner had she entered the store than her phone began to ring. For a moment, she debated ignoring it, not wanting to deal with her mercurial boss at the moment. The ringing stopped, and she let out a sigh of relief, then pulled a cart out of its corral. As she turned into the aisle with hygiene items, the phone began to ring again.

"Shocker," she muttered to herself as she looked at the name on the screen and pasted a polite smile on her face to get into the correct persona before answering it.

"Yes, CEO Gu, what can I help you with?"

"It is getting late, and it will be dark soon. Where did you go?"

The snappish remark that was readied was swallowed down. Zaria pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen to make sure the concerned voice was really coming from her boss.

"I needed things from the grocery store still, so I went out. I thought it would be fine since you said I was free for the evening. Did you need something? I can be back within the hour."

A voice sounded out from somewhere behind her. "Miss Joseph? Is that you?"

"Who is that?" She could hear Gu Cheng's frown coming through the line.

"Huh, it's Director Chiu. What a small world..." Zaria smoothed the lines between her brows and nodded a greeting to the young doctor. He smiled and waved his hand for her to continue her conversation while he turned toward the shower gels.

"You went to the store with Chiu Leong? You could have waited for me to take you, or asked me if you couldn't wait..."

"No, I did not go to the store with Director Chiu. We just bumped into each other. Sir, I am getting tired and I still need to do my shopping, did you need me for anything?"

"What store are you at? I will come and get you when you are done -"

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"CEO Gu."

There was a long pause, and then a slow "Joseph Zaria?"

"CEO Gu, why were you looking for me?"

"You were not at home. I was seeing where you were."

Zaria sighed, balancing her phone between her shoulder and her ear so that she could rub her forehead with her good hand. "CEO Gu. Why were you originally looking for me at home before you messaged me to see where I was?"

A sound like a throat clearing came through the phone. "I realized that if you were not eating with me tonight, then you wouldn't have anything to eat, so I wanted you to eat with me."

"Ah, I see. I thank you for your thoughts, boss. I had the same realization when I walked in the door, so I turned around and went right back out. If you needed me to cook your dinner, it will be a little bit."

Movement to her side drew her attention back to Chiu Leong, who was holding up two bottles of body wash in front of her. She grabbed the first one and sniffed, then the other before pointing to the first one. "That one is better."

"Which what is better?" Gu Cheng sounded confused, so she answered without thinking about it.

"Director Chiu was asking me which shower gel smelled better. I should be shopping for my own right now..."

"I will come and get you. Which store are you at?"

Zaria sighed, reaching in front of her to pick up one of the bottles in front of her to smell. "If you need me to cook you dinner, I can be home in about an hour, CEO Gu. I will come and check when I get back." As he started to protest, she pulled the phone away from her ear, shouting,"Oh no, aliens are attacking, I have to go bye, " and hung up. When the phone immediately began ringing again, she switched it off and slid it into her pocket.

"He's going to be angry about that." Chiu Leong grinned from his spot next to her. He still held the body wash in his hand that she picked out.

"How can he be mad at me that aliens are attacking the grocery store? That would be unreasonable." She scrunched up her nose and put the bottle back on the shelf. "Why are there so many different options? There are seven just on this shelf here that are a blend of the same flower."

"Hmm. I have no idea. I always use the same one, but I ran out and the shop is closed already, so I thought I could just buy something else here. I still needed help with what little variety there is for men." He brought the bottle back to his nose and sniffed again. "You think this one would be better?"

Zaria took the bottle back and sniffed again, then leaned over and sniffed his sleeve. "Oh, that one won't go well with whatever cologne you have on now." She looked up at him when he backed away, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me, wasn't it? If I'm not offending someone every minute of the day, I am probably asleep..."

"No, you didn't offend me," he said, clearing his throat again. "Then would any of these other ones go better?" She stepped over towards the selection for men and began opening bottles to smell while trying to remember what his sleeve smelled like.

A phone began to ring, and Chiu Leong took a step back to answer it. He put the phone to his ear and listened as a low and angry voice growled at him. He watched as she opened several bottles and sniffed them, a furrow between her brows. "Do you need to smell my sleeve again?" He asked aloud, as though he knew it would irritate the man at the other end who was still ranting.

"Smell your sleeve? Who is smelling you?" Gu Cheng cut off in the middle of his sentence when he heard his friend's question.

"Miss Joseph is helping me pick out a body wash. She said the other one wouldn't smell good with my cologne, so she is trying others."

"Where are you? Which store?"

Zaria could hear the questions when she bent forward to smell the sleeve again while sniffing a bottle with pine trees on the front. She pulled back abruptly. "If you tell him which store I am at, you can pick out your own scents."

"What did she say? Chiu Leong, why would you make her smell you? Are you trying to lead her on? Where are you?"

Chiu Leong grinned and held his phone away from his face. "Oh no, the aliens are back. I have to go. Bye." He disconnected the call and looked up at the pretty girl in front of him. "You know, he is probably just worried about how you will get home carrying groceries."

Zaria rolled her eyes as he silenced his phone, which was ringing once again, and put it away. She handed him the bottle with the pine trees on it. "I think my new boss has a bit of an issue with needing to control everything. I am not buying much, I will have no problem getting home. Thank you for not telling him. Ooo, coconut!"

A small container of body wash that smelled like coconuts went into her cart after a quick sniff, and she moved on to the shampoos and conditioners. "That smell works pretty well with the other smell you use. You should sniff it, though, to make sure that you don't mind it!"

While Chiu Leong gingerly sniffed the bottle given to him, Zaria looked over the wide selection of hair care items. She picked a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner that also smelled like coconuts and placed them in the cart.

"Is that your favorite scent? Coconut?" Chiu Leong nudged her out of the way and placed his own bottle in her cart before putting both hands on the bar to push it along. He cut her off when she started to object, "You shouldn't be pushing a cart using your left hand. Please let me."

Zaria frowned at him for a moment before throwing her hands up in the air. "Whatever, I guess I owe you for something else now. I need to get some female supplies and then some food to get me through a few meals."

He nodded and pushed the cart along until she told him to stop in front of pads. "If you are uncomfortable in this section, I won't be offended if you leave..."

"Why would I be uncomfortable? I am a doctor. I understand that women need certain things every month. And you don't owe me anything. You helped me find a body wash, so we are even."

A large package of pads went into the cart. "A lot of men are uncomfortable in this part of the store. It is nice that you aren't. Your girlfriend is lucky to have a man who can go buy her these things if she can't do it herself." She led them out of the aisle and toward the produce area. "I had a friend in secondary who's boyfriend wouldn't go near her at all during that time of the month. He thought it was gross."

"I suppose that everyone reacts to things differently, but I don't understand that view. It's just part of life. And I don't have a girlfriend." Chiu Leong watched the petite woman bend over the leafy greens, looking away quickly when her shirt rode up over her rear. Two men in their forties stopped what they were doing and stared openly at her curves. He cleared his throat and moved the cart behind her to block the view.

"Then your future girlfriend," she said with a smile when she straightened back up. Several items went in the cart, and she added the amounts to her mental total.

"Are you offering?" The words came out before he thought about them.

Zaria stopped and looked at him, confused. "Am I offering you a girlfriend?"

"No," he said with a broad smile. "Are you offering to be my girlfriend? We are already intimate, what with you smelling me in public. I would be alright with that."