Yasmine quickly got into her car and drove off. After a quick search for Piggly-Wiggly, she found it was just a few blocks away down a side street. As she pulled into the parking lot, she found it quite busy. She saw numerous people dressed in what looked like farmhand clothes, looking half dead. Like they had just worked some grueling long shift that wiped them out completely. But none of them looked all that unhappy. Tired, oh yeah, but angry or depressed, not even one seemed that way. She was so used to seeing zombies walking through the streets near the end of the day where their day jobs sucked the soul out of them.

Getting out, she straightened out her skirt and blouse and made her way to the market. She was honestly stunned by the amount of looks she got from the other shoppers, even in just the parking lot. Though none seemed to top and stare at her, thankfully. As she approached the door, there seemed to be a small scramble until one tanned, bulky man, dressed in dirty overalls and a ratty baseball cap, quickly opened the door for her while a few other men stood back and gave him death glares.

“After you mam.” He said with a toothy grin. Yasmine gave him a small smile back, and she could have sworn she’d never seen a man like him blush.

“Thank you very much.” She said as she passed by and into the store.

“Not at all, my pleasure.” He returned, still smiling goofily at her even when she was walking away. It seemed a small argument started to unfold in the doorway after she passed, but it didn't really register on her radar. People were constantly shouting at each other in the city. Since it wasn't directed at her she decided she had more important things to worry about as she went to get a cart. But it seemed that wasn’t the end of what was going on as another man in overalls was grabbing a cart before her. She patiently waited for her turn to grab from the single line of carts.

Yasmine took a moment to take her glasses off and clean them as she waited. When she put the large framed glasses back on her face and looked up, she saw the tall but skinny man with dusty blonde hair poking out from a beanie openly gawking at her. She blinked at him a few times, wondering if he was going to move so she could get a cart.

“U-um, excuse me, I need to get a cart.” She said shyly, causing the man to come to his senses quickly. He quickly ripped the Beanie off his head like he was caught in church with it looking shameful.

“I’m so sorry mam, here please take this-un’. As uhh penance fer blocking yer way.” He said in a small panic, quickly offering the cart to her.

“O-oh, really it's no big-”

“Please, I insist.” He cut her off, not looking like he was going to take no for an answer. So Yasmine had no real other option than accepting.

“Well… Okay, thank you, sir.” This was all really out of the ordinary for her, but she took the cart, giving him a weak smile as she pushed it away. Again, there seemed to be an argument behind her as she walked away. The rest of her time was followed by much of the same. Each and every time, she needed something out of reach, or she needed to get past. Each man would go out of his way to be extra nice to her. It was weirding her out, and it was apparently showing on her face.

“You must be new here.” A Husky feminine voice called to her. When Yasmine looked towards the voice she found a tall woman with short cut hair and not much of a chest to her. She actually mistook her for a man at first. They were wearing a white with blue pin strips work shirt that had grease stains all over it, and thick dark blue work pants on. Her large workbooks looked well worn and stained just as much as her shirt. The name Mel was on a name tag on the left of her chest and a logo of a car on her right that read “Mel’s Garage” Below it.

“Umm, yeah, I just moved here the other day. How did you know?” Yasmine asked. The woman, who was obviously this Mel, laughed a bit.

“Well because I know everyone is this podunk lil town, and you look like a lost sheep in a forest full of wolves. You best be careful, else you gonna find yerself gettin' fellas droppin' to a knee to propose if you give them the time of day.” She laughed a bit harder as she put a few things in the handbasket she was holding. Yasmine was taken aback by this sudden warning.

“Wha…. Propose!? Why would they do that?” She said in stunned surprise. Mel only laughed even harder.

“Have ya looked in the mirror recently? Small, shy, cute as a button. Like a bronze pippy longstockin. You are basically these dum dum's wet dreams. Give one of them an inch, and they gonna try and convince you to marry them and have their babies.” Yasmine’s face went beat red at this new information, but it didn’t seem like Mel was lying at all.

“W-what should I do!?” Yasmine said in a slight panic.

“Haha, calm down, hon. As eager as these good ol boys are, they ain’t gonna hurtcha or force you into anything. They're mostly harmless, but if you put a cute girl in front of them, they become droolin' monkeys eager to please in any way they can. If’n ya were malicious, you could start yer self a real lucrative business.” Yasmine shook her head rapidly at Mel's business idea.

“I wouldn’t do anything like that! I just don’t want to get married or anything like that either though.” Mel just shrugged as she finished grabbing her shopping.

“Then just tell them that. The best way to cull their advances is to be honest with them. And if one of them catches your fancy, then hey, more power to ya girlfriend. Mel by the way, I run a local auto shop round here, if’n ya ever need any work done on your car, I’ll take real good care of ya.” Mel said with a wink, holding out a hand to shake.

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“O-oh, that's good to know. Thanks for the advice as well. I’m Yasmine. " Reaching out, she took Mel’s hand. The mechanic’s hand was tough like leather. Yasmine could feel lots of small scares and what felt like splits in the skin—a byproduct of years of having your hands soaked in different chemicals and carb cleaner.

“Not a problem. And if you ever feel like playing for the other team, I pinch hit for both.” Mel said with a sly grin. Yasmine quickly pulled her hand away from her with a flushed face.

“O-oh, w-well, thanks. It was nice meeting you.” Yasmine quickly pushed her cart full of groceries down the aisle away from a cackling Mel.

“See ya later, cute butt!” She called after Yasmine, making the small woman hurry even more around the corner and the next aisle. She tried to finish her shopping as quickly as possible, now very aware of every man and woman around her who even so much as glanced at her. As Mel had said, none of them were ever aggressive or overly forward as long as she didn’t interact with them, but she could see the looks of desire on a lot of their faces. She never considered herself attractive. But that was in the city where there were tons of people who put beauty and style above all else.

Yasmine never bothered to put much stock in her appearance, but now she was finding herself the center of attention. None of the other women who were shopping seemed to be getting the kind of attention she was, and she would have considered many of them a lot prettier than her. But they all shared one similarity. They all had rings on their fingers, and many had kids in their carts or near them.

Feeling the desire to leave as quickly as possible overwhelm her, she headed for check-out. Of course, it was just her luck to get a male cashier. She just hoped he wouldn’t stare too much or spontaneously propose like Mel talked about.

“Hey there, find everything alright?” He said kindly.

“Umm, yeah, I think so.”

“Great.” Much to Yasmine’s surprise, that was about all the man said as he scanned her groceries. Yasmine looked over at the man checking her items out. He looked like he was in his late teens and had some acne scars spotting his face. It was only a few minutes until he was scanning the last item she had placed on the belt.

“That will be seventy two, forty five today. Will that be cash, check, or card?” It took Yasmine a moment to realize that nothing bad or anything close to a proposal happened.

“Oh, uhh, card.” She quickly fished out her wallet from her purse and pulled out her credit card. Inserting the chip card, she waited for the sign to remove it before doing so.

“Thank you for shopping with us today. Have a great rest of the day, mam.” With that, the teen focused on the next person in line, quickly starting to scan their items. As Yasmine pushed her cart away, she realized that she had hyped herself up way too much after listening to Mel.

“God, of course, no one is gonna randomly propose to you, you idiot,” Yasmine chided herself for being so paranoid.

“Mam, please wait!” The same voice of the cashier called out from behind her, sounding desperate, making Yasmine freeze. She looked back in horror at the young man desperately rushing after her.

“Oh god, here it comes, he is gonna do it! How do I nicely reject someone’s proposal.” She hated it the few times she rejected the boys in high school who asked her out. It made her feel cruel seeing the looks of sadness and rejection on their faces. Yasmine closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, trying to steel herself for when it happened.

“Mam… uhhh, are you alright?” The cashier asked, standing there looking at the woman with her eyes closed, looking like she was bracing for a hit. Yasmine peeked an eye open to look at the young man. He wasn’t down on one knee or anything. She opened another eye and saw the look of confusion on his face.

“Huh?” She asked, now confused.

“Oh, you dropped your card after paying for your groceries. Another customer found it on the ground.” He said, holding out the familiar red of her credit card. Yasmine’s face took on an intense pink hue. She had gotten so lost in the panic that she hadn’t even realized what she had done.

“O-oh, thank you.” She said in a quiet voice that barely registered as she took back her card and made sure it went properly into her wallet this time.

“Umm, are you sure you are okay, Miss? Should I get someone to help walk you out to your car? " the cashier said, looking around for someone who might be stalking her or something.

“No!… no, I’m okay, thank you though.” She said then quickly rushed out the door, someone kindly holding the door open for her.

“Okay, well thanks again for shopping with us.” He said before rushing back to his station to apologize to the other customer he kept waiting.

Yasmine quickly started loading up her groceries, feeling like a complete idiot. She had taken Mel’s warning way too literally, and now she felt stupid. Once she was done, she pushed her cart into a return and drove off as quickly as she could to distance herself from the store. The drive home was full of self-depreciation, as she was unable to fight off the feeling of stupidity that overwhelmed her.

When she pulled up to the house, she took a long moment to sit there and breathe. She rested her head against the steering wheel for a long moment trying to clear her head.

“Everything alright?” The voice made Yasmine jump badly.

“Jesus!” She shouted, placing a hand over her heart. Small laughter filled the car after that.

“Haha, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, but its kinda part of being a ghost, can’t really help it.” Monty’s voice came from the passenger seat of her sedan.

“Ughh, montyyyyy!” Yasmine groaned, unbuckling her seat belt. She reached over and started to fall toward him. He quickly made himself solid and caught her. Or, well, she caught on to him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pressing her face into his chest.

“Y-Yasmine?” He said, sounding stunned at this sudden development. First the kiss this morning and how she was hanging on him.

“I can’t ever go back to the grocery store!” she groaned as she nuzzled into his chest, sounding distraught. Even if he was freezing cold, she needed this closeness, if just for a moment. Monty carefully reached up and stroked the back of her head.

“I’m sure whatever you did it wasn’t that bad, what happened?” As much as he was worried about her, she certainly was not complaining about having her pressed against him.