Saturday Shorts: Redbox Love

By the time I walked out of the Walgreens, a line that hadn't been there before, was five adults and two teeny boppers long. So much for a quick in-and-out trip for the candy bar I had been craving. Now I would have to wait who knew how long just to return my copy of Avatar, which my sister and I didn't even finish watching.

"Nobody told me it was going to be this long," Eva had grumbled about an hour into the movie.

My sister has a short attention span. After another thirty minutes of very tall blue people gracing the screen, Eva had had enough. We spent the rest of the night drinking wine coolers and painting our nails strange colors. It was the most fun we'd had since we were teenagers.

I sighed and went to take my place behind the last in line. The loud click-clack of my heels on the pavement caused a blush to stain my cheeks. I heard one of the teenagers snicker in my direction, obviously amused by my lack of fashion sense tonight.

Silver stilettos didn't exactly go with the lime green sweatpants I'd picked out from my sister's duffel back at the hotel. Pants that ironically enough had the word Pink on the side in orange letters. Neither did my Team Jacob t-shirt.

Then again, that item wouldn't go with anything I owned since I was secretly Team Edward.

But it was either that, or booty shorts with the word Tramp stamped across the bottom. My darling sister, who would not dare be seen in public with less than perfect makeup and clothing, had begged me to return the damn dvd after learning of her less than adequate clothing selection.

I reached the end of the line--and stopped dead in my tracks.

There he was; the man of my dreams.

At least he would be, had I thought dreams could look that good. But this was no dream. This guy was real, with caramel hair that looked long enough to run fingers through, and eyes almost the same color as my inappropriate heels.

He was on his cell, mm-hmming every now and then, when he saw me. He smiled, and my heart sped up. Now I wished I had worn the shorts. At least then I would have been showing some leg. I had great legs.

Even my shimmery party dress would have done me more justice.

My dream guy threw another look in my direction. Another smile.

I stifled a groan, knowing it was probably my outfit that won me that second glance. I wished there was some way to explain to him that I didn't normally dress like this. I was not some twenty six year old with a crush on an imaginary werewolf, who liked wearing stilettos with her sweats. I was a woman who got stuck wearing her twenty one year old sister's clothing because like an idiot, she had left her own change of clothes at her apartment in her rush not to be late to her cousins wedding.

Boy, there was a mouthful if there ever was one. He would really think I was sane then.

So instead of explaining myself, I contemplated the ways in which I would get Eva back for this. Burning this outfit was a good start, but I was thinking more along the lines of public humiliation. That brought a smile to my face.

It was a short eternity before my dream guy was up for the machine. I hovered as close as I could, trying to see what he would choose. His finger hovered over some of the newer movies; I cringed when it looked like he was going to pick It's Complicated. That was not one of Meryl's best. But he seemed to change his mind and slid over to 3:10 To Yuma instead. I smiled. Now that was a good movie.

He clicked on it, tapping his foot as he waited for the machine to spit out the movie. Dvd in hand, he turned to me, snapping his cell shut. Those silver grey eyes stared into my brown ones. "I'm sorry for taking so long. I didn't realize you only had a return to make."

Stupidity has its moments. And for me, it seemed like this was one of them. "Uh, no, I mean that's fine. No problem."

He awarded me another smile, then turned and walked away.

by Ree Vera