5
Spiraling
Jessica’s Audi needed gas, so we stopped in at the same gas station where I had bought cigarettes earlier. She beat me to the pump with her card.
“I’m gonna grab a Coke, do you want anything?” I asked.
“I’ll take a Diet Coke.”
As I walked into the store, it felt to me like weeks had passed since I’d bought those cigarettes. But the same Middle Eastern guy that had been working this morning was still at the counter, reading a magazine. Amazing—my life had been turned upside down in the time it took for this guy to wait out a single, boring, all-day shift. He looked up as I came in and smiled briefly when he recognized a return customer.
I walked to the back, toward the freezers, and had been in the store for only a few moments when I heard the shout.
“Give me your f*****g
