Bonded By Lies

“That would be all, Sir,” I said, struggling all the groceries into the trunk of the man's car while he just stood there staring at me. “So-pha,” he said, straining his eyes to read the name tag placed on my T-shirt. “Sophia,” I corrected him, nodding shortly before turning to leave. He held my hand, dragging me towards him. I glared at him. “Excuse you,” I barked. “I just want to get to know you. Come on, enter the car and I will take you to a really nice place”. I scoffed loudly. “Release me”. I said almost screaming. “Is this how you offer customer service?” The man replied, holding my hand tighter. “I have very much done my part regarding that. So leave me, let me go.” He didn't budge; instead, he dragged me towards the car. I used my other free hand to hold his grip before kicking him in the crotch. I struck him, I almost felt bad for him. “Aaargghgggggg” he groaned, letting my hand go. I smirked and quickly turned to the Mart before he caused more scenes. I ruffled my hair annoyingly as I entered the Mart. “Having a bad day,” Adrian, my co-worker, said. “I'm good”. I replied, smiling quickly at him. “Perfect coz it's closing hour already. Time to go have some fun,” he said, smiling sheepishly. I smiled back at him before checking out for the day. “Where is the boss?” I looked around. “He stepped out, but you can hand it over to Kat. She is on night shift”. Adrian said We finalized our checkout process before leaving the grocery store together. Adrian dragged me along an alley. It was getting quite dark, and we were the only ones there. “I missed you,” Adrian said, dragging my waist closer to him. Did I forget to add that Adrian is my boyfriend? Yup! He is my co-worker and boyfriend. I have had a crush on him since I started working at the grocery store a year ago. We started dating when I confessed my feelings for him, and he acknowledged he liked me back. It has been roses and sweets since then. Our two-month anniversary is in six days. “We were literally together all through the day,” I smiled, giving him a small peck on the lips. I love Wednesday so much. Adrian is a part-time worker and only gets to work at the store on Wednesdays and Fridays. I work there every day, so I get to see him on Wednesday for the whole day. He works the night shift on Friday. “But I couldn't touch you with Maxwell's googling eyes and his no-dating policy." Maxwell is our boss. “We are here now, are we not?" But I doubt you were able to keep your hands to yourself today. You were touching me at every opportunity. Max was not looking,” I giggled. “You are sooo pretty. How can I keep to myself?” Adrian said, giving me a longer kiss this time. “Let's go to my apartment,” I said, dragging him along with me, and he nodded, smiling, making his two deep dimples really visible. He is so cute. I shifted uncomfortably on my bed as the sun peered into my eyes. I opened my eyes, groaning. I looked at my side clock to see the time. I was thirty minutes behind schedule. Shit!. I looked at the other side of the bed to nudge Adrian, who was snoring peacefully. “We are going to be late for work,” I said, scrambling from my bed, trying to get my things. I threw a pillow at him when he didn't budge. “I don't have work, just you,” Adrian said mockingly. I threw another pillow at him. “Urghhhhhhhhhh”. I said I stepped into the bathroom to bathe as quickly as possible. If it was possible to bathe in five minutes, I did that. I ran out of the toilet and quickly put on today's outfit. I checked my bed to see Adrian out of bed already. Where did he go? He was supposed to be helping me in situations like this. This is all his stupid fault. I went out of the bedroom door to see Adrian scrambling eggs in the kitchen. “Good Morning, babe,” he beamed at me. He put out the fire and turned the eggs into a different plate, adding toast and sausage. He carried it and placed it in front of me, planting a kiss on my forehead. “How did you sleep?” he asked. “Great” “Of course, it would be great. I was with you all night” I nodded, laughing at him, stuffing my face with delicious food on the table. “Thank you for the food,” I said, chewing the last bit of toast. I looked at my wristwatch, seeing that I was going to be ten minutes late since I had to walk to the store. It was not far from my house, but seeing that I woke up late already put me behind schedule. “It's about to rain,” Adrian said, staring at the window. I sighed, picking up a bucket and placing it under a visible hole in my ceiling. “Are you leaving now?” I asked Adrian as I packed my backpack. “Nah. I will have some minutes of sleep first. I am fixing my car today so I will drop by to give you your keys after picking up my car”. “Alright, baby,” I said, hugging him tightly. He held my waist and gave me a deep kiss. I pushed him slightly and laughed. “I'm running late,” I carried my backpack and left the house. I sighed, dropping into my chair after attending to the last customer who had just left. I heard an earful this morning from my boss after arriving thirty minutes late to the store. Yup, thirty minutes. I was halfway through the store when the rain started dropping heavily, and I had to hide under a shed, making me arrive thirty minutes earlier than scheduled. According to Max, I would have escaped the rain if I had left the house ten minutes before it started. He let me off after giving me a last warning. I was the only one on shift today, and thankfully, there were not many customers. I stared at the system showing a woman walking into the store. She moved around picking up a lot of items into the shopping cart. Well, today is a good day! She finally finished and moved her cart towards the counter. “Good Afternoon, Ma’am,” I said, looking at her as she struggled to pick an item from her big purse. After much struggling, she brought out her card, looking up at me. “Good After….” She stopped talking and looked at me. Not looking. Staring at me. It looked like she had seen a ghost. “Ma'am, is something wrong?” I asked as I picked up the item in her cart and placed it on the pricing machine. “Sarah,” she finally said. Here we go again. Yes, people got the pronunciation of my name wrong, but hers is outrageous. I don't remember “Sophia” ever being pronounced “Sarah." Well, not in this part of the world. “Sarah,” she said again, grabbing my hand this time. “Sorry ma’am. It's Sophia, not Sarah,” I said eyeingly. “Where have you been all these years?” She questioned, almost close to tears. I sighed. I have seen so many tricks at the store to get away from paying for items, and she definitely doesn't look like someone who could be playing tricks. “Ma, I have no idea what you are talking about?” I said, putting more items on the pricing machine. “You are making my poor son's life miserable,” she said, already sobbing. “Please come back home." I looked at her confused. She is probably mistaken for someone else, and I can swear I have never met this woman in my entire life. “I'm not who you are looking for, Ma’am, sorry,” I said, trying to sound as nice as possible. “You are definitely her. How could you leave us just like that? After everything my son did for you”. I sighed looking at the woman who was already pissing me off. “Sorry ma’am, if this is a trick for you not to pay for your items, then I suggest you quietly return them back and leave before causing all sorts of commotion here.” “Ooh, right,” she said, sniffing and handing me her card. She is definitely not a scam. I smiled after collecting her black platinum card. I did a total of the items she bought and punched the numbers on the machine before handing back her card all these while she was staring at me immensely. I helped package her items. “I could help you take this to the car, ma’am." The items were too much for her to carry, and I hope she didn't pack that far because it wouldn't be nice leaving the store empty. “No, it's fine,” she finally said, wiping her tears. She called a number asking for help with the loads and a man appeared five minutes later. He helped with the bags, and she tailed behind him. She finally left the store before giving me one final long stare. I slumped on the chair badly wishing this day would be over already.