Boop. Boop. Boop.

“Alrighty, your total is $97.84.”

“Wait, I have these coupons.”

Dave inhaled deeply, trying to remain patient. An eight hour cashier shift at ShopMart took its toll. Dave tapped his foot, waiting for the woman to dig her coupons out of her purse. She held a crying baby, and a toddler was just barely hanging on to the cart, pushing it forwards and backwards. This mother was frazzled, looking for the coupons hysterically.

“Uh, mam,” Dave tried to speak.

“No, I swear they’re in here,” she insisted.

“Look, mam, I trust you about the coupons. I’ll just give you the friends and family discount.”

The woman looked up in disbelief.

“Really?” she asked looking up at the tall, thin Dave.

Dave had already typed in the code to take 10% off the purchase.

“That is so kind of you,” the woman said, swelling up with emotion.

“Yeah, sure, no problem,” Dave said insincerely, running his hand nervously through his thick, brown hair, just waiting for the lady to pay.

The woman swiped her credit card and signed the screen. Dave thrust her the receipt as soon as it printed.

“Thank you, so, so much,” the woman gushed.

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” Dave said hurriedly. “Next customer, please.”

Dave, sick of this day, looked down as he started ringing up the next customer’s items.

Boop. Boop. Boop.

“Hey, that was really nice of you.”

“Huh?” Dave said not looking up from the groceries he was bagging.

“What you just did for that lady.”

“Oh, yeah, it was nuhhhhhhh,” Dave slowed down as he looked up at this next customer. “…tthhiiing.” Dave had seen a number of beautiful women in his life, but none so like the girl standing in front of him right now. What he was staring at, Dave considered perfection. Big brown eyes; long, wavy black hair; smooth, clear skin and gorgeously white teeth. What Dave didn’t notice, however, was that in his awe he kept ringing up the same item over and over.

“Uh…” the girl said with nervous humor. “You’re not going to charge me fifty times for one CD, are you?”

“Huh? Oh, oh, yeah,” Dave said snapping out of his trance and sinking into embarrassment. “Sorry about that.” Dave looked down at the CD he was holding. Behind the title was a vintage-style photograph of a cat.

“Two Door Cinema Club, huh?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard a couple of their songs on Pandora lately, so I thought I’d give this album a try.”

“Are they good?”

“Well, I’ve only heard a couple of their songs, but, yeah, I guess. Hey, are you going to fix it so that I’m not paying for a thousand copies?”

“Wha? Oh, yeah, of course.” More embarrassment for Dave. “Your total is $32.47.”

The girl held out two twenties.

“Okay, your change is…” Dave calculated. “… seventy dollars and fifty-three cents.”

The girl had a quizzical look.

“Seventy?”

“Sorry, seven. Man, I’m not on my best game today.”

“Ha, yeah, I can tell,” she said taking her correct change. “You’re making more errors than a post-Disney Lindsay Lohan.”

Dave nervously laughed. “Yeah, yeah, she’s made some mistakes with her life.”

“Uh, yeah, she has,” the girl said awkwardly.

“Um, there’s your receipt,” Dave said handing it to her.

“Thanks.”

“Have a good day!” Dave called after her.

“Ha, yeah, you too,” she said over her shoulder.

Once she was out of sight, Dave breathed a heavy sigh. He had butchered it. He had just seen the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and he immediately killed all his chances. Had he ever been more awkward in his life? Oh well. He’d probably never see her again. Would she be coming into Shop Mart again? If so, when? And which checkout lane would she use? His? No.

Dave wanted to see her again though. He wanted a second chance. He wanted to learn her name. He wanted to impress her. What could he do though?

“Hey, you gonna scan my groceries today, Lover Boy?” the next customer asked impatiently.


Dave began his shift at four. He pinned on his nametag, turned on his register, and saw the light that said “Lane 12” turn on above his head. He waited. It had been three days since his last shift when he saw that girl. Dave couldn’t guess how many times he had replayed the scene in his head. Why didn’t he say something funny? Something charming?

Today wasn’t as busy as his last shift or as long. Thank goodness. He had several customers come through his lane, and he made polite conversation.

“Yes, it is cold outside. No, I haven’t tried them, but they look good. Returns and exchanges are that way, mam.”

Dave kept imagining the girl from the other day coming back. He would make a cute, funny remark about one of her items. She would laugh and tell him he’s funny. He would find a way to slip in the fact that he had listened to that Vampire Weekend album, and it was amazing. She would say she also loved it. He would ask her to dinner and she would love to. They would start going steady, everything would be great, they would get in a fight, he would win her back with a triumphant speech and a kiss in the rain, they would get married, have three or four kids, and live happily ever after.

This was silly though. He may never even see her again.

Except there she was. She was coming right through Dave’s lane with a basket of items to buy. This was her, right?
“Hey there, stranger,” she said smiling.
Dave couldn’t believe it! This was actually happening! Time to say something cute and funny! Dave looked at the items she was putting on the conveyor belt.

“Buying asparagus, huh? It may make your pee smell funny, but it’s my aphrodisiac of choice.”

Silence. Awkward silence. The girl’s stared straight at Dave in disbelief.

“That was, uh,” Dave stammered. “Supposed to be humorous.”

Silence still.

“Um, I, that… I wanted to impress you by saying something funny… and that was not funny.”

“Aphrodisiac?” she asked. “What the crap?”

“I, uh, read an article today about foods that make you, uh, you know. So that popped into my head when I saw you buying… asparagus. I’m sure you don’t actually eat asparagus for that purpose. I like asparagus too, I think it tastes really good.”

Dave had ruined his second chance. Luckily, the girl was amused by all this.

“You’re funny,” she said.

“Ha, actually, I’m Dave,” he said holding out his hand.

“Amy,” she said, shaking Dave’s hand.

Physical contact. Dave was making progress.

“So, uh, Two Door Cinema Club,” he said, ringing in her groceries. “I’ve listened to that album like thirty times already. Undercover Martyn is seriously one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. I had no idea the guys were from Ireland! Who knew they made good music? I figure they’d be too busy collecting shamrocks and eating potatoes, am I right? But it’s actually a really great album. What did you think of it?”

“I haven’t, uh, listened to it yet.”

“Oh. I sounded way too excited about that album, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, a little bit,” Amy admitted.

“You must think I’m real creepy, don’t you?” said Dave, admitting defeat.

“Well,” Amy conceded. “But it’s cute.” Amy smiled. She paid for her things and left.

Only one thing mattered to Dave for the rest of that day. Amy thought he was cute.


As soon as Dave woke up the next morning, he thought about Amy. His roommate, Neil, yelled at him for taking all the hot water in the shower. Dave hadn’t noticed. He was thinking about Amy. Dave’s economics professor reproached him for not paying attention during class. Dave didn’t care. He had Amy on the brain.

Fate had allowed Amy to come to Dave’s checkout lane not once, but twice. If this wasn’t destiny, Dave didn’t know what was. If he had the good fortune of seeing Amy a third time, Dave knew he would have to make his move.

“Neil,” Dave addressed his roommate. “Remember that girl I told you about?”

Dave sank his tall, lanky body into the couch Neil was sitting on.

“The one you told me about this morning?” Neil asked. “The beauty of mythical proportions?”

“Yeah, her.”

“What about her?”

“If I get to see her again, and I’m sure the gods of love will let me, how do I go about…”

“Seducing her?” Neil asked dryly.

“I prefer ‘wooing’,” Dave said.

“Dave, when was your last relationship?”

“My computer and I are still going strong.”

Neil’s blue eyes pierced Dave’s soul.

“Sophomore year of high school,” Dave admitted.

“So, uh, four years ago?”

“When you say it, it sounds like a long time.”

“It’s an eternity in the dating world, Dave.”

Dave sat quietly.

“She dumped you, huh?” Neil asked.

“It was brutal,” Dave said sadly. “It was over text message. She liked one of my best friends more.”

“So you’ve been insecure ever since, huh?”

“Terribly.”

“Hey,” Neil said, getting up. “You got this, bro. If I was this girl, I’d fall for you.”

“But how do I get her interested?”

“Dude, just ask her on a date.”

“It’s scary though,” Dave whined.

Again, Neil stared straight into Dave. “You’ll never know what could happen until you try it.”


Another shift at ShopMart went by. Dave did not see Amy. Neil had to console Dave, telling Dave that he couldn’t expect a single customer to come into the store every time he worked. Dave came to figure that Neil was right.

Dave worked another shift. This one was fairly busy, and Dave had many customers to help. He lost himself in his work until he heard a familiar voice.

“How’s it going, Dave?”

It was Amy.

“Amy!” Dave yelped too excitedly. He cleared his throat. “I mean, uh, hey, Amy.”

Amy smiled. “Hey, Two Door Cinema Club. Top notch.”

“You listened to it?” Dave asked happily. “It is great isn’t it?”

“Dude, it’s awesome!”Amy replied. “There’s not a sad song on the album, is there? It just makes me happy.”

“Yeah, I love it too.” Dave was ecstatic. Here was his chance. “Hey, Amy.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to, like, uh… get some coffee some time or something?”

“Like, what, a date?” Amy asked.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Um… I’m kind of seeing someone,” she gestured man behind her, who Dave had not noticed holding on to Amy’s cart. “This is Roger.”

“Sup, dude?” the guy said in a deep, masculine voice. He obviously worked out a lot, which certainly gave him a physical advantage of the long, skinny Dave. His hair was short and golden. His jacket could easily have been more expensive than Amy’s.

Dave’s heart sank into the ground. “Oh,” he said. “Yeah, okay.” Dave began slowly ringing up Amy’s groceries.

“Babe,” Roger said. “Why can’t you get coffee with this guy?”

“Hon, I don’t go on dates with other guys.”

“He didn’t say it would be a date, he said it would be ‘something like that’.”

Dave didn’t object.

“I’m sure it would just be as friends, right, Dan?” Roger asked.

Dave nodded timidly.

“See? Get some coffee with him sometime, babe.”

“Uh, yeah, okay,” she said beginning to smile. “Dave, give me your phone so I can put my number in.”

Dave handed his phone to Amy and continued to ring up her groceries as she pressed buttons.

“Transformers 2?” Dave asked as he rang a DVD up.

“Yeah, it’s Roger’s turn to pick the movie.” Amy said.

“And this one is crazy awesome,” Roger added.

Dave hated that movie. He finished bagging the groceries, and Amy gave the phone back and paid.

“Just call me and let me know when we’ll go,” she said.

“Just don’t have too much fun, you two,” Roger said, winking at Dave.

Dave waved as the couple walked away.


Dave’s heart was crushed. Amy had a boyfriend. A lot of crappy things had happened to Dave in his life, but this had to be at the top of the list. Dave spent the entire next day listening to sad music and eating. Neil’s attempts to cheer Dave up were futile. Amy had a boyfriend, and Dave wanted to sink into oblivion.

Dave still felt empty and meaningless the day after this. After much thought though, Dave pulled out his phone, and found Amy in his contacts list. He called her and they went to have coffee together.
The two met at the Java Hut. Amy hoped it hadn’t been awkward for Dave when he found out she had a boyfriend. Dave lied and said it wasn’t. They talked about Two Door Cinema club and more music they both liked. They both loved bands like Vampire Weekend and The Shins. Amy said Roger liked metal rock more. Amy had hated Transformers 2 and Dave heartily agreed. Amy was in her third year at the same university Dave went to, but they didn’t have any mutual classes. Amy wanted to be a teacher. Dave was a second-year and wanted to be a writer. Apparently, Roger had already graduated and was an instructor at the gym.

Dave and Amy talked and talked and talked. It still sucked that Dave couldn’t be with her, but he was happy to give her someone who cared about her problems. Dave did not think Roger really did.

Upon hearing about their coffee trip, Neil said he was sorry that Dave had been “friend-zoned” by Amy. Dave figured he should have seen it coming as he had never been more than a friend to anyone since he was 16 and in high school.

Dave and Amy’s coffee trips turned into lunches. Dave and Amy could talk to each other about anything and everything, which they did. They discussed family, politics, and their ambitions. When they would depart, Amy would hug Dave and these few seconds in embrace were the best part for Dave. Then Amy would go and see Roger again and Dave would have to push thoughts of those two together out of his head.

Dave kept working long hours at ShopMart. Whenever Amy came in, she made sure to checkout in Dave’s lane. Dave, of course, hadn’t gotten better at making jokes about Amy’s items.

“You sure this cheese is yours?” he asked one day.

“Yeah, why?” Amy inquired.

“Because if it’s not, it’s nacho cheese!”

“That was funny back when we still used like, corded phones and collected Beanie Babies.”

“Hey, I’m trying,” Dave said laughing.

“Hey, Dave,” Amy said hesitantly.

“Yeah?”

“I got in a fight with Dave.”

Inside, Dave’s heart leaped. Outside, Dave tried to remain calm and understanding.

“Oh… no… Amy.”

“Yeah, he, uh, I don’t know,” Amy said looking at the ground.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Amy,” Dave lied.

“He can just be so…”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Hey,” another customer behind Amy said “Let’s save the pity party for later! Let’s move!”

“I’ll call you after work,” Dave told Amy.


The following day after his classes were over, Dave walked into the parking lot to get in his car and drive home. Today’s lectures hadn’t gone well as Dave had spent last night talking to Amy instead of studying. As Dave shivered and fumbled with his keys, a man popped out of nowhere.

“Dave! Bro!”

Startled, Dave looked up and saw Roger on the other side of his car. “Holy jeez! Roger, where did you come from?!”

“Man, I’ve been waiting for you here all day!”

“How did you even know which car was mi—Wait, why do you want me?”

“Okay, so last night- I’m just playing Black Ops with the boys, you know?”

Dave did not know.

“And Amy calls me, which isn’t cool, ‘cause I was beating Randy’s butt, man. You ever seen a 16-kill streak? ‘Cause I had one!”

“No, I haven’t,” a confused Dave said.

“Kay, well, it was awesome!” Roger carried on, slapping his hands on the car. “And first Amy ruins it but calling me up in the middle of the game! And she just wants to, like, talk more about our fight we had the other night! Like, come on, girl! The fight ended! I’m over it! But, oh no, she’s not!

“She starts going off about how I never care about her! I never want to do what she wants to do! You know? Like I do nothing for her!”

“Uh huh,” said Dave.

“So,” Roger said. He paused, waiting for a response from Dave. “So what do I do? What have I been doing wrong?”

Dave sighed. “Well… how often do you tell her how you feel?”

“What, like… what do you mean?”

“How you feel about her.”

“Like, I don’t know,” Dave said scratching the back of his head. “Enough I thought!”

“Roger, dude, you gotta…” Dave sighed again. “Amy is a great girl! You need to tell her that! You need to tell her all the time that she is beautiful. You need to do some of the things that she likes! Watch what she likes; listen to what she likes! You need to listen to what she says! You gotta be there for her, man.”

“Yeah?” Roger wondered.

“Yeah! Man, you know what? Amy is the best girl in the world. She deserves flowers, letters, mix CDs! She deserves to have her hand held, to be shown that she means the world to me—I mean you.”

“Oh,” Roger said quietly.

The two men remained silent for a moment. Dave opened his car door. He got in. He started the engine and rolled down the passenger window.

“Roger,” Dave said.

“Yeah, Dave?”

“Just… Just be the guy she deserves.”

Dave drove off. Looking into his rearview mirror, he saw Roger just standing in place.



ShopMart was quiet. As such, Dave felt no shame in checking his phone when he got a text. It was from Amy and read:

Need to talk. Come outside.


Declaring he was on break, Dave put on his black coat and walked out the automatic front doors to see it was dark, but lampposts in the parking lot illuminated the light snow falling. He turned to see Amy.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi,” Dave replied. “A little cold isn’t it?”

“Meh,” Amy shrugged. Dave could tell she had something on her mind.

“What is it?” Dave asked.

“Roger told me what you said.”

Dave froze. “He did?”

“Yeah,” Amy continued, gently kicking at the snowy ground. “He, uh… He said I deserve better. He said I deserve someone who truly cares about me. He said I deserve you.”

Dave couldn’t help his eyebrows from raising or his eyes from growing wide.

“So, um… what do you think about that.”

“I think he’s right.”
Amy stepped closer to Dave. She looked so beautiful. She took his hands.
“When does your shift end?” she asked.
“I think my supervisor would let me off right now if I go ask him.”
“Hurry up,” she said gently. She kissed him. Dave didn’t feel cold at all. He ran inside ShopMart.
He loved this store.