The morning air hit him the moment he stepped outside his building. Cool enough to make him glad he’d grabbed his jacket. He locked the door behind him and started down the street toward the small grocery store two blocks over. The one he usually avoided in favor of the bigger chain further out but that felt like the right call for something this small and specific.
The street was quiet at this hour. A few joggers passed him going the opposite direction. Someone walking a dog paused to let it sniff at a lamppost. Jason kept his hands in his pockets and let his mind wander back to the apartment he’d just left.
Sarah in my shirt sitting and on my counter.
He allowed himself a small private smile at the image before forcing his attention back to the task at hand.
He reached the store after he worked for a short while and the automatic doors slid open with a soft mechanical hum. The place was mostly empty this early. One employee was restocking a shelf near the entrance and another at the register scrolling through her phone with the particular boredom of someone whose shift had barely started.
He grabbed a basket from the stack by the door and headed toward the baking aisle. Flour first. He scanned through the shelf and grabbed a mid-sized bag not needing anything industrial for a single batch of pancakes.
Baking powder next sitting. It was located two shelves down in a small tin he almost walked past before catching himself and doubling back.
Eggs.
He crossed toward the refrigerated section checking the cartons for anything that was close to the expiration date and settling on one further back that gave him more room before it went bad.
Milk followed the same logic. He grabbed it from behind the front row where the store apparently expected customers not to think to look.
He wandered the aisle for the syrup last remembering when Sarah gave the specific instruction about the good stuff not the cheap stuff and standing in front of the shelf for a solid ten seconds trying to determine which one actually qualified as good.
He eventually grabbed the one in the glass bottle over the plastic one assuming that alone probably counted for something in her judgment.
He carried the basket to the register where the same bored employee rang everything up without ever having much interest.
"Find everything okay," she asked flatly not really looking up.
"Yeah. Thanks."
She scanned the flour then the eggs then paused slightly at the syrup checking the price against something on her screen. "This one’s on sale actually. Didn’t update the shelf tag yet. Saves you a couple bucks."
"Appreciate that."
She finished ringing everything up and told him the total. $15. He paid tapping his card against the reader and gathering the bags once the transaction cleared.
"Have a good one," she said already looking back at her phone before he’d even turned to leave.
He stepped back out into the morning air the bags light in his hands and started the walk home at an easy pace no rush left in his step now that the errand itself was done.
He was halfway down the block when the notification bloomed quietly at the edge of his vision.
[Cashback Received: $39]
Jason blinked at the number.
That’s more than I calculated.
He’d run rough math in his head before leaving expecting something closer to five dollars based on the total and the multiplier he’d been tracking since last night.
Something changed.
[Sarah Whitmore]
[Attraction Level: 39% → 52%]
[Rebate Multiplier: 2.6x]
He stopped walking entirely for a second right there on the sidewalk.
Fifty two percent.
He did the math slowly letting it actually land. Fifty two divided by a hundread times 5 equals 2.6.
That’s not a small jump. That’s the biggest single increase since I started tracking this.
He resumed walking a slow grin spreading across his face that he didn’t bother hiding from the empty street.
Guess last night did more than I realized. In more ways than one.
He reached his building and climbed the stairs the bags shifting slightly in his grip and let himself back into the apartment.
"I’m back," he called stepping inside and toeing his shoes off at the entrance.
Sarah appeared from the kitchen still wearing his shirt her hair pushed back now into something resembling order. "Took you long enough."
"It’s been like fifteen minutes."
"Fifteen very long minutes." She crossed toward him eyeing the bags with open suspicion. "Did you actually get everything or are we about to discover you forgot the eggs."
"I got everything."
"I don’t believe you." She reached him and without any real hesitation started digging through the bags herself her shoulder brushing his arm as she did. Neither of them commented on it. It felt too natural to bother acknowledging.
"Flour," she said pulling it out and setting it on the counter behind her. "Baking powder. Eggs." She held the carton up checking it like she expected it to fail some kind of inspection. "Milk. And." She reached the syrup last and her whole face lit up slightly at the sight of the glass bottle. "You got the good one."
"Told you I got everything."
"I still would’ve checked either way." She said it without apology gathering the bags fully now and turning back toward the kitchen.
Jason watched her go the loose fit of his shirt doing absolutely nothing to hide the shape of her as she walked and he let himself notice for exactly as long as felt reasonable before looking away.
"Give me like ten minutes," she called back already pulling out a bowl. "Pancakes don’t take long. Go sit down or something. Try not to hover."
"I wasn’t going to hover."
"You were absolutely going to hover." She glanced back at him over her shoulder a small teasing smile on her face. "Sit. I’ve got this."
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