"You've got to be kidding me."
Nicky stared at the empty grocery store shelf where the soy and almond milk should be and felt a familiar feeling of disappointment.
She had been feeling that way a lot lately. It seemed no matter how hard she tried to stay on top of life's growing list of responsibilities, unexpected problems kept popping up at the worst times.
"Now how the hell am I gonna to make icing for the Christmas cookies?"
She bent down and stuck her head into the shelf to see if any cartons were hiding in the back, when the sound of a woman's voice startled her. She bumped her head on the shelf.
"Excuse me, are you looking for vegan milk?"
Nicky rubbed her head as she stood to face the woman who was standing a few feet away from her. There was nobody else in the aisle.
"Yeah, I need it for ici..." but she trailed off as she took in the woman's appearance.
Her long blonde hair draped down on either side of a perfectly symmetrical face, with crisp blue eyes and long, dark lashes, full pink lips, and well-defined cheek bones. She wore a black ski jacket over her tight-fitting purple dress that revealed too much cleavage and barely reached mid-thigh. Her smooth, toned legs stretched down from the hem of her skirt into a pair of skin-tight, shiny, black, knee-high boots.
"I have something you might like..." the woman said.
Nicky looked up at the woman's face and realized she'd been caught staring at her body. She tried to look away but something about the woman's eyes held her attention. They were light blue with dark outlines, almost black. And there were gold flecks scattered throughout them that seemed to shimmer and sparkle in the bright fluorescent lights of the store.
"Thanks, but....I'm... uhmm... I'm....." She struggled to finish her sentence. Her body was frozen, like a deer caught in the headlights.
A devious smile crept over the woman's face as she held Nicky's gaze. She stepped closer now.
Click...click...click...click... the sound of her heels on the floor penetrated Nicky's awareness like a jackhammer, chipping away her defenses, blasting away her thoughts until the clicks echoed in her mind like a vast, empty room.
Nicky stared deep into the woman's eyes as she approached, forcing her pupils to drift upward and cross slightly as the woman's face consumed Nicky's field of view. Nicky could smell the woman's perfume now; it smelled sweet, like a mixture of almond and coconut.
Nicky's gaze softened to a vacant stare as she inhaled the delicious aroma. A warm, heaviness spread through her, relaxing her muscles, causing her to sway slightly on her feet. As she exhaled, her eyelids drooped and her lips curled into a dopey smile.
"Try this...you'll LOVE it. Trust me..." the woman said in a seductive voice, holding out a carton of milk.
"Its soo yummy... "
Except she almost moaned it. Nicky couldn't help but feel a tinge of arousal as the words echoed in her mind.
Nicky dreamily reached out to take the carton of milk from the woman's hand. She thought the woman winked as she took the milk, but wasn't sure.
The next thing Nicky knew, she was standing in the aisle beside her shopping cart. Alone. Holding the carton of milk. The woman was nowhere in sight.
Nicky looked down at the carton in her hand. It was all black with little gold flecks, and the worse "Silx" was written on it in light blue cursive letters with a purple outline. She felt a vague sense of arousal looking at the strange packaging, and remembered the woman's words echoing in her mind:
" You'll love it... Sooo yummy.... trust me."
"Never heard of this before" Nicky thought. She turned the carton over to check the ingredients. It had a vegan logo in the bottom corner and was high in omega-3, protein, and vitamin B12. It was a bit high in in saturated fat, but she saw that it was made from 100% natural coconuts, so that made sense.
Nicky put the cartoon into her cart and finished shopping, relieved that she would be able to make Christmas cookies after all.
It was a tradition that she looked forward to each year. She loved decorating cookies with her family, while the smell of fresh baked cookies and the sound of Christmas music filled the house. She worked so hard to make everything perfect. She wanted the kids to have good memories of spending time with family at Christmas.
She wished Dan put more effort into it, he never seemed to take it as seriously as her, and she felt like she had to do everything. But he was good with the kids, always being silly and making them laugh. And his cookies were always hilarious. She laughed every time she thought of them. The icing would always drip off the edges and smear, and his sprinkles and candy drops would always be sloppy looking. His used to be only a little better than the kids, but now that they were getting older, the kids' cookies often looked better than his. He was goofy with her too, always making passes at her in the kitchen and kissing her when the kids weren't looking, and making lame jokes that she couldn't help but laugh at.
Only, lately it seemed like he hadn't had much interest in flirting with her at all. He used to be all over her, but then the kids came along, and life got busy. Neither of them had much energy left at the end of the day for sex. Usually, they would collapse into bed after a long day, put on Netflix, and scroll their phones in silence till they passed out. After while, the sneaky little butt grabs that used to annoy her so much stopped happening, and she couldn't remember the last time he tried to kiss her let alone make love to her. She actually started to miss his inappropriate sexual advances. She sometimes wondered if he still found her attractive.
She pushed those thoughts away as she unloaded the last of the groceries into the fridge. The carton of Silx caught her eye again as she closed the fridge door, and she paused.
She opened the fridge and pulled out the milk and began to shake it to mix it up. As she did, she felt a slight wave of dizziness pass through her as the light reflected off the gold flecks on the shiny, black carton. She composed herself, unscrewed the lid, and took a whiff.
The sweet aroma of coconuts and almond engulfed her senses, and she felt another wave of dizziness mixed with tingles of arousal pass over her.
She poured herself a small glass of the white liquid. It looked thicker and creamier than almond or soy milk.
"Looks like it'll make good frosting" she thought to herself.
She lifted the glass to her lips and felt the cool refreshing liquid slip over her tongue. Her tastebuds exploded with delight, sending a wave of tingles through her entire body that seemed to converge at her nipples and crotch.
"Mmmm... SO yummy..." she thought.
She remembered the way the woman at the store had said the same words. "sooo yummy". There was a sexual suggestiveness in the way she had said it. Nicky now understood why.
