As the Corona virus panic started to take hold on America, Wal-Mart decided it would cut back hours on its Super Centers from 24 hours to a 6 AM-11 PM schedule. Thus I found myself in the rain outside my local store at 5:50 one morning, waiting with the other two dozen or so shoppers to get into the store to hopefully stock up on basics, including that most coveted and rare item, toilet paper. Shortly before six, the store manager appeared and let us in, letting us know that there was no paper in the store, but he had a truck coming in within the hour. I went about the store, filling my cart better than I had hoped, but still frustrated at the number of empty shelves for things like mac and cheese, corned beef hash, and not a slice of bread in the entire store. I overheard a couple of stockers say the truck had arrived, and would be unloaded shortly.
As I went to the back of the store, I discovered there was a line extending from the paper goods aisle back toward electronics. It was long, probably 30 people waiting. I was thinking of bagging the paper, then decided, I was already here, might as well see how it goes, maybe it won't be so bad. So I took my place down near stationery, looking idly around at the end displays, and checking news feed on my phone. After a couple of minutes, I saw a cart behind me out of the corner of my eye.
On the other end of the cart was an attractive, petite woman, maybe early 40's, light brown hair the color of honey, standing about 5'4". "What a little cutie," I thought. She was dressed to shop on a rainy morning: nicely form fitting jeans, boots, and a flannel shirt. She looked up, giving me a smile.
"So, another hoarder of toilet paper," I said. "Welcome to the insanity."
A big smile spread over her face. "Yeah, seems I've succumbed to the irrationality along with all the other fools."
I laughed. "Yeah, it is irrational, like there will be no more toilet paper, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, Kleenex..."
"Bread," she interjected.
"Bread," I agreed, "ever again. These people will have a garage full of toilet paper til next year, and I bet they get sick of eating mac and cheese by the time this resolves itself."
My erstwhile companion laughed. "Yeah, and I bet a lot of otherwise good food gets tossed because it goes out of date before they can eat all of it."
"No kidding," I said. "That's the real shame of it, all the waste that this insanity will create. I wouldn't be out here, except I didn't get toilet paper last week-when it wasn't a crisis-so now I'm stuck in this mess."
"Yeah, it seems pretty dumb," she said. The line started to move, and we continued to chat as we made our way forward. They were bringing out another pallet of Cottonelle as we turned the corner into the aisle. We each got our allotted package of 18 super sized rolls, parted with a "be careful and wash your hands," and went our separate ways.
As we parted, I said to her, "This has been fun, and you're a delight. I almost wish the line was longer." She agreed and allowed how she had enjoyed the encounter as well. I thought about asking her to Waffle House for a quick bite, but the wedding set on her left hand made me think better of it, much as I liked the idea. We went our separate ways, seeking our retail fortune in the rest of the store.
Fifteen minutes later, I was at the checkout. There were only two live cashiers on, so I selected the long self checkout, the one with the belt like a regular stand. There was a man ahead with only a few items, but he seemed to be having an issue with the card reader. As I waited and unloaded my stuff on the belt, my TP aisle gal came up on the opposite checkout and started unloading her cart. I watched as she leaned over to get things out of her cart, noting that when she moved in certain directions, I could see quite a bit of her left breast. Maybe she's not wearing a bra?? I continued my observation, enjoying the view of the curve of her C cup left tit. One of the things that drives me crazy is a girl next door MILF, who will go braless in public. There's a self assuredness about it that is amazingly appealing, that a woman, especially an attractive one, would go about her day not only not caring about convention, but without one of the main foundational garments, simply because it's comfortable and convenient. And it's incredibly sexy!!
The guy ahead of me finally got the card machine figured out, and left. I moved up and started to scan my items. I looked over to the next lane. "Hey," I said. My gal looked up. "Did you get your panic buying all done??"
She laughed. "Mostly. There are a lot of things they're out of."
"No joke," I said. "It's ridiculous."
"Yeah, it is," she said, with a sigh. "But at this point, you almost have to do this, or there will be nothing left later in the day, and I need the groceries."
"Very true," I said. We again chatted as we scanned and bagged. I was a bit faster on the scanner than she was, and got done first. I collected my receipt from the machine. "It would be nice to come here and not spend a couple hundred bucks not to run out of stuff."
She laughed. "Yeah, I know. It's like when they predict snow here, and everyone clears out the bread and milk, as if they're going to be snowbound for a month, only worse."
"Yeah, four inches of snow here, and everything closes for a week. That's the south for you."
She laughed again. "We used to live in Michigan, and four inches of snow only made a mess, and life went on."
I laughed. "I hear ya. I lived in upstate New York for many years. We'd get 10" of snow overnight, the plows would go by my house at 5 AM, and my kids went to school."
"You know it," she said, laughing at the familiar routine. "We never had a snow day!!"
I had gotten my stuff organized by then, bade her yet another farewell, and was off to load the car. A few minutes later, she came out and started loading her goodies into the car next to mine.
I looked over. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were following me."
She looked over and laughed. "How do you know I'm not??"
