*Author's Note: Any and all persons engaging in any sexual activity are at least eighteen years of age.
**Disclaimers: This story has been edited by myself, utilizing Microsoft Spell-Check. You have been forewarned; expect to find mistakes.
*.*.*
Turning from the spices display at the end aisle in the Natural Peak Grocers, the vegan grocery store on the ground level of Oakleaf Towers, Gabby saw that Vickie, the employee stationed at the grains counter was intoxicated. Vickie slumped against the clear glass partition, nearly asleep as she waited for a customer to come along.
Herding Sabrina, a short, slightly pudgy employee toward the counter, Gabby confronted Vickie. Vickie denied her inebriated condition, but Gabby could smell the alcohol on Vickie's breath and Vickie's speech was slurred.
After spewing harsh words and threats toward Gabby, the store manager on duty, Vickie stormed to the rear section, the 'Employees Only' portion and disappeared from sight. A few minutes later, Vickie reappeared, carrying a small bag, presumably her dinner, and with one final rude hand gesture to the large store manager, exited the store.
Verifying again that Sabrina DeSoto was over eighteen years of age, Gabby 'accidentally' let her beefy paw rest on the girl's chunky buttock as she had Sabrina don a hair net over her waist length brown curls. Then Gabby explained how to move the millstone over the wheat kernels or the barley, or rye. She then demonstrated cleaning the work surfaces thoroughly after each grinding.
"Yeah, someone's allergic to gluten? Last thing we'd need is for them to get some wheat flour or something mixed in with their rice or almond flour, right?" Sabrina said brightly.
A very cute Latina woman sauntered to the counter and Gabby addressed the young beauty in Spanish. The girl frowned and nodded tersely.
"I'd like two pounds of that whole wheat, stone ground, please," the girl said, in English.
Gabby again spoke Spanish, showing off for Sabrina's benefit. And, if Sabrina did rebuff Gabby's advances, this cute little Mexican jalapeno would be just fine as far as Gabby was concerned. Gabby liked the camel toe the customer's snug blue jeans displayed.
"Ma'am?" the customer asked.
Gabby repeated herself. Again, the girl shook her head, shrugging her shoulders.
Turning to Sabrina, the customer asked, "Do you speak English? Two pounds of the whole wheat, stone ground, please."
"Ma'am, I speak English," Gabby snapped, perturbed.
"Then why didn't you just speak English? What? You think all of us speak Spanish? Huh? Just because I look...never mind. I'll just go to Burns," the woman snapped and left the grains area, abandoning her cart.
"Well, excuse me, bitch," Gabby muttered to the customer's retreating back.
In Spanish, Sabrina stated she'd not make that mistake, should the customer come back. Gabby looked darkly at the no longer quite so cute employee.
The PA system crackled slightly, interrupting an Adelle song, paging Gabby to register number 3. Gabby bustled around the counter and hustled to the front of the store.
Silently, Sabrina thanked Tamara, the emaciated pimple faced girl that worked register #3. Gabby's intentions were quite obvious to Sabrina and Sabrina had no plans to succumb to Gabby's advances. Even though she did need this job, Sabrina was willing to quit before she would have sex with the mannish looking Gabby.
Sabrina spent the time to check the supplies of cloth bags, check the scale's calibration, even took the time to wipe down the counter. She smiled as Gabby was again called to another section of the store; she'd seen the large woman striding toward the grain counter.
"Almond right, almond flour, right?" Sabrina heard a woman's voice asking.
"Mm hmm, you ever had almond milk?" a man's voice asked as Sabrina put the quirt bottle under the counter and stood.
"Sabrina! Hey!" Heather O'Neil happily squealed, recognizing the former high school classmate.
"Sabrina! Hey!" Jeremy Hull mock-squealed, teasing his girlfriend.
"Oh, shut up Jeremy," Heather laughed, slapping him on his arm. "Go get your milk, huh?"
Sabrina smiled uncertainly; she and Jeremy and Heather had been classmates, but never friends in high school. The handsome Jeremy had been a football player and a baseball player, and Heather had been a cheerleader, while Sabrina had been squarely in the middle of nameless, faceless students. Or was in the middle of the nameless, faceless crowd, until someone started a very nasty and false rumor about Sabrina and her best friend Nancy.
"I uh, hey," Sabrina replied, surprised that the popular girl even knew her name.
"All right, oh! Brown rice, rice is gluten free, right?" Heather asked Jeremy.
Someone had marked on the small stickers which bin had what grain and which grain was gluten free. Sabrina assumed it was probably Trish, the young blonde beauty that normally worked this counter that had taken the time to mark the bins. Sabrina knew it had not been Vickie, the employee that had just been terminated; Vickie had no ambition and needed constant supervision.
"I, I'm pretty sure it is," Jeremy agreed. "Remember? I use that rice noodle stuff all the time."
Sabrina quickly verified that both the brown rice and the white rice were gluten free. She also verified that almond was gluten-free as well. Her eyebrows rose slightly when she saw that the oats were not gluten-free. She had just assumed that oatmeal would be gluten free.
"Yes ma'am, and the almond is also gluten free," Sabrina said. "All of our grain is herbicide and pesticide free; none of it is genetically modified; we guarantee it."
"Ma'am? MA'AM?" Heather asked, an amused smirk on her beautiful face.
"Yes 'ma'am?" Sabrina said.
"Sabrina, it's me, Heather," Heather said, placing a friendly hand on the girl's pudgy hand. "We went to school together?"
"And you're a customer, ma'am," Sabrina said, resisting the urge to fling the beautiful red head's hand from her own hand.