Only women at first.

The hum of a decked out engine neared the parking lot. After a croaked silence, it came to a stop just before the entrance, doors unlatching. Cold air beset the two occupants as they climbed out the 4-door car. Asha wrapped herself tightly, rubbing her arms.

"Well damn," the dark-skinned, sassy tongued lady shivered, "is it cold or what?"

"It's cold," her man gave. The pair's eyes met. He lent her a spurious wink. She rolled them. She loved the bastard, even when he was as funny as wood.

They scampered around the car and across to the convenience store as he held the door, then followed in. The morning chilliness dressed their breaths in see-through clouds before losing them to the warmth of the 7/11.

The cashier had been busy on her phone, but chirpily greeted them as they wandered in. They exchanged greetings, then began heading for the loot: a pack of drinks for the man, a warm sammich for Asha because, well, she was famished.

"You're going to be handing most of 'em to Ian and them right?" Asha looked at the tall, well-shaped Hispanic knowingly once they had stopped in front of the coolers. "I don't want you hoarding a load of beers in the house for you to drink all day."

"I wouldn't do that 'all day'," her miffed boyfriend quoted the air. He pulled on the handle and shuffled into the refrigerated compartment. "And yeah, just getting it for us guys later. After work."

Asha tipped him with a narrow-eyed reminder before giving into a quick, playful kiss. After lightly slapping his chest she left for the food corner and prepared a breakfast to-go. He briefly watched her -- and that ass of hers -- go. The door opened as another customer made their way in.

Should I go for a bag of chips? Dill's brain gurgled to itself. He passed the counter, eyes bolted to the floor. Or something more morning-y? The picklish, pin faced string of a boy shifted against the soft lining of his jacket as he thought. The weather called for something warm, really. Maybe...

"Hello, welcome!"

Dill briefly froze. He looked to the side to see the girl at the counter just bringing down her head, her attention already drawn away. "Oh, hi," he had been about to say.

The nigh-transparent sifter withdrew himself and carried on to the warm foods section. He plunged a hand into the foods compartment and felt a warm chicken sandwich through its plastic covering.

That looked like that might be good, he thought. As he surveyed the other options, another person came over via his peripheral vision. Thankfully, his rumbling belly and the drool-inducing meat sandwiches before him were enough of a distraction.

As he rounded the section for other options, he heard absent mumbling.

"Could go for some chicken... but Bessie did say that beef sandwich here wasn't bad..."

Dill noticed that she was now at his side. A respectable space, but nevertheless close enough to rope. He minded his own business as he looked down.

That was when he noticed her left foot, pushing against the floor. His brow wrinkled. It was a completely missable nuance. But she had slipped her foot out of her flats, now planting her toes against the floor as she moved her upturned heel from side to side. Quickly, he looked up to her face. She had quickly turned her face forward, eyes fixed on the products before her, but looking as if they were trying to keep an eye locked at her side. Almost as if she had been caught.

Caught doing what? Dill nearly laughed at his humor sense. Caught looking at him?

The barely a man adjusted his hood around his cheeks. He leaned forward and grabbed a plastic-wrapped chicken sandwich. Might as well get this over with.

Suddenly, an arm intersected his vision, and right afterward he felt a generous mound of flesh pushing against his shoulder.

"Whoop. Excuuse me." Dill looked to see the cocoa-skinned woman stretching all the way to get a ham sandwich. The fact that her doing so caused her to shove her breast against him made him wonder why she didn't just go around him. Blood was definitely rushing to all the wrong places now. When she got her sandwich, she stood back upright. "I just love ham. Don't you?"

She was speaking directly to him now, her eyes looking more curious, than anything. It was as he turned to her that he realized she was trying to get a good look of his face. When their eyes met, and she seemed to hold a breath and -- dare he say it -- even arch her back a little further, Dill managed to stammer something, looking at her eyes for a brief second before immediately shooting them back to the floor, then back to her still exposed foot, whose toes now tickled the edge of his shoe. He hadn't even been aware they were that close.

"I'm sorry," the woman laughed, flipping a strand of hair over her shoulder. One classy lean forward later, and they were nearly close enough to tie each other into a knot of a rope. "What was that?" Her eyes were darting around the shadowy face under Dill's hood again, her slightly smaller stature moving provocatively below him. Dill's heart thumped, his junior throbbed.

And he had to go.

"I... yeah!"

He'd rushed off to the cashier in a flash, shoes clunking beneath him. Choppy breaths were retrieved from his lungs as he stopped at the counter and self-consciously adjusted his jacket. These things could be worse than the mile run.

He didn't dare turn back. In fact, he was still considering the very notion of looking up at all. Meanwhile, the soft white hand of the cashier girl from earlier appeared over the chicken sandwich he had chosen for breakfast. It flipped it over then set if back down, and a voice echoed from above, "This all?"

Dill nodded. His eyes remained downcast. The left brow of his collected a sweatdrop or two.

Pulling out a couple of wads of cash, he offered it to the cashier. For a second, there was no response. Frowning, he pushed his hand forward in the air and finally, he felt a warm cradle of skin. They cupped his hand into theirs, and it took a second to realize it was the cashier girl accepting his money by hugging his hand in two of hers. It all happened in a matter of seconds, but the journey from his wrist to his joints to the dollar bills felt goosebump-inducingly long. He gulped once the bills were out of his fingers.

"Thank you," the voice, the same one from earlier, said chirpily. However, it was also imbued with a peppiness that seemed unnecessary for even customer service protocol. Without thinking, Dill looked up. The young, pretty woman, nearly at the very same moment, raised her eyes to meet his, and for her it was the jackpot. When they saw what they had been looking for, she brought a hand to her hair and toyed with a strand, quickly looking back down. Her body now quietly twisted from left to right, like a girl being coquettishly impatient as she looked around the store, then snuck another look at Dill's face. He caught her anyway. She pushed herself forward against the counter, and looked down. She rose her body up and down with her tiptoes.

Finally, the receipt was printed. They both landed their eyes upon it, then back at each other.

After an awkward silence, the young woman plucked it out then handed it over.

"Here's your change and receipt, sir."

Dill took them both. "Thanks."

The woman nodded and smiled before looking back down, in what looked like silent yearning. Dill walked away and exited the store, but just before he did, he bumped into someone. It was only after quickly apologizing that he realized it was the same woman from earlier, the one who'd 'reached' for that ham sandwich.

"Oh, no, it's fine." She smiled reassuringly, then very quickly slapped her ass, sliding her hands up to her back, then raising her shoulders up then letting them back down again, as if taking a heavy breath. The look she gave Dill was one of completely foreign, smoldering territory.

Completely unprecedented.

Completely unprepared for.

Dill nodded, gulped, then said, "I -- uhh... yes, thank you."

Then he scuttled out the door.

Asha looked on. Her boyfriend appeared from down the aisle. She bit her lip, speaking under her breath.

"That guy was really cute." When her boyfriend reached her, she accepted his embrace. They walked up to the cashier together, laughing at another wooden joke before placing the beef sandwich and 6 pack on the counter.