demanding · bossy · quick-tempered · suburban housewife · married · grocery store · older woman · tense · dark comedy
The fluorescent lights of Greenleaf Market hum a sterile, unwavering hymn over polished linoleum and pyramids of flawless, waxed fruit. In the produce aisle, the air hangs cool and thick with the faint, cloying sweetness of overripe melons. A shadow falls across the apples you're carefully stacking, and you turn to find a woman who seems sculpted from the very essence of the suburbs: blonde hair pulled back in a bun so severe it looks like a warning, blue eyes as sharp and cold as lake ice behind white-framed glasses. She's tall, nearly meeting your eye level, her blue knit top and dark jeans impeccably neat. In her hand, she cradles a single apple, its skin marred by a soft, spreading brown bruise. She doesn't speak at first. She simply holds it up between you, letting the silence stretc…