“No, really, I’m fine,” said Megan.

“Do you think they deliver cookies?”

“What? Who? Who is ‘they?’”

“Oh, you know, the place we get our food from sometimes.”

“I don’t know. Would it really be worth it? Do you really want to tip and pay a delivery fee just for a couple of cookies? Not to mention the waste of gas.”

Oh, I’m not going to just get a couple of cookies, thought Jillian and almost laughed that exploding snort laugh again.

“Hmm, I guess you’re right,” said Jillian.

There was silence for a minute.

When the minute was up, Jillian said, “Can you, um, answer calls for me while I’m gone? I’m going to run out to the Walgreen’s real quick.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Megan. Jillian left with her purse and Megan sat in her chair with a “what the fuck?” face.

As soon as she shut the door, Jillian let the laugh out and doubled over a little bit, then straightened out and sighed. “I didn’t really need to bend over like that,” she said to the empty hallway. “Just felt like it.”

“Did you know that Walgreens has home-baked cookies?” Jillian said in the grocery aisle at the Walgreens. “Incredible.”

I want to make sure I’m fully stocked, she thought. She thumbed through the cookies, which were the size of compact disks and individually wrapped in cellophane. Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter M&M, Sugar M&M, Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Nut. Guess I should get one of each. But maybe two Chocolate Nut. There came that old laugh again, because it was she who was the real nut. She looked to the side. Good that no one was there.

But maybe she needed something else. Oh my god, Pop-Tarts were on sale. Those would make a good lunch. Something salty. Hey, these nuts are smoked. That sounds like a health nut thing. Megan was such a health nut! Then that damn laugh again. Two Pay Days, because they were on sale, and then a bottle of water. Yeah, today seemed like a water day. Evian. Oh, cool, they have little Crystal Lites right in the water fridge door. Cool. Jillian took her armload up to the cashier and felt that laugh bubbling up in her chest again. And it felt good to suppress, too, that was how fun the laugh was.

She bent over the counter and slowly unfolded her arms, letting the snacks tumble out in front of the cashier. “Didn’t want to drop any of it,” said Jillian.

“Alright, sweetie,” said the cashier.

“She called me sweetie because I was getting all these sweets,” said Jillian in the parking lot. Jillian was carrying the plastic shopping bag close to her chest, as if there were no bag. “This is my catch,” she said. “Pretty good haul.”

Whaaat, thought Megan when Jillian got back to the office with her enormous sack of cookies.