Stan was extremely annoyed by the request. He was sure Barb had spent the whole day on the phone, or in front of the TV watching her ridiculous soap operas and dumb court shows. If she'd gotten off her lazy butt, she could have taken care of this herself. She stayed home all day, but she expected him to do her work too, it was getting out of hand. He decided it was just about time to tell her so, but right now all he wanted was for his dinner to be cooked. “Yeah, I'll get it,” he said curtly and disconnected the call.

He pulled into the parking lot at the grocery store and got out of the car. Walking away, he noticed a black van with tinted windows pulling into the spot next to him.

Stanley went directly to the meat counter and grabbed a package of burger. He was heading for the checkout lane when he noticed Stacey Miller standing at the dairy counter. Stacy was good friends with his wife, the one she spent hours on the phone with. He'd never liked Stacy, she seemed much too independent and he knew she always got what she wanted with her husband and that he did nothing without first consulting her.

His own wife had tried that once, and there'd been a significant battle before he finally got that nonsense under control.

He saw Stacey glance over at him, the expression on her face was one of disgust. Stanley just glared back. How was it that Stacey could harbor that much disrespect for him? What had Barb told her, which made her look at him like that? Tonight, he was going to find out what that wife of his was saying about him.

There was a new register just opening as he arrived, and Stan quickly squeezed his way in so he didn't have to wait. He suspected this was probably the first thing which had gone his way all day.

Approaching his car, he noticed the owners of the black minivan trying to open their passenger door. The man was fumbling with the keys, and the woman was holding a bag of groceries. Stanley briefly considered the fact that their van had arrived just after him and he'd only grabbed the burger and made the quick escape through the newly opened checkout lane, yet these two were already out with a full-size bag of groceries.

His quick escape started to seem a hollow victory, especially when he got a better look at the woman standing beside the mini-van. She seemed to be in her mid-twenties, with beautiful brown hair and a fantastic body. Where did I go wrong? Stanley thought.

The couple noticed him, and the man spoke with a friendly smile. “Go on, we'll be a moment,”

Stanley muttered a brief thanks and started to squeeze past them, reaching into his pocket for the keys.