“Yeah,” she said releasing him. “I need some...feminine products.”

Aiden didn’t miss a beat and nodded. “Fair play, I can wait out here if you’d like?”

“Sure. Be right back.” Antonia cringed as she left him on the sidewalk. Why did I say feminine products? I may as well have said sanitary napkins; the kind that come with belts. She had a mind to grab something personal, but it was definitely more intimate. If things went well with today’s date, she wanted to be prepared. She’d gone thirty-three years without an accident and she certainly wasn’t going to mess that up now. Even when Derek had assured her that he was “The Pull-out King,” she had her doubts and kept buying condoms. Her mother always stressed, “Only women get left holding a bag more expensive than a Gucci.”

Antonia wandered toward the aisle where she thought she would find condoms and came up empty. With her hands on her hips, her eyes scanned over the products. It wasn’t a very large pharmacy, they had to be there somewhere. She went from aisle to aisle, cold medicines to vitamin supplements, only to end up back in the same spot.

“You need help?” asked an elderly woman in a white coat. She peered over a pair of half-glasses at a confused Antonia.

Do I really have to ask a woman old enough to be my grandmother? Antonia glanced around the empty store before saying in a low voice. “I’m looking for...contraceptives.”

The woman tilted her head and frowned. “What’s that, dear?”

“Contraceptives,” she replied, slightly louder.

“Condoms, you mean?”

Antonia’s face grew hot. “Yes, please.”

“Back here, m’dear. I keep the rubber Johnnies behind the counter.”

Like a child, she followed the pharmacist to the back counter.

“What’s your brand?”

“Regular Trojan should do,” Antonia said, staring at the counter. Anything to make the awkward transaction move faster.

“Got a hot date?” the woman asked, taking her sweet time to situate herself behind the partition.

“You could say that.”

“Smart girl. Can’t trust these fellas to think with the brain the Lord gave ’em. How many packs?”

Antonia glanced at the store’s entrance before deciding. Aiden was still standing at the door, checking his phone. “Better make it two.”

The pharmacist raised a painted-on brow. “Can’t be too careful.” She dropped two packages in a small paper sack. “Yes, I remember a time when you couldn’t get a rubber Johnny without a marriage license and a prescription. The laws didn’t change until the ’80s, you know? Cryin’ shame, it was.”

Her embarrassment turned to amusement as the woman gave a brief history of family planning in Ireland. “You seem like a progressive woman,” Antonia said. “Is there a reason you still keep them behind the counter?”

“Aye, and I’m an old woman as well. I’m not quick enough to stop thieving snappers from takin’ rubbers without paying. I keep the tests back here too. They’re too expensive for a panicky lass who’s in the family way.”