“I’ll be glad to get home, Taylor,” Brian was saying as he drove out of the parking lot. “Grocery shopping with you is tiring.”
“Like you do anything but push the cart and complain,” Justin recalled. “I have to pick out all the items and put them in the cart and figure out what we need and the best bargains and….”
“So I didn’t say you couldn’t be tired too if you want
to,” Brian informed him, “And we’ll be home in ten minutes so we can rest or
maybe we could….”
”We gotta make one more stop, Sweetheart,” Justin told him. “Dollar Value.
It’s right on the way though. You don’t even have to come in. I’ll just run in
and….”
“Can’t it wait?” Brian complained. “I’m tired. Why couldn’t you have just got everything at Giant Eagle? Trying to save a couple of pennies, I guess.”
“If you would have been paying attention in the Eagle, Kinney,” Justin pointed out. “Instead of just pushing the damn cart and staring into space, you would have noticed that they were out of Twinkies. I’ll be e-mailing their complaint department all right – you can be sure of that - but in the meantime….”
“JT,” Brian protested, “There are still at least a couple of Twinkies left in that box you bought like – day before yesterday. I know there are. I saw them with my own eyes. I’m not always staring into space.”
“So how long do you expect a couple of Twinkies to last, Brian?” Justin wanted to know. “I don’t want to run out.”
“They’d last ten years if what I read on the internet is correct,” Brian claimed. “And they’d last longer than that if they were waiting for me to eat them. Junk food. That’s what they are. Just junk. Empty calories….”
“Well I think the internet is wrong on the shelf life, Mr. Kinney,” Justin disputed what was disputable. “I think the manufacturers say it’s about 25 days.”
“A lot they know then, Baby,” Brian laughed. “The shelf life of Twinkies in the loft is closer to 25 minutes. I think you might even like Twinkies better than you like me….”
“Nope,” Justin tried to reassure him. “Not a chance, BK. If I had to pick between you and Twinkies, I’d probably pick you – most of the time….”
“Probably?” Brian laughed even harder. “Most of the time. You’d probably pick me most of the time. OK, Mr. Taylor, the next time you want something or try to talk me into something, I’m gonna just tell you to go get yourself a Twinkie instead….”
“Gee whiz, Brian,” Justin told him, “There a lot of things you can do that a Twinkie can’t. I know that. It’s just that Twinkies like – give me the energy to do… Hey Kinney – don’t you be driving right past Dollar Value either. Stop the car….”
So Brian pulled into yet another parking lot and Justin leaped out of the car and hurried into the store.
Brian just sat there – staring into space – but with a satisfied smile on his face – waiting happily enough for the twink with the Twinkies. And he was in no mood to complain either. For Brian, it was all worth it.
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