Saturday Afternoon

Samantha sighed and started her third circuit of the parking lot. All she needed was an empty parking space. Just one. A place to legally stop her car so she could get out and into the mall.

“Why am I at the mall on a Saturday afternoon?” Samantha growled as she turned away from the exit. “Oh right, the only bakery within a hundred miles that makes the cupcake Dad likes is here.”

Mom should have been the one circling the parking lot trying not to run over kids and teenagers running wild. No, that would have alerted Dad that he was getting cupcakes and they just couldn’t have that. It just had to be a surprise. Samantha growled again.

Samantha caught sight of a family loading into their minivan and rushed to get into position, with her blinker on. It would take a while with three car seat sized kids, but that parking spot would be hers.

“Watch where you’re going, lady.” The voice carried through her closed window and over the AC.

She looked up to see a man all in black leather on a motorcycle flipping her off. She resisted the urge to return the gesture. Instead she moved to take the parking spot, acing out a guy in a red convertible trying to sneak in by going the wrong way up the lane.

The space was three cars from the far edge of the parking lot. At least she was on her way to getting Dad’s cupcakes. And she’d get her workout in without going to the gym.

She got to the mall entrance and there stood the biker. Still dressed all in black leather which had to be sweltering in the sun. He’d removed his helmet revealing mop of pitch black hair over an olive toned face.

“Great I’m about to get assaulted by a my ideal man,” Samantha muttered to herself. She shifted her keys so they stuck out between her fingers as she made a fist. She wasn’t about to let this guy prevent her from getting those cupcakes.

“Miss, uh, Ma’am,” the biker said taking half a step toward her.

Samantha glared at him.

“I just wanted to apologize. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”

Well that wasn’t what she expected. She stopped to look him over, and a woman pushing a stroller crashed into her. That kid learned some new words from that exchange.

She looked back at the biker. She wondered how much of that look was the leather and how much was him. It took her a moment to realize he had been talking to her while she undressed him in her mind.

“Sorry, what?”

He blushed. “I’m sorry. I was babbling.” He brought his hands up, squeezed them into fists and put them back at his sides. “I threw my roommate’s toaster out the window and now I have no idea where to buy a new one.”

Samantha stared at him for several long breaths. “A toaster?”

He nodded. “Will you help me?”

She couldn’t help it. The laughter bubbled up faster than she could catch it. He looked mortified. Samantha pulled suppressed the giggles.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh like that.” She took a deep breath. She hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. “I’ll help you find a toaster, if you’ll help me carry cupcakes to my car.”

“Really?” He looked as surprised as the kid who got the puppy he’d asked for on Christmas. “I mean, thank you.”

He held out his arm. Such an old fashioned gesture made all the more cute by his biker leathers. She accepted and they walked into the mall side by side.