Free Can't Stand the Heat by Shelly Ellis Page B

fought the urge to cringe. Even with her bonus card and coupons, her groceries still totaled almost twenty dollars more than she had budgeted. She stared at the bags now in her cart, at the plastic-wrapped boneless chicken and the head of lettuce. She thought she had bought the bare minimum.
    There’s no way I could have made my list any shorter!
    Her electric and phone bills were both due in a few days. She would have to pay those soon and that would definitely put her checking account into overdraft again. That would be another thirty-five-dollar fee.
    Lauren bit her bottom lip and dragged her debit card through the scanner. She punched in her password, half expecting the screen to suddenly flash red with the words, “Alert! Alert! Do not accept this broke-woman’s money!”
    â€œYou know, you’re one of ten people in town that do their grocery shopping here at ten thirty in the morning on Wednesdays.” The eighteen-year-old cashier smiled as she turned back around to gather Lauren’s receipt, which was loudly printing with an automated hiccupping and screeching sound. “And it’s always the same people. I guess you guys like to have the store all to yourselves, huh?”
    â€œNo, it has more to do with my work schedule,” Lauren said, trying her best to sound pleasant despite the knot forming in her stomach. “I work long hours both weekdays and weekends. My boss gives me at least one morning off to do my errands.”
    â€œAww, that’s nice of him!” The cashier handed Lauren her receipt. “And here I was thinking you were just trying to stay out of the long lines.” The girl laughed and waved. “Have a nice day, Miss Gibbons!”
    â€œYou, too, Shana. See you next week.” Lauren gave a distracted wave as she stared down at her receipt and scanned the line items. She slowly made her way to the sliding automatic doors, left the air-conditioned store, and walked into steaming heat of the nearly empty parking lot.
    Maybe I should finally break down and ask to borrow money from my sisters, she thought. I can ask for just a small amount of cash to hold me over until my next paycheck, then pay them back.
    But Lauren had decided months ago that she was no longer going to depend on a man to pay her bills and buy her things. No matter how hard it got for her, she wouldn’t get another sugar daddy. Unfortunately, whatever money she borrowed from her mother or sisters more than likely came from the pocket of one of their many suitors or ex-husbands. So if she borrowed money from them, she would be breaking her rule. It would still mean dependence on some man’s wallet—just vicariously through her sisters.
    If I’m going to do this, I’m going to have to do it on my own .
    â€œEven if it means I’m slowly going broke,” Lauren muttered.
    She sighed before shoving the receipt into the pocket of her jeans shorts. She picked up the pace and quickly steered her cart toward her Toyota Corolla, which she saw in the distance.
    Lauren had parked farther away from the store on purpose. She had put on a few pounds in the past few months after giving up her gym membership to save money. She had decided she could exercise instead by climbing steps more often and walking longer distances, a health tip she had read about in a magazine.
    She unlocked the trunk of her car and opened it with a loud creak that echoed throughout the parking lot. Lauren then loaded her grocery bags inside and shut the trunk. She glanced at her watch as she returned her shopping cart to one of the lot’s cart corrals and estimated that she had enough time to stop at a library and drop off a few books that were dangerously close to being overdue.
    â€œIt’s not like I need to pay another fine.”
    She unlocked the driver’s-side door. Determined to make the best of her day, she started to whistle a tune she had heard on the radio earlier. It raised