Not Today

Stopping in front of the store doors, Paige checked inside her purse. Her paranoia calmed once Paige saw that her wallet was still in her purse. She smiled slightly as she grabbed the door handle. Only for the smile to disappear once the thought appeared that her credit card was not in the wallet. Even though she knew that shouldn’t be the case, Paige sighed as she let go of the door and opened her wallet. She felt relieved yet annoyed at her anxiety when she saw that her credit card was exactly where it should be.

Paige hated clothes shopping.

Yet, she had to do it. Well...kind of. One, no, two of her shorts were starting to wear out in all the wrong places. It was only a matter of time before they went from acceptable to so indecent that not even a donation center would give them to the homeless. Or get the cops called on her. One of the two. In either case, Paige figured she should buy new shorts before it really became a problem.

So with a grim expression, she opened the door and walked inside the last place she wanted to be in today.

As she walked through the clothing racks and shelves with accessories and random knick-knacks, Paige once more thought that maybe she could afford to wait. It was September after all, the day after Labor Day, in fact. Paige didn’t even know if the store would still have shorts. Her two dying shorts could probably survive another two weeks until fall kicked in. Then Paige could push this off till next year, when she would have plenty of choices to agonize over.

However, that was if Paige was lucky. Extremely lucky. She lived, for better or for worse, in a state where realistically, the hot weather would continue until October. The cooler weather would probably only start to get consistent a week before Halloween.

And while it was possible that her dying shorts could survive that long, Paige just couldn’t bring herself to count on it. Especially when she knew that she wasn’t the most graceful or ladylike woman in the world.

Especially when she had a coupon for 30 percent off that was going to expire in a few days. Paige wouldn't be happy with herself if she let that pass when she had stuff she needed to buy.

With regret, Paige tossed that thought into the trash once more and kept walking through the store, focusing on getting to the shorts section so she could get this over with.

She took only a few more steps when a display of blankets made her stumble to a stop.

Paige stared at the blankets for a moment before she squeezed them shut.

Please let her be seeing things. Please let her be seeing things! Please let her be seeing things!

With great trepidation, Paige peeked her eyes open, and her heart fell once she realized that she had been right. She couldn’t deny the truth anymore.

The color and design of the fluffy blankets were varied. Some were red while others were green. Some were decorated with holly leaves while some had cats sitting underneath an evergreen tree. But one thing was for certain…

They were all Christmas-themed.

It was September.

SEP. TEM. BER.

Paige gritted her teeth as she clutched her purse straps so tightly that the fabric dug into her hand uncomfortably. But Paige couldn’t find it in herself to care at the moment.

Seriously?! Already?! Putting out Christmas stuff in November was one thing, even though the way everyone in America practically treated Thanksgiving like the middle child hurt Paige’s heart. But at least then one could argue that Christmas was only a month away.

But...now?! When there were two whole months between September and December?! Paige, who diligently visited her parents every year for Christmas, hadn’t even bought the plane tickets yet!

Paige glared at the blankets for another moment before she tore her eyes away from the ugly scene and moved away.

A minute later, she was back in her car and driving out of the parking lot.

If seeing Christmas blankets wasn’t a bad sign for a shopping trip, then Paige didn’t know what was.