Jennifer Whalen
“Aunt Rachel, you said we were having a sleep over,” Hannah whined as they walked through the grocery store.
“We are.” Rachel tossed a frozen pizza into the cart. “But first we need supplies.” She shot her niece a mischievous grin.
“What kind of supplies?”
Rachel smiled at the hesitation in the six-year-old’s voice. Her parents had taken an overnight trip to celebrate their anniversary and left Hannah in Rachel’s care. Rachel intended to make it the ultimate girls’ night, complete with plenty of junk food.
Rachel tapped her chin. “Hmmm . . . pizza.” She gestured to the pizza in the cart. “Maybe some cookies?”
“Cookies!” Hannah cheered. “Can I pick?”
“Sure.” Rachel pushed the cart down the next aisle where Hannah immediately chose a box of cookies with Prince Charming on the front of the package.
“If we buy these cookies, do we get the prince too?” Hannah asked.
If only it were that easy.
“No, sweetheart, they don’t sell Prince Charming at the grocery store.”
Hannah shrugged and tossed three packages of cookies into the cart. And maybe if Rachel hadn’t been lost in thought about the mechanics of finding Prince Charming in the grocery store, she would have noticed him sooner.
Rachel froze mid-step. “Oh. My. Gosh,” she whispered to herself. “What is he doing here?”
“What is who doing here?” Hannah asked, looking around the aisle with the subtlety of a bull in a china shop.
“Shhhh.” Rachel tried to quiet her niece. “It’s someone from work.”
“If he’s your friend, you should say hi.”
“He’s not my friend,” Rachel said. But of course, that wasn’t entirely true. He was her friend. And that was the problem.
Peter Callahan was a real-life, modern-day Prince Charming—the kind that wore suits and drove fancy cars and made important business deals. But where Rachel saw romantic potential with Peter, he didn’t seem to see her as anything more than his coworker.
And that harsh reminder was enough to set her into motion. Rachel didn’t think, she grabbed Hannah’s hand and started walking toward the next aisle.
They had almost made it to safety when a deep voice behind them said, “Rachel?”
Rachel stopped and turned slowly toward the voice. Peter stood there, tall and handsome in the same suit he’d been wearing at work earlier that day. A stark contrast to the holey jeans and vintage T-shirt she now wore.
“Peter, hey.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “What are you doing here?”
“Grocery shopping.” He smirked.
Rachel willed her tongue to move, to find words — literally any words would do — to say to Peter. But her brain must have frozen in the ice cream aisle, because at that moment she couldn’t think of a single thing.
Peter moved and Rachel expected him to turn and run, but instead he crouched down to Hannah’s eye level and said, “Are you Rachel’s niece?”
“Mm-hm,” Hannah answered.
“I overheard your Aunt Rachel talking about you at work today. She’s very excited for tonight.”
“Me too,” Hannah said. “We’re having a sleepover.”
“That sounds like fun. What do you do at a sleepover?”
He seemed genuinely interested in the little girl’s response and it warmed Rachel’s heart.
How could he be this handsome and this sweet?
“Watch movies and eat pizza,” Hannah answered without hesitation. Then she leaned forward, and with a conspiratorial whisper, she said, “And talk about Prince Charming.”
Peter laughed. “Well, that sounds like quite the night.”
The conversation lulled and Rachel was about to say their goodbyes—grateful to leave this interaction with minimal embarrassment—when Hannah proudly announced, “My aunt has a crush on you.”
Time slowed and Rachel silently prayed the ground would swallow her up.
When she finally braved a glance at Peter, she expected a look of horror. Instead his blue eyes were twinkling with humor.
Slowly, he stood to his full height, smiled, and said, “Is that right?”
The deep timbre of his voice sent a shiver up Rachel’s spine and a spark of hope into her heart.
“Yup.” Hannah added extra emphasis on her p, clearly oblivious to the grenade she’d just thrown into Rachel’s life.
“And how do you know that?” Peter asked. The question was clearly meant for her niece, but his eyes never left Rachel.
“Her cheeks are pink.” Hannah pointed to Rachel and shrugged, as if the answer should have been obvious.
“Okay, time to go.” Rachel grabbed Hannah’s hand and whirled them around. Her feet were moving through a grocery store, but her mind was already drafting up her two weeks’ notice. There was no way she could ever show her face at work again.
“Rachel,” Peter called after them, “did you forget something?”
Rachel stopped and looked around. The cart!
She walked back toward the cart, but when she reached for it, Peter grabbed the other end, locking her in place. He leaned down to Hannah and whispered, “Can I tell you a secret?”
Hannah nodded, an excited look on her face.
“I have a crush on your aunt, too,” Peter said and shot Rachel a smile that had her heart pounding so hard she was sure he could hear it.
Hannah squealed with delight and danced around the aisle. Peter moved closer to Rachel, close enough that she could smell his masculine scent and feel his breath on her cheek.
“Do you have plans tomorrow night?”
“I’m not sure yet.” Rachel shrugged.
On the outside she was the picture of nonchalance (she hoped), but on the inside every nerve in her body was on high alert.
“Can I take you to dinner?”
Rachel’s stomach swooped. All she could do was nod in affirmation. Peter smiled down at her, and the moment lingered between them until Rachel felt a tug on her shirt and Hannah asked, “Aunt Rachel, is he your Prince Charming?”
Peter laughed and Rachel blushed, but she thought that maybe—just maybe—he could be.
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Spark Flash Fiction 