"What the fuck Bob? Are you stalking me again?"

I threw up my hands in innocence. Even the cashier was giving me the stink-eye and was looking around for the non-existent security guard. My main thing was not to upset Jaime anymore than I had to. I should have known it was her. I could pick her out of a crowd at 100 meters, so why the hell hadn't I listened to myself when I saw her?

Maybe it was because I had not ever expected to see her here and was just content to daydream that it might actually be her. I'd already run into a couple of her doppelgängers, all sharing her same body type, 5'8", long legs, lean muscle, small but womanly boobs. I saw her on the train late one night, but her arms were devoid of tattoos, and the girl was with a couple of snooty looking girls Jaime would never be seen dead hanging out with; the second time had been at the airport and although a dead ringer for Jaime, the girl had been Chinese. So it wouldn't have surprised me to be running into yet another doppelgänger who would wonder why I was smiling at them so much.

Yeah... this time it was the real deal.

"I swear this is nothing like last time. This is pure coincidence! This time." I said, but Jaime still looked doubtful. "Hi?" I tried to not look threatening at all.

I looked around the supermarket, not exactly the most high-end of places, just a regular grocery store that sold all of the basic things I needed at just the right prices. I didn't even like the place most of the time but it was open 24 hours just like I needed and the cashiers weren't completely incompetent.

"I live right down the road from here. This is my neighborhood, my supermarket," I pleaded, trying to radiate innocence, "and in my defense, I didn't even see you there. Otherwise, I would have waited until you were gone. Really."

I looked at the cashier for backup, but I didn't recognize this one. Usually, there was a Pakistani girl working nights. Priya or something like that.

Jaime was hesitant, but she nodded.

"Right. Claude told me you had moved. I guess I should have asked where to so I could avoid you better."

I was getting the message loud and clear. Time to take my eggs and go hide in an aisle somewhere. I turned to go but—

A tired woman in a hijab had wheeled into the line behind me. She had already started unpacking her huge cart of groceries onto the conveyor belt and was blocking the narrow lane. Three small boys, aged maybe four to eight buzzed around her in the way that children do, with an almost complete disregard for anyone around themselves, caught up in their worlds of imagination and Ritalin overdoses. I shuffled uncomfortably, my avenue for a quick retreat now cut off.

"Don't worry about it Bob.," Jaime said grudgingly. "You're right. Let's just ignore each other until I can get the hell outta here, okay? Okay."

I love how she didn't even wait for an answer.

A bro-dude, a total Chad if there was ever one, leaned over from next to Jaime to look at me.

"Is this the guy you were talking about? The shitty ex-boyfriend?"

"Who the fuck are you?" I immediately wanted to know. Then to Jaime. "Who the fuck is that?"

"None of your business Bob!" Jaime snapped. She focused her attention on the cashier, who was having way too much trouble getting a price on the box in her hands. "Is there a problem? We can just leave it. Really."

I suddenly saw what the cashier was holding in her hands, and before I knew it, my idiot mouth had gone down to the store, bought a backhoe and had started digging my grave.

"Hey! Those are my brand of condoms!"

Jaime slammed her hands down and stared straight ahead, never looking at me once.

"They are a brand of condom Bob. You don't get to claim a brand as your own, not now, not ever, and especially not these."

Have you ever noticed how some people can say everything they want to say with all of the words they're not actually saying? With people you've been close to, you learn to read the signs, the language of those unspoken words. If you don't, then those words eventually get spoken, yelled, even, and it's all downhill from there since nobody knows how to listen when someone is screaming at them. But some words were never meant to be spoken, and you will do your best to avoid them when you see them bubbling under the surface, just dying to break through. I could see Jaime biting the words back and swallowing them. They were poison to her, and she swallowed them anyway even though the look she gave me spoke of how she was envisioning my brutal murder and was actively avoiding killing me. Hell, she could even use the hole I'd just so conveniently dug for myself to stash my body.

I knew that look, and I knew to back the fuck off. I wanted to reach out to this beautiful woman who had once loved me and ask her what I had done to make her hate me so much. I knew what I had done that had caused the split and I hated myself for it, but I had never expected to see such burning hatred for me. Seeing that look on her face made me want to curl up in a ball and hide and beat myself up for having caused that much pain.

Goddammit. Talking about Jaime is always difficult, especially the way it is now, so I'm just going to skip this part if it's all the same to you, okay? Great!

So what have we established so far? Oh yes: my ex-girlfriend hates my fucking guts and she's absolutely right to. I deserve all the hate, I freely admit it, but I still love her whether she wants my love or not. Love isn't something you just turn off when it's no longer convenient. You can love someone deeply and even after years apart, those feelings will still be there as strong as anything.

The cashier wasn't making things any better. She looked hesitantly from me to Jaime. "I'm going to have to do a price check—"

Jaime had reached her limit.

"Never mind. Come on Chad, we're leaving—"

I really couldn't help myself. It was always a severe case of foot-in-mouth disease with me when it came to Jaime.

"This douche-canoe's actual name is Chad? Holy shit!"

"Wait a sec babe, you can't just let him win—"

"MOVE IT CHAD!" Jaime yelled and shoved her way past the shocked Chad, who had seriously underestimated the dangers of getting in the way of my ex-girlfriend. That usually only happened once, and after that, you were pretty much toast.

As much as it hurt me to see Jaime storm away like that just because of my proximity... and my stupid comments, there was a little thrill of vindication that Chad the douche-canoe was not going to be sticking his dick into my ex-girlfriend anytime soon. Especially not using my brand of condoms.

I looked back to Chad to either give him a smug look that would tell him exactly what I was thinking, or to give him a shrug that said "women, right?", but he didn't give me a chance to decide to be a dick to him.

"You fucker!" Chad said and damn he was ready for a fight.

I whipped off my sunglasses and glared at him, ready to take him on. I was a vampire motherfucker! That had to count for something, right?

"You should just walk away Chad!" I growled.

Chad blinked rapidly, and all of the fight went out of him. He looked at me, confused and shook his head. "You're not worth it man. I'm-I'm just going to walk away now."

What the actual fuck was that?

I stood there utterly confused and watched Chad exit, my heart still hammering in my chest as the adrenaline still surged through my body, wanting to be put to use, dying to do something. I shuddered as I felt the heat on my top lip, the heat of the adrenaline having nowhere to go and it still wanted me to lash out, break something or someone, so it was letting me smell it, that wavering heat as it dissipated and reminded me of how good it would feel to just let it out. I ignored it and tried to concentrate on breathing and not rushing after Chad to rip his head from his shoulders like it suddenly felt like I could before I had somehow convinced him

(scared him)

or Jedi-mind-tricked him into walking the fuck away.

I looked around, self-conscious now at the way the cashier looked terrified as she rang in my eggs, making more mistakes than she should have; the three boys were now huddled behind their mother, terrified that something they couldn't recognize was in their midst and it might well be a monster. All I could think as I paid for my eggs and exited the store was that I was glad Jaime hadn't seen that display of whatever the hell that was.

***

I admit it. I wanted to punch someone.

Jaime's jeep blew past me in the parking lot, and I don't think she saw me, but she was definitely driving angry.

But at least she was driving alone.

I saw Chad aggressively smoking next to a matte black Dodge Charger and had a momentary thrill that I had completely cockblocked that douchebag. From the way he was angrily tapping at his phone, almost like he wanted to break it, he was probably posting something nasty about Jaime online, possibly involving the word "slut" several times. It's standard operating procedure for a douche-bro like Chad. I considered going over and confronting him, but that was the punchy side of me talking, looking for an excuse to be unleashed.

So I did the sensible thing and walked the hell away because my life isn't a movie full of epic fist fights and a questionable lack of assault charges, and as angry as I was, I still don't like the thought of hurting people, whether they deserved it or not.

Not even if their name was Chad.

 **********************

AUTHOR'S NOTEPlease VOTE and leave a comment. Either way, I wanna hear about it.  Comment!

Read my other work where I tackle vampires in the real world 6 REASONS VAMPIRES OF LEGEND WOULD SUCK https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/50550661-6-reasons-why-vampires-of-legend-would-suck

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QUESTION OF THE DAY: Have you ever stayed up to watch the sunrise?  Was it as underwhelming as what I described?  Let me know in the comments below.