I’m working a full eight-hour shift at Wal-Mart on Saturday. My boss assigns me to the cash registers all day. I can’t think of any better motivation for passing my final exams and graduating than the thought of working here for the rest of my life.

By the fourth hour of scanning and bagging diapers and cigarettes, I’m in such a daze that I don’t realize the customer in front of me is none other than the rich businessman, Earl Grey! He's dressed in a gray velour sweat suit that compliments his eyes. I didn’t think it was possible for him to look any yummier than he did in his business suit when I last saw him, but damn.

“Hello, Miss Steal,” he says, gazing at me gazingly with his gazing gray eyes.

“Mr. Grey!”

He slides a Nickelback CD toward me, which I scan. “I happened to be in the area and here you are,” he says. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“Did you, um, find everything that you were looking for today?” I mutter, bagging the CD. Earl Grey is smiling again like the big bad wolf who wants to eat me. And boy, do I want him to eat my—

“Actually, no,” he says, cutting off my internal monologue. “There were a few things I couldn’t find on my own. Could you help me out?” His voice is cool and gritty like a Wendy’s Frosty, and my mind momentarily goes blank.

I shake my head to gather my thoughts. Like a magic eight ball, a thought pops up for me. “Signs point to yes,” I say.

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, yes. Of course I can help you.”

There’s a line of fifteen people behind him, but how can I resist that voice? I turn my lane’s light off. I can hear groans from the half dozen customers who have been waiting in line, but there are three other cashiers working.

There’s only one Earl Grey.