We-Write Week 2 -Your Ending (Prompt: well-being)

The Start of the Story

By: @freedomtowrite

"Don't you care about my well-being?" Sophia asked.

"Of course," Derril said with a grin. He stood in the grocery aisle, butter pecan ice cream in one hand, his cell phone in the other. "My only question, sweetie, was how I should keep the ice cream frozen while I run across town for the french fries."

Sophia sniffed loudly into the phone. "I...I suppose it's not very practical is it?"

Derril tried to cover the laugh that was building in his chest. His wife of four years sat alone in their apartment, five months pregnant with more cravings than hours in the day.

"No, it's not..."

She let out another wimper.

"But it's fine! I will drop this off at home, and..."

"Derril?" Sophia asked, but the line had gone dead.

Panicking because of the abrupt end to their conversation, Sophia frantically pushed Derril's speed-dial number and waited impatiently while his phone rang and went to voicemail. It wasn't like Derril to just hang up on her like that. But really, what could possibly go wrong in a grocery store? She told herself to quit worrying and just wait. Surely he would call back soon.

Normally it would take him 15 minutes to drive home from the grocery store, but today he didn't walk in the door until half an hour had gone by. Despite the reassuring things she had been telling herself, Sophia was rather distraught.

"What on earth happened, hon?" she asked anxiously. "The line just went dead, and you didn't answer when I called back. Did your battery die right then?"

"No," Derril chuckled. "If only it was that simple! A woman ran into me with her shopping cart, knocked me down, grabbed that carton of ice cream from my hand, and rushed to the cash register with it. My cell phone was knocked out of my hand, and my glasses flew off my face. By the time I found both of those things, she and the last carton of butter pecan ice cream were out the door and gone. I didn't want to explain over the phone, so I drove to another grocery store to buy it for you."

"Aww, you are such a sweetie!" Sophia gave him a big hug and began opening the ice cream carton. "To think you went to all that trouble for me! It was so nice of you. Now, are you still up to fetching the fries? They still sound wonderful to me!"