Pairings: M/L some Maria thrown in as well.
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: I own nothing just borrowing the characters for my own amusement.
Summary: Two words, supermarket dating....
This wonderful banner was made by dreamer<3 (thanks Jessika
)Collision
As Liz's eyes scanned the thin slip of pink paper she knew that her best friend had finally gone off the deep end "you can't be serious?" she murmured her eyes narrowing into slits as Maria nodded her head vigourously "No! not even if hell froze over and Michael learned to chew food with his mouth closed" Liz shook her head resolutely "no, no,no, no, no..."
Maria raised her hands in the air in exasperation, Liz was completely unappreciative of her efforts "Oh come on Chica, just give it a shot, for me."
Liz scowled "you really expect me to go Supermarket Dating?" she scrunched the offending flyer in the palm of her hand. She had never heard anything so bizarre, when had you ever heard of anyone meeting a prospective partner in the frozen produce section or at the pic n' mix stand?
Maria grinned impishly "all the cool kids are doing it..."
Liz scowled "Maria I'm twenty six years old! bumping shopping carts with random guys at the supermarket is not my idea of romance."
Maria scoffed "that just shows how wrong you are, I met Michael in the pharmacy section on one of these dating nights and it was extremely romantic."
Liz laughed softly "using that particular example has done nothing to entice me. I'd hardly call you two bantering back and forth infront of a trojan condom display romantic." She smiled as Maria clutched her hand to her heart in mock hurt, as much as Liz wanted to meet the right guy she doubted she'd find him trolling the local supermarket "for the last time Maria I'm not doing it, end of discussion..."
"I can't believe I'm doing this..." she groaned as Maria slapped a name tag on the lapel of her jacket. Looking down at herself she shook her head in despair, why had she let Maria talk her into wearing her red evening dress and heels? she looked like she was set for a night on the town "Is it too late to back out?" she muttered forlornly.
Maria chose to ignore her question, pulling on Liz's hand she ushered her in the direction of the shopping carts "this is going to be so much fun Chica!" she clapped her hands together excitedly "first things first we have to move down each aisle in number order" she stabbed her finger in the air pointing at the large red number '1' above her head "now you have to be very careful about what you put in the cart Liz, we don't want to give people the wrong impression now do we."
Liz clutched the handle of the shopping cart "what the hell's that suppose to mean? Maria you never mentioned anything about Supermarket dating etiquette!" she hissed. Letting Maria persuade her to come here had been against her better judgement and it looked as if she was going to pay the price, God knows what kind of rules there were to this thing.
"Don't be so suspicious, it's just that certain food items suggest certain things."
Liz hated when Maria was evasive, it always got her hackles up "some examples would be useful you know!"
Maria held her hands up in a placatory gesture "okay, okay...well we're in pharmacy at the moment right?" she held onto the edge of the cart as Liz steered them along the aisle "so for instance if I were to grab a box of trojans" she lifted a jumbo box from the shelf and fired them into the cart "having those in your cart suggests that you're up for a one night stand."
Liz reached into the cart and snatched the trojans back out, tossing them back onto the shelf "and here I was thinking it suggested the practice of safe sex, silly me" she replied snarkily.
Maria smiled dryly "and if you were to have a box of tampax in your cart, well you'd be looking for a little girl on girl action."
Liz smiled back at her "it couldn't be that it's just that time of the month?"
"You just need to be aware that some seemingly innocent items have hidden meanings on the supermarket dating scene."
Liz rounded the corner into aisle two, the cereal section "so is it safe to put something in my cart?"
Maria nodded absently as her eyes scanned the shelves "cereal suggests the type of personality you have" Maria swiped a box off the shelf "see I would be something like fruit loops and you, well you would be All-Bran."
Liz perched her lips and looked thoughtfully at the box of All-Bran in her shopping cart "I'm really All-Bran? because I would have said I'm more of a Coco Pops kind of girl."
Maria's eyes rounded "believe me Liz you're definitely in the bran variety."
"Why because I'm bland and cause regular bowl movements?"
Maria laughed and looped an arm around Liz's shoulder "no chica because you're dependable and wholesome."
Liz looked ahead of her down the aisle, it was deserted. There didn't seem to be many people trolling the aisle's and any they had come across had been female, she was begining to feel dejected "there doesn't seem to be too many people here tonight, maybe we should just cut our loses and go home."
"Liz we still have like a gazillion aisles to go down and I paid twelve friggin bucks to get you in here, so we are not leaving until I get my monies worth!"
As they turned down another aisle in companionable silence, Liz turned to her best friend and smiled warmly "thank you for this" she gestured around her "even though this is an insane way to try to hook me up, I know your hearts in the right place."
Maria placed her hand on top of Liz's and squeezed "you're welcome Chica. I just want to see you happy and in love with a great guy, it's what you deserve and speaking of guys what about him?"
Liz's eyes wandered in the direction Maria was pointing, a tall blonde with chiseled features was heading their way "not bad I suppose" Liz replied flatly, blondes weren't really her type, she liked her men dark and mysterious.
Maria looked at her as if she was crazy "not bad? Liz the guy looks like hercules!"
Liz crinkled her nose "you mean that Kevin Sorbo Guy? he doesn't really do anything for me..."
Maria rolled her eyes "he's heading our way..."
Liz smiled politely as he came to a stop before them, he flashed a toothy grin at them and introduced himself, Liz was only half listening as Maria talked her up. Her eyes had strayed to the guys shopping basket and she was thankful that Maria had brought her up to speed on supermarket etiquette because the only thing he had in his basket was condoms and hair gel. Liz smiled tightly as the guy continued to leer at her, he obviously hadn't been put off by her Bran flakes. "Um Maria I just remembered that we need to pick something up in the next aisle."
Maria looked confused "we do?" seeing Liz discreetly gesture to the guys basket, her eyes widened as they landed on the contents, she quickly snapped her attention back to Liz "oh right, that thing we need to get, which is very important."
Liz tugged on Maria's arm "um it was nice talking with you" she gave a small wave as she weaved the cart around him and down the aisle "this is the last time I let you interfere in my love life" Liz hissed her eyes burning as they locked on Maria "we are getting out of here right-"
The crashing of her cart against someone else's caused Liz to lose her footing, (damn high heels!) but just as she was about to fall a pair of strong arms locked around her waist and righted her.
"Woh there!"
Liz felt herself flush with embarassment "Oh God! I'm so sorry I wasn't looking where I was going and-" her words clogged in her throat as she raised her eye's to her would be saviour. She felt her breath hitch as she stared into the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. "Um, ah, you, I..." she stuttered all logic fleeing at the sight of the handsome man before her.
It was at this point that Maria chimed in "what she's trying to say is that her name is Liz" Maria smirked as they continued to gaze into each others eyes "and I'm Maria..."
Liz bit her lip "Hi" she whispered softly as her handsome stranger smiled down at her "I'm Liz, Liz Parker.."
"Max Evans" he rasped.
Liz felt her cheeks burn as he stared intently at her, he still had his arms around her. Lowering her eyes she noted that he was wearing black dress pants and a dark blue shirt, his name tag was made out of plastic and not a sticky label like her own but she dismissed it. "I think I'm steady enough now" she murmured, her eyes moving to his hands as they rested against her hips, the words were a lie though.
Max followed her gaze, his ears turning beet red "oh I'm so sorry" he pulled away from her quickly, jamming his hands into his pockets, he was such an idiot.
Liz smiled warmly "please don't apologise, I'm just grateful you where on hand to save me from falling flat on my face."
Max felt a little more at ease "It's all part of the service" he joked.
Liz remembering Maria for the first time since her collision with the dishy Max Evans, turned to find her slinking backwards giving her a wink and a 'you go Chica'. Turning her attention back to Max she discreetly peeked into his shopping cart, her brow furrowing at the unopened boxes of Tabasco sauce. She wished Maria was on hand to reveal the hidden meaning behind that particular item although looking at Max she could certainly hazard a guess as to what tabasco sauce meant- hot, sexy, a passionate lover...the list of delicious possibilities were endless.
Liz cleared her throat when Max caught her staring at the contents of his cart "so Max, do you come here often?"
Max smiled "you could say that, I'm here most days."
Liz arched an eyebrow "really? this is kind of my first time" she replied, wringing her hands together nervously.
Max looked at her in confusion "really because I remember seeing you here last week, you were by the pic n' mix" he flushed a little and cringed at his admission, he sounded like a stalker.
Liz laughed "Oh! I didn't mean I've never been here, I just meant I've never been at one of these singles evenings."
"You're single?" Max asked with an equal mixture of surprise and relief.
"Of course, why would anyone come to one of these things if they weren't" Liz looked at him suspiciously "thats why you're here too right?"
"No, um what I mean is-"
Liz cut off his words "you don't need to explain, I get it!" she tried to keep the disappointment from surfacing in her voice but failed miserably "I'll see you around Max" she murmured softly as she walked away.
"Liz wait!" he grabbed hold of her arm "I'm sorry for man handling you, I just didn't want you to walk away without a proper explaination. This isn't what you think...."
Liz dispite only meeting this man saw the sincerity in his eyes and words "okay I'm listening."
Max shifted his gaze from her and drew in a steeling breath before his eyes locked intently with hers "you come here every saturday morning at 9.00 am on the dot, you don't like the rush hour queues, you spent fifteen minutes agonising over the pic n' mix even though you always end up filling the bag with strawberry cremes. I'm not a stalker or anything, I'm actually the store manager here and I've wanted to pluck up the courage to talk to you, to ask you out for awhile now, it just didn't seem appropriate."
Liz listened slack jawed as he talked, how could it be that he had noticed her and she hadn't noticed him? because he would have definitely turned her head that was for sure. But more importantly he liked her and if she'd just heard correctly he was asking her out. "You like me?" she blurted out, her head spinning as he smiled softly and nodded his affirmation
Max rubbed nervously at the back of his neck "um you should also know that this whole supermarket dating idea was an attempt to finally meet you face to face. I've been organising these events for the past four months hoping against all hope that you'd wander through the doors, I'd almost given up."
Liz felt her heart thud, he had gone to extreme lenghts just to meet her "how did you know I would come? how did you know I was even single?"
Max lowered his eyes "I've been pinning a flyer to your windshield every saturday, as for you being single I didn't know for sure that you weren't involved with someone but I did hope you were free. I hope I'm not coming on too strong here."
Liz shook her head "coming on strong is good!" she laughed softly "so what now?"
Max shrugged "I thought maybe I could get your telephone number and I could call you tomorrow and ask you out."
Liz sucked in a breath, her knees starting to shake as he flashed her a coy and crooked smile. All coherent thoughts had dissolved from her brain and she realised with much frustration that she couldn't remember her telephone number "um my number it's, I, um, it-"
Liz jumped as Maria's voice boomed over the PA system "MAX, LIZ'S NUMBER IS 007795697216, OH AND BY THE WAY SHE LIKES CHINESE FOOD"
Liz groaned and covered her flaming cheeks with her hands, she was going to kill Maria when they got home "I'm so sorry about-"
Liz was cut short once more as Maria's voice boomed around the store "YOU GET THAT OKAY MAX? I CAN REPEAT IT IF YOU WANT."
Max chuckled softed and shook his head at Maria, indicating that he was good "I've got it burned into my memory!" he murmured huskily as he took Liz by the hand and placed a tender kiss across her palm "you look stunning by the way. I 'll call you tomorrow, Liz Parker..."
All she could do was nod and blink as he stepped away from her, she watched transfixed by his smile as he walked backwards his warm eyes never leaving her face. She only broke contact with him when she felt Maria nudge her arm.
"See Chica I told you there was romance to be found at the supermarket......"
The End
