a compliment

i was grocery shopping. alone.

i have been running errands alone long enough to learn certain tricks to help me through them.

when grocery shopping, grab a basket -- that will usually yield two paper bags of groceries that a single girl can easily handle without asking for help (!) or overdoing it and risking looking like a fool.

picture me: broken arm, big fake fur coat covering it, black hat covering my greasy hair, haphazard makeup.

i cued up in the express lane.

a nice-looking, older man in front of me offered to let me go ahead of him.

'no thanks,' i smiled.

'you won't give me the honor of being a gentleman?'

'i'm good, thank you,' i said, eyeing the two items that he had.

'no, thank you,' he said.

'for what?' i asked.

'thank you for your beauty.'

now that, that was a compliment.