Ruining the Rumor Mill

It was you and your boyfriend who walked out with groceries without paying yesterday, right?

I went to the corner store, and the owner suddenly dropped this on me at the checkout. I wasn't even there yesterday, but he was dead set on publicly shaming me. Left with no choice, I called my boyfriend over to clear my name.

The owner just flashed a sleazy grin. "Not this guy. The other one. The older guy."

I let out a dry laugh. "Actually, Darryl, I've seen you in a viral video online. You were carrying a jug of oil and half a watermelon."

A few girls standing nearby nodded vigorously. "Yeah! We saw it too!"

Chapter 1

"Hey, ring me up." I dumped my basket of groceries onto the counter.

The middle-aged owner, Darryl, was staring at the blaring online slot machine game on his phone. His greasy fingers flew across the screen. He didn't even bat an eyelid.

I raised my voice. "I said, ring me up!"

"Hold your horses, sweetheart!" He looked up, annoyed, but then his eyes locked onto my face. "It's you, isn't it?"

My brow furrowed. "What do you mean, me?"

He slapped his phone face-down on the counter, a condescending smirk spreading across his face. "Hey, don't be so quick to deny it! Yesterday, right around this time, just as the sun was going down! You were wearing a white sundress.

And you had a guy with you, right? Tall, skinny, wore glasses! You two picked through everything, filled up a whole basket! Even grabbed the most expensive carton of strawberries!

And then, while I was in the back grabbing stock, you slipped out!"

I took a step back. My mind instantly raced back to yesterday after work.

No.

Right after I clocked out, I went to the movies with my best friend. I was never here.

I quickly defended myself. "I was never in your store yesterday, and I didn't even wear a white sundress! Darryl, you've got the wrong person."

"Wrong person?" He let out a bizarre bark of laughter. "I've run this business in this neighborhood for seven or eight years. I never forget a face! Whatever."

He waved a hand, putting on an act of extreme generosity. "You're young, you're embarrassed to admit it. I get it. Tell you what.

We'll add yesterday's haul to today's groceries, round it to a clean three hundred bucks. Pay up, walk out, and I'll pretend none of this happened. Saves you the humiliation. How about it?"

Hearing this, my jaw clenched. I was already reaching for my phone to call the cops. But then I remembered my mom mentioning recently that when the flash floods hit our town last month, a lot of his expensive inventory got ruined. He lost tens of thousands of dollars.

I swallowed my irritation and pulled my phone out of my purse. I pulled up the digital receipt for last night's movie tickets.

"Right after work yesterday, I went to the movies with my best friend. That theater is a good six miles from here. There's no physical way I could have been in your store at that time."

Darryl's eyes skimmed the screen. A flicker of doubt crossed his face, but it was gone in a second.

He crossed his arms. "Who knows who actually went to the movies? Maybe you just bought the tickets for someone else!

Regardless, I saw it with my own two eyes yesterday! You and your boyfriend walked out without paying!"

Chapter 2

"Arguing like this is pointless." I pointed at the security camera mounted on the wall. "Pull up the footage. If I really walked out with unpaid groceries yesterday, I'll pay you triple!

But if you're falsely accusing me, I want a handwritten apology taped to your front door for three days straight!"

Darryl waved a dismissive hand. "Forget it. All the regulars know my cameras are blurry as hell. You can't even make out a nose or an eye on a face.

Even if I pulled it up, you wouldn't admit it! Pointless!"

Right then, the middle-aged guy who'd been smoking in the corner crushed out his cigarette. He spoke with a slow, deliberate drawl. "Listen, sweetie, I live in the complex out back. I've known Darryl for years!

His memory is sharp. He remembers everyone in this neighborhood after seeing them once! He even knows what groceries every regular buys. If he says it was you, he definitely saw you."

The commotion was drawing the attention of the other shoppers picking through the aisles. Two of them were stay-at-home moms from our block. My mom regularly prayed with them at the community church's Sunday service! If I didn't clear my name completely today, I'd be the neighborhood's hottest gossip by tomorrow morning.

I shot Darryl a glacial stare. "You just said my boyfriend was tall, skinny, and wore glasses, right?"

Darryl nodded with absolute certainty. "Yup! Remembered it perfectly!"

"Wait right here. I already texted him to come over. In a minute, you can use that photographic memory of yours and take a real good look!"

A few minutes later, the door flew open.

My boyfriend, Vance, stormed in and closed the distance to my side in a few strides. He was in full gym gear. He had a solid, athletic build, the muscle definition in his arms completely visible.

"Sutton, what's going on? What happened?"

I stepped aside, leaving Vance standing squarely in front of Darryl. "Darryl, take a good look. This is my boyfriend! Was he the one who walked out with me yesterday?

Is this your tall, skinny guy with glasses?"

Actually, Darryl's face had already frozen the second Vance stormed in. Vance didn't wear glasses. He was packed with muscle. One look and you knew he lived at the gym.

He was the complete opposite of the guy Darryl had described.

Darryl's eyes darted around before he forced a casual laugh. "No, no, not this one it was the other guy. The older one! The guy with thinning hair!"

Vance hadn't even fully grasped the situation yet, but at Darryl's words, his expression darkened instantly. "What are you talking about?"

Catching sight of Vance's clenched fists, Darryl immediately switched to an expression of heartfelt concern. "Hey, buddy, don't get worked up! Too many people in here. Let me have a word with you."

With that, he half-pushed, half-pulled Vance a few feet out the store's front door. "Yesterday, it was definitely your girlfriend! White sundress! Trailing after a guy in his fifties.

They were real close picking out groceries, the guy even tucked her hair behind her ear! He clicked his tongue. You could tell right away they had something going on!

Man to man, you need to go home and ask her some hard questions! Don't be a chump and let her play you!"

Even though Vance's fists were still clenched, his shoulders had unconsciously slumped. He dodged Darryl's suggestive gaze, then shot a guilty, sweeping glance at me standing in the doorway. His jaw tightened, but his gaze darted toward the floor, unable to meet my eyes.

Seeing Vance not pushing back, Darryl figured his job was done. He patted Vance's arm. "Think it over!"

Then, he turned and strolled back into the store.

Chapter 3

Vance and I were the only ones left by the door.

I closed the distance between us and stared dead into his eyes. "You believe him?"

"I don't!" Vance's voice pitched up too fast. His eyes shifted away, the frantic denial ringing hollow. "Sutton, I want to believe you."

He ran a hand over the back of his neck, finally dropping the bomb. "You said you went to the movies with Whitney yesterday after work but I ran into Whitney at the gym this afternoon.

She told me she was stuck at the office working overtime last night, all the way until almost ten!"

My feet rooted to the pavement.

Overtime? Impossible.

Whitney was sitting right next to me in that dark theater yesterday evening. There had to be some kind of ridiculous misunderstanding.

I practically ripped my phone out of my bag. "I'm calling her right now to clear this up."

Needing to prove my innocence, I hit speakerphone. The line connected after two rings.

"Hey, Sutton?" Whitney's voice drifted out of the speaker. She sounded perfectly normal, maybe even a little overly breezy.

"Whitney." I skipped the small talk. A tight, unfamiliar strain clipped my words. "Vance just told me he bumped into you at the gym today.

Did you tell him you were working late at the office last night? Until ten?"

The line went dead quiet. Absolute, suffocating silence. A cold knot started tightening in the pit of my stomach.

"Oh?" Whitney finally spoke up, but the hesitation was thick and obvious. "Working late?

Did Vance mishear me or something? After work yesterday, I went to the movies with you!"

Whitney's sudden backpedaling only deepened the suspicion etched onto Vance's face.

"Whitney, what movie did you guys see yesterday?"

Another suffocating bout of dead air.

"Oh, well, I wasn't really paying attention to the screen" Whitney stammered, her voice dodging the question. "So I can't really remember the title!"

I cut through her frantic, stammering excuses. "Whitney, why are you doing this? We literally debated the ending over dinner afterwards, and now you're telling me you can't remember?"

Taking a sharp breath, I laid out the absolute nightmare scenario I was currently trapped in, piece by piece. "Whitney, I need you to just tell the truth right now!"

Whitney's voice cracked, hitting a sharp, defensive high note. "Sutton, can you keep me out of your drama with Vance? Deal with your own mess!"

Click.

The line went dead.

A freezing sensation shot up from the soles of my feet, crawling under my skin until my fingertips went numb. Why the hell was Whitney lying like this?

Before my brain could even begin to process the betrayal, Vance let out a harsh scoff. He spun on his heel and started walking away.

I drew in a ragged breath, forcing my spine completely straight. "Vance, if you walk away right now, we're done."

Vance didn't even turn around. He just gave a stiff nod, throwing his words over his shoulder with a chilling edge. "Then we're done."

I didn't even notice when Darryl had slithered his way to the door, leaning half his body out of the frame.

"Oh my, breaking up? Over a few bucks for groceries? I guess I'm to blame too! Just too stubborn for my own good!

I wasn't even hounding you for the cash, I just needed to prove my eyes still work! Who knew I'd be shaking all these skeletons out of your closet in the process!

Look, sweetheart, let's just forget the money! Go on, head home! But let Darryl give you a piece of free advice: when you've got a solid guy like that, stop messing around with the older sugar daddies"

The busybodies hovering around the entrance started chiming in with their unsolicited pity.

"Just go home, honey. Making a scene is only going to ruin your reputation!"

"Darryl has a good heart, he just takes his business a little too seriously!"

I let out a dry, razor-sharp laugh.

Walk away?

Why the hell would I walk away?

Chapter 4

Ever since this whole mess started, I'd been trapped in an endless loop of trying to prove a negative. Because I was terrified. I was terrified of becoming just another victim destroyed by a maliciously edited video on social media.

It only takes one ordinary afternoon. Someone records a random clip, slaps a vicious, fabricated rumor in the caption, and suddenly a girl loses her job, faces relentless cyberbullying, and is completely erased from society.

By the time they fight back and get justice years later their life is already in ruins.

Right now, I was standing on the exact same precipice. Darryl knew damn well he had the wrong person. But to save his own pathetic ego, he'd rather invent a filthy rumor and destroy my life than choke out a simple apology.

And the bystanders? They didn't give a damn about the truth. They just wanted the drama. They wanted a show, just so they could throw their two cents in at the end.

In that exact moment, the fog lifted.

Trying to prove a negative is a bottomless pit. The best defense is a ruthless offense.

I stood outside the door, locking eyes with Darryl. A slow, chilling smile spread across my face.

"Actually, Darryl, I've seen you in a viral video online. You were carrying a jug of oil and half a watermelon." I clicked my tongue. "Tsk"

Right then. A few young girls inside the store squeezed in next to me. Their eyes swept up and down Darryl's frame with deliberate judgment.

They chimed in, practically in unison:

"Yeah! We saw it too