A frustrated lawyer finds release where she least expects it—and where she needs it most—in this exhilarating, sexy romp through the finest gluten-free indulgences in a New York City grocery store.After another long workday, the only thing Meredith wants is a nice big bowl of paleo maple-pecan coconola. But the hour-long checkout line at 7:00 p.m. at an all-organic supermarket stands between her … between her and satisfaction, and the yupster mob is working her last nerve. Then, out of nowhere, a spontaneous flirtation with a stranger shows her there’s a lot more than coconola waiting for her in the bulk-food aisle.
Meredith is part of The Fairer Sex, a collection of sexy, satirical, and sometimes harrowing short stories that explore the question: “What do women want?” The answer is different for every woman, but each can be read or listened to in a single sitting.
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Audio borrowed via Amazon Prime membership. At 25 minutes long (including intro & credits) this is a very short story.
Meredith is in line at Whole Foods eating maple pecan Coconola (we know this is what she’s eating because it’s mentioned every other sentence). She’s annoyed with all the people around her including a guy who is left-swiping on a dating app. While in line she runs out of snacks and heads back to the bulk foods to get more. Hugh (left-swipe guy) follows her as he’s found her profile on the app and decides to swipe right.
Apparently he’s actually decided to have sex with her in the middle of Whole Foods. Meredith agrees and they go at it in front of shoppers (one who grumbles because they’re blocking pineapple chips or something). Somehow they manage not to get arrested.
The story ends as soon as the orgasm is over so no clue about Meredith or Hugh or anything else.
I can’t imagine spending money on this or ever listening to it again. It’s an intriguing concept (the series, not this specific story) and the narrator was great. However, this felt incomplete and the public sex was OTT for me.
Here is a comment I posted at the end of this review. I want to repeat here. This short story has very descriptive writing related to sex. It falls far short of porn, but it is NSFW (not this review, the short story). Consider this a trigger warning.
Meredith by Michelle Miller can be found as one of the Amazon Original Stories (AOS) in a collection titled The Fairer Sex. This is Book Two of an eight-book series. All can be read one at a time for free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription or the collection can be purchased as a set (not for free). All the short stories emphasize “short.” Meredith, the second story in the series is only sixteen pages. Grab a cup of coffee. You will get wrapped up in the story, but you can finish it before your coffee gets cold.
Meredith may not have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, but she had ended up in the wrong store for fast check-out. All lines, to include cash only payments, looked like lines at a rock star concert. Readers will enjoy her contemplation as she reviews each item in her shopping cart. What items could she abandon? (I had to look up FAGE; I had no idea). Meredith knew she should have shopped online but she had made her selections and had found the secret of life in the form of paleo maple-pecan coconola. Not always available in stores; online shoppers always got her order wrong. Her discovery of the treat this time condemned her to an immediate fate of joining a community waiting to pay. It was amazing what one could learn about the personal lives of fellow shoppers.
Meredith at thirty-three was still finding herself but that was because no one else was looking for her. She had graduated from university with a useless degree for all but the student loan folks. They were willing to accept her payments into infinity. Meredith moved into the Big City in time to catch the full force of the financial crisis. She had lost her well-paying job and now did drudge work for a salary less than her male colleagues. After ten years, Meredith was spending her one free night from work in a check-out line. While waiting, she had eaten all her paleo maple-pecan coconola and parried annoying comments from a man also eating in the line while searching on Tinder.
She had to find more food. The annoying Brit promised to save her place in line. While searching the granola bins, she heard her name. It was the annoying Brit who had found her on Tinder. It was almost a joke post from ten years before; she had almost forgotten about it.
The very descriptive writing that follows is NSFW. It is also for those who are in training for Olympic gymnastics. This is another five Amazon star read as long as a reader doesn’t mind some NSFW stuff.