Last-Minute Shopping

She rushed to the mall, in hopes of doing some last-minute shopping. 

It was just as traffic as she anticipated. Her usual 15-minute commute took 30 minutes longer, and her usual quiet haunts were filled to the brim with people hastily looking for gifts. 

She trudged through the boutiques, the department store, the crafts store. Lines were long and tempers were high. As she took out her credit card for the nth time that day, she impatiently wished for the day to end.

After her 6th purchase that day, she decided to sit down at one of the yet unfilled benches in the middle of the mall. Oh, she can’t wait for the holidays to end.

She took a deep breath, then noticed a little ice cream stall nearby. A sweet soft serve treat certainly sounded like a good idea, so she left her paper bags by her seat and looked over the choices. She got in line, paid for her vanilla ice cream cone, and smiled as the girl at the counter exclaimed, “Happy holidays!”

She sat back down on the bench, enjoying her treat, a little gift to herself in the middle of a busy shopping day.

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Image source: deviantart.com/creativekittyde/art/Christmas-Llama-782167098
First written December 24, 2017.
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