[NOTE: The items from my purse are in bold within the scene.]
Hannah pushed her sunglasses up on her head as she passed over the threshold into the store, a wall of icy air cooling the sheen of sweat on her nose and forehead. She had her list and an ink pen in one hand, her wallet and car keys in the other. She was determined to get in and out of the store without any superfluous purchases.
"You don't need any hand sanitizer," she scolded herself quietly, passing a display that proclaimed a sale trying to take advantage of parents' fear of back-to-school germs. Hannah consulted her list and headed to the deli, trying to keep her eyes off the diapers and baby wipes as she walked up the aisle. She didn't even have a baby, but she knew she'd be tempted to grab a tube of Desitin or a burp cloth if she saw them sitting on a shelf in front of it.
She'd been going to her current counselor for almost three months, but she didn't know if she was getting any better. He'd been giving her tips to avoid buying nearly everything she saw, and they seemed to be working. A written list was one tip he'd offered.
"You're only allowed to buy what's on the list," he'd told her. "Nothing else."
She figured she'd made some progress since, when she began taking lists to the store, she'd add items to the list as she saw and wanted them. Now she was much better at keeping her purchases limited to what she'd written ahead of time.
As Hannah stood in line at the deli, she tried to concentrate on the people rather than the products. There was a man in front of her wearing cut-off jeans and an undershirt, his cart loaded with beer.
"You don't drink beer," she reminded herself.
Approaching her was a young mother, toddler in tow. The mother's hand basket contained milk, bread, and eggs, the staples of a kitchen. Hannah looked at her list, clicked her pen, and scribbled the items on the paper.
The deli worker looked at her. "Next, please."
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Add a little caffeine to my life...