At drab Shelley’s checkout counter, Dan’s gaze stripped her bare.

He hung around until closing, and murmured in her ear, breathless.

With one kiss, he stole her heart.

Giddy, she took him home.

Next morning, she awoke—groggy and alone—to a bullhorn screeching “Come out with your hands up!”

Monica Perez Nevarez is a sustainability manager by day and a writer by night.