Chapter 1

I, Louise Keller, and my boyfriend, Billy Jordan, went to a supermarket near the mall to buy some snacks.

The store owner, Susan Adams, was a woman in her fifties, and I was a regular there.

She immediately said the total was 196 dollars.

I was confused, but I still paid.

When I got home, even if I overestimated the price of the ice cream, it still didn't add up to that amount.

I told Billy the price was wrong and that I was going back to ask.

Billy frowned. "It's not like it's a huge difference. She's not having an easy time either."

I was stunned. Was my money just blowing in from the wind?

I went shopping at the small supermarket I often visit.

It was located near the college.

When I was checking out, Susan fiddled with the register for a long time.

She wasn't just inputting numbers one by one, either.

The machine made sounds like "20 minus 3," leaving me even more confused.

"Total is 196 dollars."

I was about to ask how much each ice cream cost, but Billy impatiently said, "I'll wait for you outside."

With a line of people waiting to check out, I didn't want to take up too much of their time.

I went back to my rented apartment, feeling down, and put the ice cream in the fridge.

As I took them out one by one, my face grew darker.

Even if I overpriced the ice cream, the total still didn't reach 196 dollars.

I'd picked the cheaper ones, too.

Billy saw me sitting on the floor for a while and frowned. "What's wrong?"

I pointed to the neatly arranged ice creams and asked, "You heard the price, right? Susan said the total was 196 dollars."

Billy just lay on the sofa when he came in, absentmindedly saying, "Yeah, well, how could she possibly charge you less? Hurry up and cook something."

I pieced the whole thing together and thought that Susan might have overcharged me, which made me feel frustrated.

"I'm going to go back and ask Susan if she charged me too much."

I started getting dressed, but Billy was still lying on the couch, unmoved.

When he saw I'd put on my shoes, he finally slowly got up.

Billy furrowed his brow and tossed his phone onto the couch. "It's not like it's a huge difference. She's not having an easy time either."

I was stunned again. Was my money just blowing in from the wind?

"She took extra money from me. Is it wrong for me to ask about it as a customer?"

Billy pressed his lips. "If it's just ten or twenty bucks, do you really need to make a big deal out of it? We'll be going there again, and we don't want to offend her."

I immediately lost my temper.

Billy wasn't defending me and was actually defending her.

"Is she your mother or something? Why are you protecting her? When you need something, you never think about things from my perspective."

Billy saw I was really angry, so he gave me an awkward smile. "I was just saying it casually, no big deal. I'll go with you."

I naively thought Billy would help me gain some courage by going with me.

But little did I know, he was just making things worse.