Now they were grabbing a grocery cart and moving into the fruit and vegetable section at the front of the store.
“Have you noticed how most grocery stores are set up exactly the same way?”Darcy asked as he grabbed a bag of carrots and a sack of potatoes.“They all seem to put the produce front and center.”
“Huh.I hadn’t noticed that, but then I haven’t been in a whole lot of grocery stores.Just one actually—this one.”
“Seriously?”
“Well, on the compound, my mom always did the shopping, or we used a shopping service, and since I’ve moved out, I’ve only been here, ’cause it’s the closest.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“Maybe it’s weird that you’ve been to a lot,” Charma suggested.
“I don’t think so.I’ve been on my own for quite a while, remember?And one thing I learned early was that different stores have different stuff on sale, so I learned to shop around.I don’t always anymore, but I have a steady job now, so I don’t have to be as careful.”
“Yeah, I’d forgotten about that,” Charma said softly.“I’m sorry.”
“No!You don’t have to apologize for my trauma—you didn’t cause it, and it was ages ago.I like to think I’ve put it behind me, you know?That’s why it’s easy enough for me to bring up because it’s my past and I think I’ve left it there.”
“That sounds really, like, grown-up and mature.”Charma’s eyes were twinkling as he said it, so Darcy knew he was being teased.
“That’s me, Mr.Grown.”He laughed and Charma joined him.“Okay, let’s get this shopping done.What other veggies do you like?”He was pretty easy and usually went with what was on sale and wouldn’t cost him a fortune.
“I’m easy.I’m not a huge vegetable fan, but it’s not like I don’t like them or anything.I can take or leave them.”Charma shrugged, then he shook his head and added, “Except eggplant.That stuff is evil in vegetable form.”
That had Darcy giggling again.He couldn’t ever remember laughing so much with someone as he did with Charma.“All right.Let’s get a lettuce head and the bag of rainbow peppers, and beans and brussel sprouts are on sale.And I like cauliflower, but not so much broccoli.”He added the lettuce, peppers, beans, and brussel sprouts to the cart and they moved into the fruit section.
“I love citrus and berries,” Charma noted before he had a chance to ask.
“Cool.”He threw a couple grapefruit, lemons, limes and a baggie of clementines into the cart, along with strawberries and raspberries.And he liked having grapes to munch on, so he grabbed a bag of red ones because they were nice and small, he preferred them to the bigger ones.
He did a quick calculation in his head.Okay, if Charma was going to help out a little bit, they were in good shape.
“Cheese, cold cuts, and bread next.”
“I love bread,” Charma told him.“I used to help my grandmother make it, so the smell of baking bread always makes me smile.”
“That’s pretty cool.Do you make it at home?”
“I’ve done it once.I was so homesick and it felt like a hug as soon as it started baking,” Charma admitted.
“Awww.”He gave Charma a quick hug.“I like cheese, but it’s really expensive, so it tends to be a treat rather than a regular purchase.”There was often stuff on sale, but there didn’t seem to be much today.
“What’s your favorite kind?”
“Yes.”
That made Charma laugh.“So that means you’ve never met a cheese you didn’t like?”
“Yep.”
Charma grabbed a little triangle of brie cheese and a small chunk of aged cheddar, then he added some cranberry and hazelnut rye crackers.“My treat.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know.But I want to.”
“Thanks.I’m going to let you choose the bread,” he told Charma.He often went with just plain junk bread—it made a good base for peanut butter and jam sandwiches, but he wanted to know what someone who loved bread would choose.
