Page 75 of What We Break
Again with the licking. You have a problem.
"It's just grocery shopping."
"No, it's not." He pops another strawberry — that's three now —and talks around it. "You've got a system. You know which vendors have the best stuff, you're checking everything for quality." He swallows. "It's like watching someone who actually knows how to live like a grown-up."
His praise makes me warm. Which is stupid. It's shopping. I squeezed some avocados. But nobody's ever watched me do something that mundane and acted like it mattered. In my family, competence was the floor, not the ceiling. You should know how to feed yourself. You should be able to navigate a market in a foreign country. My parents never clapped for that stuff. It was just survival. Expected. Unremarkable.
But Reid watches me thump a watermelon and looks at me like I just pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
"Are you going to eat all the strawberries before we even get home?"
"No." He pops another one. "Maybe. They're really good, Laine."
He loads my bags into the car, sneaking one more strawberry when he thinks I'm not looking. I see him. I let him.
"So what's next in my grocery education?"
"Now we go to the real store. And I teach you the art of meal planning."
"I'm ready. I'm a sponge. Fill me with knowledge."
"You're a sponge full of stolen strawberries."
"Borrowed. I borrowed those strawberries."
The small store is busy but not overwhelming. I grab a cart and pull out my list. Reid's reading over my shoulder. Standing close enough that I can feel his chest against my back, his chin practically resting on my head. Who stands like that? Is he trying to make me insane?
"You organize this by store layout," he observes.
"Produce first, then dairy, then frozen stuff last so it doesn't melt. It's just efficient."
"It's impressive." He sounds genuinely awed. Like I just solved cold fusion with a grocery list. "My shopping method is usually 'walk around until I see something that looks edible, then buy chips.'"
"That explains a lot about your kitchen."
"Hey, I have other food. Blake cooks sometimes."
"Chili, shepherd's pie, and tacos."
"Those are foods!"
We start in produce, and somehow I'm explaining things I didn't even know I knew. How to pick good lettuce. Why you shouldn't buy pre-cut vegetables. The difference between regular onions and sweet onions. Who am I right now? Some kind of grocery store oracle?
Reid listens to all of it like I'm delivering classified intel. At one point he pulls out his phone.
"What are you doing?"
"Taking notes."
"You are not."
"I am." He turns the screen toward me. He's actually typed lettuce - heavy = good, brown = bad. "This is valuable information, Laine. I'm not going to remember it otherwise."
"Oh my god."
"What? I'm being a good student." He waggles his eyebrows. "Maybe later you can quiz me."
"On lettuce?"
