Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

T hey got to the grocery store and Luke grabbed a cart, stepping on the platform at the bottom and leaning on the handle. He pushed with his left foot and the cart moved along the first aisle. He grinned over at Chris, who just rolled his eyes. He was going to keep giving Chris good attitude until the guy smiled at him on a regular basis.

They’d done Leon’s first and found a gorgeous couch that had a pull-out bed in it. It had been a touch more than he’d wanted to spend, but with Chris’s giving him a hundred a month, he had a little more in his budget, so he’d gone for it.

Chris had protested, but Luke ignored him. It was his couch, and he could buy the one he wanted. The really cool thing about this one was that one end was basically an easy chair; it reclined and the leg rest came up. Then there was the rest of the couch—big enough for at least three people comfortably and also pulled out into a bed. It was perfect. Watching movies was going to be so much fun.

And by some miracle, it was coming in two days so it would be there before the holidays.

“I hope you’re not a follow-the-list-strictly kind of guy,” Luke noted. Because the only thing that made grocery shopping fun was being able to dump stuff into the cart as he saw it, whether or not it was on the list.

“Are we not getting everything on the list?” Chris asked.

“Yep, but I’m guessing we’ll find some stuff that isn’t on it, too. I never let the list keep me from an unexpected yummy surprise.”

“That doesn’t seem very efficient.”

Luke looked at his watch. “We’ve got ages before we have to be at work.”

“Or budget wise,” Chris added.

Luke suddenly felt bad. He hadn’t even thought about how his throwing extras in willy-nilly would affect Chris’s wallet. “I’ll keep the extras on the front,” he promised. That way he could pay for them separately.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh?” Luke was confused.

“Why do you bother with a list if you aren’t following it?”

“Oh! But I am. I’m going to get everything on the list, and writing it down means I don’t forget it. So really, I’m just enhancing the list.”

“Enhancing the list…” Chris shook his head. He was smiling, though, wasn’t he?

Luke took that as a win.

“So if you see anything you want, toss it in!” He really hoped that Chris did. The man hadn’t asked to have one fun thing be put on the list. It was all healthy, good-for you food, and most of it, stuff that you could get at a bargain. Luke wasn’t made of money or anything, but he always mentally put aside twenty to forty bucks a paycheck for fun stuff. It made him sad that Chris had to be so frugal. Hell, more than frugal, Luke imagined. All the times Chris would surreptitiously stuff his pockets when people brought in snacks of any kind to share suddenly making sense.

They did get everything on the list, and Luke added a few ruby grapefruits because they were in season and he knew that meant they were good. Chris actually added a small bag of grapes, which were on a really good sale at only 99 cents a pound.

“Oh, cherries.” Luke stopped the cart. They were not cheap, but they were his favorite fruit in the world. He bit his lower lip. “They always put so many in a bag.” And even he didn’t want to spend ten or twelve dollars on cherries.

Chris grabbed one of the plastic produce bags and poured about a quarter of the cherries from the big bag into the empty one. Then put it in the cart.

“Oh my god! You’re my hero!” And Luke meant it, too.

Chris shrugged. “If you don’t want fifty pounds of them, don’t get fifty pounds of them.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s not rocket science, but it never occurred to me to just fill another bag with a few of them. Rock on.”

He was bouncing for the rest of their shop. They rolled by the frozen section last, and Luke added a box of Eggos to their cart. The big one. “The last few days we start early and it’s great to be able to throw a couple Eggos in the toaster and eat ’em on the way to work.” He found it hard to switch to mornings for a couple days after having been able to sleep in for weeks.

Then came the ice cream. “Ooo, I love ice cream, and if you buy it in the winter, it doesn’t all melt on the way home. What’s your favorite flavor?”

“I’ll eat anything.”

“No.” Luke shook his head. “I didn’t ask which flavors you would eat, I asked what your favorite one is.”

Chris perused the shelves through the glass doors. Then he pointed. “Rocky road.”

“I love that one! It’s like a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in frozen form.” He put one of those in the cart along with a vanilla because vanilla went great as a side to other desserts. “They’re two for ten bucks,” he pointed out. “But six twenty-nine if you just buy one.”

“You know that’s how they get you.” Chris told him as they headed to the checkout.

“Huh?”

“If you just bought one, you would only be spending six twenty-nine, but you spent almost four dollars more because of the sale.”

“But I got two containers of ice cream for the ten dollars when normally two would cost me twelve fifty-eight.”

“But were you going to get two?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay, but if you weren’t, they just psyched you into spending more money than you’d intended to.”

“Well, technically it’s not on the list so even if I’d just bought one it would be more money than I’d intended to spend.”

Chris shook his head. “You’re impossible.”

Luke laughed and rolled into line for the do-it-yourself checkout machines. “But we have ice cream, so it’s all good.”

They got to a machine and scanned their groceries. “I’ll get this one,” Chris told him, taking out his banking card.

“Okay, but make sure you take my half off of this month’s rent.”

Chris didn’t reply, but Luke figured if he didn’t, then Luke would pay for the next lot of groceries and make sure they were around the same amount.

By the time they had everything bagged up and were walking back home, he was damn glad he had Chris along or he wasn’t sure how he’d have carried everything on his own.

“I have to make you a key,” he noted as they got home. Sure, they were together now and probably would be when they got home from work, too, but even if Chris never needed to use his own key, Luke figured he should have one or he would never really feel like this was his home. It was important. “There’s a kiosk in the mall. I’ll get it done on my break.” He could get a corn dog or something handheld to eat.

They trundled up the stairs and put their groceries on the counter.

“You want to put everything away?” Luke asked as he put the ice cream and Eggos in the freezer. “I’m not trying to get out of doing it, I just figure if you put it away, you’ll have to ask this time, but then you’ll know where everything is.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“I know! I have good ones every now and then.” Laughing, he settled at the table and started directing Chris as he took stuff out of the bags. The job was done in no time.

“Sandwiches for lunch?” Chris asked.

“That sounds yummy.”

“I’ll make them,” Chris offered.

“Or we could do it together.”

So that was what they did, and it was enjoyable, working together, getting stuff done. It sure beat doing it on his own. The shopping had actually been fun, and even making the sandwiches was more enjoyable than usual.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Luke told Chris.

Chris didn’t say anything for a moment, and then he replied, “I am too.”