“You worry me,” he said. “There’s no need to starve in this town.”
“Well, there is if you don’t have any money coming in,” she muttered.
“Well, if you didn’t have pride as such an issue,” he said, “there is a perfectly good food bank.”
“See now? I’ve heard those mentioned and pretended to understand … but,” she said curiously, “what exactly is that?”
He looked at her and chuckled. “It’s not the kind of bank that you would think,” he said. “You don’t go make a deposit and a withdrawal.”
She stared at him. “So what do you do? And why would we care?”
Still chuckling, he said, “It’s a place where people go who can’t afford to feed themselves and to get some free groceries.”
“Free?” she asked, her eyes opening wide.
“Free,” he said, “but you have to stand in line.” He wondered if she might hold her nose up at that.
“So it’s the inconvenience?”
“I think for a lot of people it’s the humiliation.”
She stopped and stared, her heart sinking, and then she realized. “Right, because everybody can see that you’re standing in line for free food, right?”
He nodded. “Exactly.”
“But if I was really hungry—”
“Then you could go get food. I don’t know if the food bank here is open every day of the week or if it’s only open certain days,” he said. “I don’t really know how it works because I’ve never checked it out before.”
“And hopefully you never will,” she said sadly. “I imagine there are people way worse off than me, so I would feel bad using it.”
“And there is that point as well,” he said, “but let’s not have you starving because you won’t go get something that’s freely offered.”
“Do you know what kind of food it is?”
“Hardly the kind you’re used to,” he said in a dry tone. “But good wholesome food like eggs, milk, veggies, and rice.”
She glared at him. “You don’t know what I’ve become used to,” she said. “So far, it’s been cereal, toast, and salad, as much as anything.”
“Well, and then there is your pasta.”
She gave him a fat smile. “There is that. I think I live for that stuff.”
“And that would be fine as long as you had other things with it.”
“I’m trying,” she said, as she finished the last bite of her pancakes and put down her fork. “Man, those were so good.”
“Glad you liked them,” he said. “It’s something I really enjoy, but I don’t serve it to others very often.”
“I don’t even know what others in your world would be,” she said. “Who do you cook for?” She had to admit a bit of jealousy churned in her gut as she wondered if he was talking about women. But when did he have time? He spent so much time with her these days that she couldn’t imagine that he had room for anybody else.
“Usually my mother,” he said, “and, although I don’t have a relationship right now,” he said, “I have had them in the past.”
“Right,” she said. “We all have pasts, don’t we?” It was hard to hold back the glumness in her tone.
He nudged her arm and said, “I can’t finish this last bit. Do you want it?”
She looked at his plate, then looked at him and realized he was just being kind. She immediately sat back and said, “Nope, I’m good, thanks.” She patted her full tummy and gave him a big smile. “Honest, I’m full.”
“You’re lying,” he said and immediately took away her empty plate and put his, that still had some food on it, in front of her and said, “Eat.” Then he got up and walked over and washed the dishes.
Rather than arguing with him, she quickly finished off his plate, bounced up, and carried the dishes to him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m not actually starving, you know?” He gave her a sideways look. She shrugged. “It’s just because of yesterday.”
“Uh-huh,” he muttered.
She refilled his coffee and said, “There. See? You got one from the new pot.”
“And I deserve it too,” he said. “Not only did I make you breakfast but I’m also doing the dishes.”
She wrinkled her nose at that. “You could leave them, and I’ll do them later.”
“No, the egg yolk is really hard to clean up when it dries.”
“Oh,” she muttered, as she watched. “See? There’s even a science to this that I don’t know.”
He stared. “You say the darnedest things.”
“Well, I’m not trying to say the darnedest things,” she muttered. “But, if you’ve never done dishes before, how would you know that dried egg is hard to clean up?”
He tilted his head as he thought about it, and said, “You really haven’t done anything on your own, have you?”
“Hey, you should have seen the clothes I ruined when I first had to wash them myself.”
He stopped and stared. “You’ve never run a washing machine before?”
“Nope. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a laundromat. Nan walked me through it the first couple times I went because I didn’t have one where I was temporarily staying,” she said. “That wasn’t much fun.”
He started to chuckle, his big shoulders shaking.
She glared at him. “Did you know that silk shouldn’t go through a washing machine? Particularly not with jeans, and that shoes never go in a washing machine?” She gave him a bright twinkling smile. “Especially high heels? Let’s just say, I learned quickly what not to do.”
By then he was guffawing loudly on the floor.
“Hey, it’s not that funny,” she said.
“Oh, hell yes, it is,” he said, as he stood back up again, wiping the tears from his eyes. He wrapped her up in a big hug and said, “Please don’t ever change.”
“Change,” she said, “is exactly what I’m trying to do.”
“Okay. Point to you for that one,” he said, still grinning.
Just then the doorbell rang.
She looked at the front door and sighed. “I really don’t want to see anybody today.”
“You have to go see who it is first,” he said, and, grabbing a tea towel, he wiped his hands, as he walked to the front door.
“No. If we just ignore it,” she said, “they’ll go away.” He gave her a strange look. She shrugged. “It won’t be anything good.”
“What makes you say that?” he asked.
“Well, for one, they’re strangers. Otherwise they wouldn’t have rung the doorbell. Two, it’s a Sunday. So they’re either selling something or it’s somebody I don’t want to see.”
He fisted his hands on his hips and stared at her. “What if it’s Nan?”
“It wouldn’t be Nan. She would have called me first. And she would have come up the river.”