Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
She led me through the stalls, stopping by some but ignoring others. I wasn’t able to tell what her method was for ignoring one seller and stopping by another instead, so I just tried to follow her lead and trusted that she’d explain to me.
“You want to go to the same market over and over,” Stevie told me. “You can build a rapport with the sellers that way. They’ll let you in on what’s the best, they might even save some prime stuff for you, and you know that they’re being honest with you about quality and prices. Not to mention it just feels special to know that everyone knows you.” She shrugged, grinning at me.
“So you plan out the meals in advance and then come here with a list of what you need?”
“Most of the time. But other times I would come here and just see what was in season and think up ideas based on that. Of course…” she laughed. “With a restaurant you can’t really do that unless you want to surprise customers every week.”
She stopped at a stall and reached over, drawing her finger down a zucchini. “Look at this bad boy.”
I knew she was just joking about the vegetable, but I also couldn’t stop myself. “Mmm, I think I’ve got a bad boy of my own you could use.”
Stevie laughed, her head falling back, her teeth flashing and her eyes crinkling up at the corners. God, she was gorgeous. Of course with her generous curves and her thick dark hair and all the rest—but like this, too, carefree and laughing at a joke I’d made. It made my chest warm in a way I hadn’t felt in… years.
“I would not recommend using that for… that,” she said, laughing. “Maybe a carrot?”
“If my dick looks like a carrot I think I’ve got a skin condition.”
Stevie laughed again, waving apologetically at the vegetable seller when he shot her a weird look.
“What about broccoli?” I teased.
“Oh my God, hell no, what the fuck?” Stevie burst out into laughter again. “Stop it,” she hissed, “everyone’s going to think I’m insane!”
“So I’m just informing them of the truth, then.”
She flipped me off, grinning, and then grabbed my hand to drag me to another stall. “Something that I really like is how imperfect everything is. And you can really trust the people here to give you food that’s good even if it would be past its technical ‘sell by’ date in a big grocery store. Grocery stores throw out so much food that’s still okay, and they aren’t even donating it to people who need it. Dumpster diving behind grocery stores is literally how a lot of people eat because it’s still good food and they can’t afford anything else.
“Here, even if it’s not always pretty, you know that it’s still good and you know that none of it’s being wasted. And the food is local so it tastes better.” Stevie pointed out another stall that was selling honey. “They work in coalition with a lot of the other stalls around here. There’s a lot of good, ethical farming practices done here.”
She kept leading me through the stalls, explaining how she made her decisions and how everything worked. As we walked, we kept bumping each other’s hands, almost but not quite holding on. I kept making jokes about the vegetables we saw, and Stevie kept laughing. I could remember how Virginia would say my jokes were a little corny, a little ridiculous, but Stevie didn’t seem to care. And I felt myself more relaxed around her than I’d been in… I couldn’t even remember how long.
We were completely laden down with bags by the time we were finished shopping, and Stevie said she couldn’t wait for me to see the items tonight as the customers ordered them. “You’re making these items knowing where you got the ingredients from and seeing them be turned into that dish that someone is now enjoying… it’s kind of magical.”
She then laughed self-deprecatingly, blushing. “I’m sorry, that sounded so ridiculous when I said it out loud.”
“No, I get it. You’re giving someone a meal that really feels like it was made from the heart. That’s why we love cooking so much in the first place. We feel like we’re actually giving people something that’s from our kitchen and our table. There’s a sense of intimacy in that.”
“Exactly!” Stevie gave me this look like… like I was her hero or something, her eyes all lit up. “I knew you’d get it.”
That made my heart swell. I had to admit, I hadn’t been feeling all that great about myself lately. Having your wife abandon you for your best friend could do that to a guy. But Stevie looked at me like I was someone to admire, someone to be proud of, and it… threw me for a spin, not gonna lie.