So We Can Glow - Stories - Leesa Cross-Smith Page 0,57

was a great weirdo to find at night in the produce section.

“I used to boil it, but not anymore. I fry it with bacon or in bacon fat, at least. And the purple cabbage doesn’t taste the same if you do that. It’s too tough. I like to shred the purple cabbage and eat it raw. I make coleslaw with it,” Astrid said.

“Coleslaw, all right. Awesome,” Henry said, before she knew he was Henry. At that point, she’d decided she was going to call him Cabbage.

Astrid saw Cabbage in several different aisles before she left the grocery store that night. The first time, she smiled at him again and he did the same. The second time, she smiled at the ground while walking past him. She reached up for the oysters, got two small cans. The third time, she acted like she didn’t see him at all.

* * *

The following Wednesday, after ballet class and drinks with friends, Astrid stopped by the grocery store, thinking about seeing Cabbage again. She’d thought about him in flashes since seeing him the week before. She’d been busy. She’d made enough food so she didn’t have to think about what to make for dinner every night—roasted a chicken that would last for two days, used the leftovers in a big pot of white chili. She’d gotten food out with the drinks and friends that Wednesday. Tapas and a strong, minty mojito. She was practically bubbling over as she wheeled her cart to the produce section. And there Henry was, over by the apples. Apple Henry. Astrid said hi first.

“Hi. I remember you! Coleslaw!” Henry said. Astrid wondered if that’s what he’d been calling her in his mind. Coleslaw. She hoped so.

“That’s me,” Astrid said. Only the two of them in the produce section again. The same young man was waxing the floor with the same noisy machine, this time, three aisles over.

“I made your coleslaw, by the way. I got green cabbage last Wednesday, but then went somewhere else and got purple cabbage and found a recipe on the internet. So technically I guess it wasn’t your coleslaw, but it was inspired by you. Do you mind if I ask your name?” Henry said.

“No. I don’t mind,” Astrid said.

Henry laughed a little.

“Okay then, I will! What is your name?” he asked, opening his arm across the air like a magician’s assistant. She’d already decided she would’ve let him saw her in half.

“Astrid.”

“Henry,” he said.

“Hi, Henry.”

“Astrid’s purple coleslaw,” Henry said, almost like he was speaking only to himself.

“Ooh! Sounds psychedelic. I dig it.”

“Astrid’s purple coleslaw,” he said again.

“I’m making zoodles soon. Like, lo mein noodles but zucchini noodles instead. Zoodles,” she said, pointing over to the zucchinis.

“Zoodles?” Henry said, guiding his cart over to them.

“I have this thing I hold in my hand and turn…makes it into these spirals. Like noodles,” Astrid said, miming the movements.

Henry picked up a zucchini like he’d never seen one before. He turned it over in his hands, smelled it. Astrid wondered if she was in love with him. Maybe this was what love felt like. It’d been so long, she barely remembered, but it did feel something like this, didn’t it? Like watching someone look at something for the first time?

Astrid joined him by the zucchinis and put six of them in a plastic bag, tied it, placed it gently in the top of her cart. She wished she knew Henry better. Wished they’d known one another their whole lives. Yes, she was sure she was in love with him. This is what it felt like. She wanted to tell him to buy an eggplant. She wanted to see him standing across from her, holding the biggest, darkest-purple, glossiest one.

“You’re full of supermarket goodness,” he said to her.

“I like how you say supermarket. I say grocery store.”

Henry looked at Astrid the same way he looked at the zucchini. She checked his finger for a wedding band. No.

“Let me know how your zoodles turn out,” she said. And although she wanted to stand there and talk to him, she also knew how men were. So, she turned away from him and waved without looking back and decided to forego the rest of the produce she needed. She went across the store to the frozen section so she wouldn’t accidentally run into him in the other aisles and she breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t.

Because yes. This was definitely love. And to prove it, she got on Facebook that