He stopped pushing the basket and looked at her expectantly.
“What does that mean?”
“What does what mean?” he asked.
“That they’d bring me back. That’s not nice.”
“Cristie, you are certainly not the female I remember.”
“Really? And you’re the male I remember?”
“No, not exactly. But I hope I’m not as changed as you are.”
She watched him as he backed his basket up, then went around her, leaving her to follow or not. She followed him up and down four more aisles before she realized he wasn’t shopping, he was just walking up and down the aisles. “Aren’t you going to buy anything?”
“I don’t know what to buy. I don’t really need anything.”
“Then why are we here?” she asked.
“Because you insisted that you wanted to take me shopping. Here we are.”
She walked over to the basket and put her hand on it. “Look, I owe you an apology. I’m sorry for being so difficult. And I’m sorry for being so distant.”
He assessed her posture, scrutinized the expression on her face and laughed. “No, you’re not.”
She rolled her eyes. “I am. I really am. What you’re picking up on is that I hate to apologize. But I will if I know I’m wrong. And I was wrong. I’m sorry I was an ass. I was hurt and worked it up into more than it needed to be. I know you were struggling, too. I should have been more understanding, and tried to see what you were feeling instead of just what I was feeling. Then when you got here I felt set up by my own family. I kind of took that out on you, too. That part wasn’t your fault. You went through the right channels to be here. I am sorry for the way I treated you.”
“Good. I’d hate to think you’ve become naturally that mean.”
“I wasn’t that mean.”
“You were. Especially since we have always been friends. I was hoping if nothing else we could remind ourselves of that, even if nothing else worked out.” He looked away for a second before bringing his gaze back to hers. He released a deep breath and shook his head. “I miss you, Cristie. I miss being able to call and talk to you about anything. I miss your sense of humor. I miss your laugh.”
“I miss you, too, Remi. I’m sorry.”
They stood there awkwardly on opposite ends of the basket. Finally, Cristie reached her hand out toward him. “Truce? Start over fresh?”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You break this one, I’m going home,” he said.
Cristie laughed. “I’m not breaking this one.”
“Okay. Truce.” He shook her hand, then let it go before he couldn’t fight the urge to pull her over the basket and into his arms.
“Let’s buy some things,” she said, as she turned and started slowly down the aisle, her gaze sweeping across everything as she moved past. “What do you want?”
“I don’t know. You wanted to come shopping.”
“Tell you what, you let me know if I put something in the basket you don’t like,” Cristie said.
“Deal.”
He followed her as she shopped for sheets, comforters, matching curtains for the bedrooms, place mats for the kitchen table, even a fresh set of dishes for the kitchen. She picked out half a dozen of what she called bath sheets, which looked to him to be really big, extra fluffy towels, and wash cloths and hand towels to match. She asked him about the pots and pans in his cabinets and the baking sheets and casserole dishes. She even bought a new fancy shower curtain to match the new bath sheets. But what struck him shortly after she started actually shopping, was that she wasn’t just picking patterns and colors. Once she’d narrowed down the color and pattern options for the bedding to just two or three final choices, she opened the packaging and ran her hands across them. She lifted them to her face and sniffed, then rubbed them on her cheek, and then decided which she would put in the basket.
When she chose new baking dishes and pie plates for his kitchen, she took her time, comparing the depth of the dishes, and the patterns on their outsides. She set out three or four of the place mats she was considering, and looked at them on the shelves from several different angles. When she finally had just about everything she thought he needed, she turned to him and smiled. ‘What do you think about the furniture in the house?”
“It’s fine.”
“Have you sat on it? Spent any amount of time on it?”
