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On the way out of the apartment, I made the decision to try the farmer’s market. I’d been hearing about it for the last few weeks and was interested to see if it lived up to the hype. I also needed to start eating solid foods again. Several days of liquids and crackers might have chipped away at my weight a bit, but that wasn’t worth the boredom and lack of flavor.
I prepared myself with an optimistically large shopping bag draped over one arm and strolled along the aisles.
My intention was to gauge how I was feeling when I got through all of those and potentially venture into the world of fresh baked goods and jarred preserves if I was still feeling alright.
Things were going well, and I stopped to peruse a particularly abundant display of greens. After selecting several bunches, I turned to continue on my way. I was looking down, arranging the vegetables in my bag on top of the apples I’d chosen just a few minutes before, when I ran directly into someone.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, looking up in embarrassment.
“Camilla?” a voice asked before I even processed the face belonging to the person whose side I just bounced off.
I realized an instant later it was Alex. He was standing there with the same brother who had been sitting beside him at the bar and what looked like a carbon copy of him.
There were a whole lot of intensely attractive men standing close to me, but my main focus was on Alex’s arms and the baby he was cradling. My heart rioted at the sight of that little baby girl curled up against his chest. I stumbled to the side just a little, tripping myself with my own feet as I tried to right myself after the collision. Alex held her close with one arm and used the other hand to rest on my shoulder like he was steadying me.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. Got too wrapped up in my greens.”
That was a stupid thing to say. I knew it even as it was coming out of my mouth, but unfortunately, I couldn’t scoop the words back out of the air and shove them down my throat again, so I had to go with it. Fortunately, Alex either found the comment charming or was too decent of a person to outright mock me, so he smiled.
“What kind did you get?” he asked.
My mind went blank. That was a valid question I should have been able to answer fairly quickly, especially considering the declaration of devotion to the vegetation I’d just made. And yet, I couldn’t make myself remember the actual varieties I picked out. I told myself that was because there had been so many amazing options, and everything looked so delicious I just couldn’t remember which of them I’d decided to get.
It definitely wasn’t because of Alex’s gorgeous eyes or his silky voice. Those details were not applicable.
I looked into the bag again. “Collards. Kale. I think some turnip.”
He laughed. “I can see why you got wrapped up in them. That’s a lot of greens.”
“Well, I’ve been craving fresh vegetables today after a week of…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence. Before the rest of the words could come out of my mouth, a breeze carried a waft of something greasy and fried from one of the food trucks parked a few rows across the market, and my stomach revolted.
My hand flew up to my mouth, and I swung around so my back was to the direction of the smell. I didn’t know if that was actually going to do anything, but I would try whatever I could think of. Somewhere past my thoughts of coaching myself not to throw up right there in front of everybody, I heard Alex telling his brothers to go on without him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him hand the baby over to one of the twins, and then his hand was on my arm and he was leading me over to a nearby bench. I let him ease me down onto the seat, and I folded over to draw in a few settling breaths. Maybe I should have gotten that chunk of ginger I picked up when I first got to the market and then decided against.
On second thought, gnawing a raw hunk of unpeeled ginger might not have been the best move right then either. I would settle for sitting there breathing through the moment of nausea.
Alex sat with me, one hand resting lightly on my back. When I felt in control enough to straighten up, his hand fell away. I was surprised at the immediate feeling of disappointment that rippled through me along with the compulsion to fold over again to see if he would put his hand back.
