Saturday, August 20, 2022

A face in the crowd

 

The Farmer's market days were numbered as September neared. Maybe there would be another month of Saturdays. Possibly two. It was hard to remember now since the pandemic. Of course, Delia didn't want summer to end. For the first time, it felt like things were back to normal. The local hometown festival had happened in July. There was a parade soon. But of course, everyone seemed to be getting sick at work. 

Naturally, she'd geared up for that. She constantly took COVID  test and masked up. She really knew the measures she had to take. She'd taken the vaccine and boosted. She even took the other vaccine too. Yes, she was doing her best to stay out of trouble. And then she met Dan.

It had been kind of a funny story seeing him time after time at the Farmer's Market. He never bought anything. Oh, sure he ate cake and pie, but never loaded down with fresh vegetables. They'd eaten together more than once. In fact, they looked for each other.

Still, she didn't know that much about him. At least, he worked at the police department. That was promising. Possibly. Of course, it was in the evidence room. Naturally, he never gave away anything about his job or what he liked.

But then he told her he didn't believe in the vaccine.

"What? You work at the police department and you haven't had the vaccine?" For the first time, Delia sounded like a real mother. She couldn't help her swelled frown. Why did he had to be this way.

"Well, I never see anyone." It sounded as if he had the loneliest job on the planet.

"But still," she sighed, thinking this might be the last time she even came to the Farmer's market. The last time she'd ever see Dan. 

"We can't see eye to eye on everything," he informed her. Of course, he'd bought her the buttercream cake she'd wanted. "And I bet you don't even drink wine, either."

She looked at him wide-eyed.

"Uh, no." She didn't know what he was getting at.

"Not like I'm a wino or anything," he said. Delia couldn't help but laugh. Truly, Dan didn't look like he would know what kind of wine would go with anything.

"But I like a good hearty red wine with a steak," he nodded.

"What kind of wine would go with cake?" She asked.

"A plum wine, of course, even a sherry would do."

4 comments:

  1. Can they get past this? What do you do when you really like someone and then you find out something like that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Uy a veces solo nos gusta alguien y luego descubres que no es quien esperas. Genial fragmento. Te mando un beso.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, this is so timely! And it reminds me a tiny bit of when I had to convince the husband to get his vaccine. It sort of knocked me for a loop that I had to do that, especially with someone I'd known and loved for more than a decade. But in some ways, I think it'd be harder to make the call at the very beginning, as with Delia and Dan. Like, here's this guy she really likes, but can she start something with someone who disagrees about something so important? Riveting writing as always! You never disappoint and always make us think.

    ReplyDelete

Hi, I love hearing from people.