Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Charma let Darcy into his little—and he meant little—basement apartment.
Although calling it an apartment was generous.
It was basically one room with a bathroom at the far end and a counter with a microwave, a hot plate, and a dorm fridge that called itself a kitchen next to the bathroom.
He had a screen in front of the bed, sort of separating it into its own space.
His TV and his couch were at the front end of the room, making up his living room area.
He’d teased Darcy about how small his kitchenette was, but the truth was, Charma’s own apartment was far less appealing.
“I just need to grab some clothes and my phone and wallet.”
“No worries.” Darcy was looking around, taking everything in.
“It’s small,” Charma noted as he headed over to the box he kept his clothes in.
“It’s warm and it’s dry, and I haven’t seen a bunch of bugs scurrying around so it could be worse.”
“It so could be. Of course it could be better, but I shouldn’t complain—I didn’t want to stay on the compound, and I don’t exactly have an awesome job, pulling in the big bucks.”
“What do you do?” Darcy asked. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask before now!”
“You were distracted by my naked ass,” Charma suggested.
He grinned as Darcy cackled at that. When the laughter faded, he answered Darcy’s question.
“I’m a freelance graphic artist. And I’m just starting out with it, too, so I’m lucky if I get a couple jobs a week.
” Actually, he was lucky that his family was more than willing to employ him for any graphic needs they had—they didn’t hate him, they hadn’t disowned him or anything, they were just disappointed in him.
“What about you—what do you do?”
“Help desk. I work from home, which is nice because I don’t have to get dressed up or commute. It’s a level-1 work, but it pays the bills.”
Charma pulled off his borrowed clothes and got dressed in purple board-shorts and a bright pink T-shirt covered by a predominantly yellow Hawaiian style shirt with huge red and orange flowers that he left unbuttoned.
He put his phone in a pocket and grabbed his wallet, going around the screen, back to the front room area.
Grinning, Darcy nodded at him. “I love the outfit—that totally suits you!”
“I’ll wash your stuff and get it back to you.”
“Cool.”
Frowning, Charma looked through his wallet. “We’ll have to hit a cash machine.”
“Or you could come shopping with me and pay for some of it.” Darcy gave him a hopeful look.
“I’d like that.”
“Awesome—that way you can let me know what you like.”
“Are you going shopping for me or for yourself?” Charma asked.
“I’m going shopping to entice you over for more meals.”
“Oh, that was a good answer.” Charma pocketed his wallet and followed Darcy out.
Darcy was totally hooked. Like totally. They had wound up stopping at the ATM next to the grocery store because Charma said he liked to have a bit of cash in his wallet, and he’d paid Darcy for his half of last night’s supper with a promise to still help out with the groceries given that he was going to be sharing some of them.
Now they were grabbing a grocery cart and moving into the fruit and vegetable section at the front of the store.
“Have you noticed how most grocery stores are set up exactly the same way?” Darcy asked as he grabbed a bag of carrots and a sack of potatoes. “They all seem to put the produce front and center.”
“Huh. I hadn’t noticed that, but then I haven’t been in a whole lot of grocery stores. Just one actually—this one.”
“Seriously?”
“Well, on the compound, my mom always did the shopping, or we used a shopping service, and since I’ve moved out, I’ve only been here, ’cause it’s the closest.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“Maybe it’s weird that you’ve been to a lot,” Charma suggested.
“I don’t think so. I’ve been on my own for quite a while, remember? And one thing I learned early was that different stores have different stuff on sale, so I learned to shop around. I don’t always anymore, but I have a steady job now, so I don’t have to be as careful.”
“Yeah, I’d forgotten about that,” Charma said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“No! You don’t have to apologize for my trauma—you didn’t cause it, and it was ages ago. I like to think I’ve put it behind me, you know? That’s why it’s easy enough for me to bring up because it’s my past and I think I’ve left it there.”
“That sounds really, like, grown-up and mature.” Charma’s eyes were twinkling as he said it, so Darcy knew he was being teased.
“That’s me, Mr. Grown.” He laughed and Charma joined him. “Okay, let’s get this shopping done. What other veggies do you like?” He was pretty easy and usually went with what was on sale and wouldn’t cost him a fortune.
“I’m easy. I’m not a huge vegetable fan, but it’s not like I don’t like them or anything. I can take or leave them.” Charma shrugged, then he shook his head and added, “Except eggplant. That stuff is evil in vegetable form.”
That had Darcy giggling again. He couldn’t ever remember laughing so much with someone as he did with Charma.
“All right. Let’s get a lettuce head and the bag of rainbow peppers, and beans and brussel sprouts are on sale.
And I like cauliflower, but not so much broccoli.
” He added the lettuce, peppers, beans, and brussel sprouts to the cart and they moved into the fruit section.
“I love citrus and berries,” Charma noted before he had a chance to ask.
“Cool.” He threw a couple grapefruit, lemons, limes and a baggie of clementines into the cart, along with strawberries and raspberries. And he liked having grapes to munch on, so he grabbed a bag of red ones because they were nice and small, he preferred them to the bigger ones.
He did a quick calculation in his head. Okay, if Charma was going to help out a little bit, they were in good shape.
“Cheese, cold cuts, and bread next.”
“I love bread,” Charma told him. “I used to help my grandmother make it, so the smell of baking bread always makes me smile.”
“That’s pretty cool. Do you make it at home?”
“I’ve done it once. I was so homesick and it felt like a hug as soon as it started baking,” Charma admitted.
“Awww.” He gave Charma a quick hug. “I like cheese, but it’s really expensive, so it tends to be a treat rather than a regular purchase.” There was often stuff on sale, but there didn’t seem to be much today.
“What’s your favorite kind?”
“Yes.”
That made Charma laugh. “So that means you’ve never met a cheese you didn’t like?”
“Yep.”
Charma grabbed a little triangle of brie cheese and a small chunk of aged cheddar, then he added some cranberry and hazelnut rye crackers. “My treat.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. But I want to.”
“Thanks. I’m going to let you choose the bread,” he told Charma. He often went with just plain junk bread—it made a good base for peanut butter and jam sandwiches, but he wanted to know what someone who loved bread would choose.
“Ooo, let’s see what they’ve got.” Charma totally skipped the packaged breads and went to the in-store baked breads. “They’ve got a mini sourdough loaf and a crusty Italian loaf. I think we should go with those.”
“Sounds good to me.” Usually, he’d have said two was too many, but the one of them was pretty small, and he did want Charma to spend time at his place, so they’d probably go through more bread, so he figured the two was probably just what they needed.
Charma added those to the cart, and they moved on to the meat section.
“I always go with what’s on sale for meat. Because whoa.”
“I hear you. I haven’t bought any since I moved out. I mean other than baloney for sandwiches. I had a craving I couldn’t shake a few weeks ago and risked going home. Mom fed me and then sent me home with a bunch of leftovers.”
“Oh, that’s cool that you can do that.”
“Yeah, like I said, it’s not like they disowned me or forced me out or anything, they just wanted me to make babies, and I got tired of the palpable disappointment that that wasn’t going to happen.
” Charma shrugged. “I have to admit, sometimes when I look around my little bitty everything in one room, I think I should just suck it up and go back.”
“Would you be happy doing that?” he asked.
“Well, I wasn’t when I left, so maybe not.”
“It’s a balance, you know? Which is harder, familial pressure-slash-disappointment or the little place and potential loneliness?”
Charma nodded slowly. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. It can be helpful to get an outside perspective,” Darcy noted.
“Yeah, I can see that. Oh, look at this, ground beef is on sale if you buy the bigger package.”
Darcy took a look and nodded. “And that’ll do us like three, maybe even four meals.”
“I have a great stretch-out meal that I call grandma’s stuff. Let me text my mom and find out exactly what all is in it.” Charma started typing while Darcy gave the rest of the meat an eagle eye.
He added hot dogs to the cart, and there was some off-brand bacon on sale for about half of what the rest of the bacon cost, so he added that.
He had about half a jar of cheez whiz in the cupboard, but he was out of macaronis, so he’d buy a package of that.
He took a good look at the chicken, but even on sale, it was out of his budget right now.
“I’m gonna run and grab the stuff we need for my grandma’s ground beef stuff.”
“Okay, I’m going up to where the eggs and milk are.”
“Meet you there!” Charma headed off at a trot, weaving through the other shoppers while Darcy made his way to the dairy section.
He grabbed a gallon jug of 2% milk for cereal and a dozen eggs. That was almost his whole budget so he’d add in the macaroni, a box of whatever cereal was on sale and some Cokes.
Charma reappeared with a bag of onions, three cans of tomato soup, and a package of macaroni, along with a package of Italian spices.