jianhuo | (no subject)

Saffron loves the farmer's market in Petros Park. She's there most Saturdays it's open, picking out fresh produce and meats and such. She vastly prefers to use fresh and natural ingredients in her cooking; in Saffron's opinion, they make the food taste so much better. Plus, they're much healthier than using something that's been processed and had fillers and preservatives added.

Now, though, it's too cold for the farmer's market to be open, so Saffron has to content herself with trips to the natural food market she'd discovered last winter. The food she gets there is just as good, she supposes, but the atmosphere isn't quite the same. She's looking forward to later in the spring when she can go back to Petros Park.

One thing both places have in common, though, is the fact that Saffron always buys way too much and then has to figure out how to get it all home. She brings her handy canvas bags, filling them with a whole variety of things she needs to do all the cooking she does for herself and for friends, and then she doesn't think about the fact that she's got six full bags to lug back to High Gate until she's checked out and has to leave her shopping cart there in front of the store and lug the bags herself.

Lifting the bags out of the cart, Saffron debates whether she wants to hoof it to the nearest underground station or just hail a cab.

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"Not at all," says Steve, returning the smile. He glanced down at shopping cart that she was unloading, his eyes growing wide. He was a long way from splitting rations in a foxhole, that was for sure. He leaned in and rounded up four of the bags, two in one arm and two in the other. "This is all for you?"

"Just how big an appetite do you think I have, mister?" Saffron says teasingly as she picks up the remaining two bags, silently grateful that they seem to be the lightest of the bunch, albeit only marginally. "I love to cook, so I do sort of a lot of cooking and baking for friends and neighbors. I'd be happy to add you to my list, if you're interested in the occasional home cooked meal or baked good."

"Sometimes I forget not everyone has the appetite of a super soldier," Steve says with a laugh. He isn't exactly surprised by Helen's admission; she always has struck him as kind and neighborly. And around here, he knows, everyone needs a hobby. "I can barely make my way around the kitchen myself, so I'd be a fool not to say yes."

He realizes then, as a flux of shoppers make their exit, that they're still hovering just outside the store doors. "So which way are we going?"

"Consider yourself added," replies Saffron. "Besides, least I can do is feed you to thank you for helping me out with all of this."

She nods in the direction they need to go and starts walking, making sure he's with her. "High Gate Terrace. Close enough for us to walk, now that you're helping me with the bags."

Even with several bags weighing him down, Steve could easily keep a quick pace, but he falls into rhythm with Helen easily enough. It's nice, actually, this leisurely stroll. Sometimes he forgets that just because he can get anywhere quickly doesn't mean that he must. There's something to be said for taking one's time.

"So how have you been?"