Who: Mike Lane mikelane & Anna of Arendelle elatedorgassy When: Mid-April Where: Whole Foods What: Random Encounter Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status:Closed/Complete Upon Posting
Wandering around the grocery store, Mike tried to remember why he'd left Orange County in the first place. It'd been a few weeks. He'd gone back to Florida. Seen some people. They'd called him to tell him a friend of his had passed away. Died. The guy was a year older than Mike. That was too young to die, wasn't it? It felt too young to die. Mike had made it back to Florida in time for the funeral.
He hadn't gone to the burial.
There were more kinds of Pop-Tarts than there were colors in the rainbow. Mike felt this was an absolute certainty as he stood in front of the display staring with eyes which couldn't focus at a wall of sugary glazed pastries he shouldn't have even thought about eating. Wasn't he worried about his own mortality? Shouldn't that be something he worried about now since he'd been reminded death could come for someone at any time, any age, and it didn't have to call ahead?
"Do you think these things actually all taste that different or is it just some advertising gimmick to keep people buying them?"
Mike couldn't say he had a tendency to randomly strike up conversations with strangers, but this wasn't a stranger was it?
~*~
It was random to be bumping into Magic Mike in the supermarket like this. Anna hadn’t been prepared--she was wearing jammies, her hair a mess, not a stitch of make-up on her face. (Did make-up come in stitches?) And there he was, looking handsome as ever. Dangit! It totally wasn’t fair!
Anna went pink as she reached past him for the S’mores flavored Pop-Tarts, and dropped them into her little basket. “I’m pretty sure some of them taste different. ...I couldn’t tell the strawberry ones from the cherry… but it’s pretty easy to tell blueberry from cinnamon, or chocolate from… well, anything fruit flavored.” She gave him a grin.
“And I refuse to eat a Pop Tart without frosting on it.”
~*~
"Unfrosted Pop-Tarts? That's blasphemy right there. Clearly you are a woman of distinguished tastes."
Mike grinned at Anna while he tried to remember why he had spent so much time worrying over breakfast pastries. They didn't matter. Nothing remotely mattered in terms of what kind of sweet he was eating out of his toaster. Mike had a casual relationship with a woman who was---from a whole other kind of life. He had lost a good friend. His business was growing faster than he was in ways he couldn't wrap his head around.
Those were important things.
Grabbing a box of maple and brown sugar, Mike tossed it into his basket before deciding he also wanted one of the chocolate chip. He threw the second box in and leaned closer to Anna to give her a friendly confession.
"I like pretty much anything which tastes like breakfast from home or cookies. I'm not exactly the healthiest eater. Don't tell anyone. I'd hate to get kicked out of California for not being body conscious enough."
~*~
Anna laughed good naturedly. She nodded with enthusiasm. “I really am. It's nice of you to notice, Magic Mike.”
Then she gave a “pssh" sounds and reached forward to smack his arm, playfully. “I don't think anyone in her right mind would ever accuse you of not being body conscious enough for anything. I mean, just look at you.”
It wasn't until a moment after she'd said it that she realised it could be taken the wrong way. Or, maybe not wrong, exactly, but not right? She went pink. “You're gorgeous.”
She cleared her throat.
“I just. Sorry. I mean. Wow, that was awkward. Awkward for me, really, you're not the awkward one here. That's all me.”
~*~
Gorgeous? Mike laughed out loud in surprise, moved to put an arm around Anna's shoulders to give her a friendly squeeze. She was absolutely adorable. He had no idea how she wasn't chained to some guy's---well, she wasn't the kind of woman Mike would have imagined to still be single. He'd met a lot of women who clearly didn't have a partner for a reason. Anna was not one of those women.
"I think the word you're looking for is adorable, Anna. You absolutely are that. Also? I'm only Magic Mike on the dance floor. Everywhere else I'm just Mike: aspiring furnishing artist."
Mike dropped his arm back down to his side. He didn't want Anna to get to thinking he was putting moves on her. She was a great girl who deserved better than getting groped in a grocery store. It struck him he didn't know if she was even okay with touching. They had spoken on occasion, but were they close enough for that to be okay? She hadn't screamed for help which had to mean something and she had let him dance all up on her.
That was definitely something.
"Sorry. I can be a touchy guy. Now that you've woken me from my breakfast-pastry-induced stupor, would you like to have some company while you finish shopping?"
~*~
Normally Anna was a pretty touchy/feely person, too. She didn’t mind the arm wrapped around her shoulders, though she had to admit it made her heart start thumping like mad. It was a relief that he hadn’t taken her awkward babbling the wrong way, though. This wasn’t a come-on. It would be a very weird place and time for that kind of thing--in front of the toaster pastries in the supermarket?--and Anna was wearing pajama pants. (Gryffindor ones. Harry Potter for the win.)
She grinned a little less awkwardly and a little more genuinely when he offered to keep her company. After being followed to her car by a couple of drunk guys with bad things on their minds, she welcomed the company. “I’m nearly finished. What’s left on your list? Maybe I’ll keep you company instead of the other way ‘round.”
~*~
"I've got breakfast covered so I was going to head over to the meat section to look about some steaks maybe. I usually buy whatever looks freshest so I can get my protein in."
Mike was the kind of guy who had to live on a high protein diet. He worked too hard, was too physical, to live Vegan. It was interesting to him how Sam made it work for her. She alternately made him feel too old for her and too inexperienced at the same time. Anna was a little easier to be around in that sense. She wasn't average exactly as much as she was approachable in a way Sam wasn't since Anna was very much the kind of girl who wore everything on her face for the whole world to see.
Pointing at her pajamas, he offered, "I always test into Gryffindor, too. No idea why. I'm thinking it's because I have no shame in my game on the dance floor. Or maybe because I'm not smart enough to think before I act. You a fan of the books or the movies or both? That's an important question there."
~*~
"I wish I knew how to cook steaks," Anna said, almost wistfully. She turned to head to the meat aisle. "Bacon's about the best I can do, and it's never any good. I normally buy my meat pre-cooked so I don't accidentally give myself salmonella or something."
Anna's sister was a vegetarian, but Anna herself liked the meat. It was something she'd come to appreciate as she and her sister got to know one another better as adults. They'd been sequestered for so long, it was nice to get to know the other and how different they actually were.
"I had a lot of time to read when I was a kid. Books first, then films. I mean, those movies aren't bad. They had an impossible task." She replied, grinning. "My pants are just wishful thinking, really. I dunno what house the hat would want to put me in, but I'd definitely lean Gryffindor. Then maybe Hufflepuff." Anna was an all-inclusive, non-judgemental kind of girl.
~*~
Living alone made a person have to work harder to make it in life. There wasn't anyone else around to do all the chores related to everyday living which meant a guy had to learn to do it on his own. Mike had learned cooking from the Food Network. His mother hadn't taught him anything; his father definitely hadn't taught him a thing. Mike wondered why Anna didn't know how to cook considering her age.
"You don't have to cook for yourself much? I would have figured you'd know how to make a decent steak at the very least. That much I can teach you if you want to learn. It'd be nice to share a lean cut with someone, honestly, since I don't have anyone I invite over who isn't Vegan."
Mike tried and failed to imagine what it would have been like to have grown up in the kind of household Anna had to have known. She'd likely had nannies from all over the world. Or all over the world. Weren't her parents billionaires or something? They probably took her on vacations to Greece for her Spring Break. Her life had to have been a far cry from the way Mike had grown up living hand to mouth.
"I read the books first, too. I enjoyed the movies, seeing the magic come to life, but they left out so much. I can't watch them without being a little sad since I know there are people out there who have no idea how much of the story they're missing. On those online quizzes? I wind up in either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff too. You're not the only one who is a little of both."
~*~
"Wait, how did you figure I'd know how to make a steak?" Anna asked, her nose crinkling up as she turned to grin at him. "Do I look like the kind of person who knows how to cook a steak?" And then her eyes went wide. "Really? You're willing to ... I mean, you'd teach me? Really? I'd love to learn! I want to learn to cook everything!"
She cocked her head to the side. "You invite a bunch of vegans over?" Anna wasn't sure she even knew a vegan.
They reached the meat counter area and she stopped to look in at the different kinds of meat. Well, mostly pig, cow and chicken. Oh, and fish. Shellfish. But they were looking at the cow meat, right? She turned back to him again.
"Same with me! Yeah, it's really sad that people who have only seen the movies don't know about Peeves."
~*~
Mike laughed at Anna's enthusiasm while waiting on his selection to be carved and packaged. He was getting a nice flank steak along with some filet mignon medallions. They were easy to prepare after a hard day's work as well as being a good source of protein. Mike had to go with easy on most nights because he was too tired to work up the energy to go to more trouble. His job was too physical for the luxury of rest.
"Right? Peeves was great. Umm," he tried to think of a way to explain Sam without sounding completely pathetic, "I really only have the one good close friend here? Her name's Sam and she's a vegan. I know that sounds bad. I just haven't met a lot of people who wanted more than my work."
They were making their way to the front of the store when Mike decided to go for it and ask.
"Would you really want to come over for cooking lessons? I'm willing to offer them up for some company and possibly your opinion on some of my work?"
It helped to have a fresh set of eyes on everything. Mike knew he got too close to his pieces sometimes. He wouldn't mind having another person to look at them before he tried to prepare them for sale.
~*~
Anna was nothing if not enthusiastic. She grinned over at his laugh, a little proud that she'd made him happy enough to give a nice laugh like that. He had a pleasant sounding laugh. She stepped a little closer so she could lean over and look into the case while the guy behind the counter selected and cut the meat. It was amazing they could do this job so well! She had no idea what part of a cow the cuts came from.
"What do you mean by... wanted more than your work?" Anna asked, moving with him toward the front of the store. Her mind went to un-Anna-like naughty places. It made her cheeks go red. "Of course! I mean, I'd trade an opinion for cooking classes any day of the week." She beamed brightly, even though she was blushing.
They stepped into the line to make their purchases. "I can even bring supplies. For cooking. Like, onions and stuff. Whatever people need to cook."
~*~
"How about we text some recipes back and forth and pick a few to try? We can split ingredients that way and both benefit from the fruits of our labors."
Mike chose to dismiss what Anna had likely thought when he'd made his statement about work. He knew how he came across to people. Heavy-handed was an understatement when Mike was on a dance floor. They had met under those circumstances the first time which meant she had to remember that every time she met him now. First impressions really did set the tone for future interactions.
That wasn't an urban legend at least.
Reaching the checkout, Mike started unloading his cart while he gave Anna a wink, "I've still got your number. I'll text you some of my favorites. You can tell me which ones sound good to you. Consider it a standing arrangement."