"Carambola. Starfruit. It's good. You can eat it. It's one of the few fruits of its kind that you can eat the whole thing, outside and inside. It's better cut up, looks like a star. It doesn't taste like any one thing you've had before, but many things." Charlie smiled at her. In LA, the weather never got so chilly, but the detective seemed just as home in the cold as he did in the heat, or the City's more temperate weather. He just smiled, picking out another fruit.
"Kiwano. African horned melon. You can eat it, but most like how it looks." He didn't set the fruit back in the crate, rather tucked it away in a bag. He was probably one of the few people in existence anywhere with a running tab at a fruit vendor's. "It's not a bad fruit, but if I'm going to go for any fruit. Other than the oranges I grow, which are not doing well with the wintery weather, I'd say an apple is very good for a quick fix. Or a pear."
Charlie motioned between himself and the young woman as he looked at the vendor who only nodded. Yes, the young woman's fruit would be added to the tab. Charlie was just that sort of guy. There had been times that the detective would ask that all fruit purchases be put on his tab. He always made sure it was paid once a week, or once every seven days.
"Or, this." He pulled out a kiwi. "Or, this." He found a papaya. His smile might have suggested many things, but he smiled all the same, holding up the kiwi and papaya for the young woman to take, as if they were offerings of some sort.