"You really want to do this bougie-ass, Whole Foods where stuck up rich bitches shop that are scared of a little GMO and high fructose corn syrup?"

After Tristan's friend left, which lasted two hours, he was finally about to take her grocery shopping.

She grabbed her purse, keys, and phone, following his tall frame out the door.

"If you know what's good for you, you would try it as well."

She locked up the house while Tristan stood near and waited for her.

"I think it's wasteful spending. Food is food."

"But now do you see why I call you out when you eat my food?"

"Okay lil bit, why do you have to bring up old shit. Food is food, and I like to eat."

She laughed at him as he held the door to his truck open for her. Her phone binged as Tristan walked around to his side. She looked down at her phone, it was her sister calling.

"Hey."

"Where are you and Trist going?"

She rolled her eyes at her sister, using the security camera as a spy. She put the phone on speaker as Tristan got into the truck.

"He's taking me to get food since you did not bother to ask if I needed anything before you left."

"Oh, my bad."

That's all she had to say for herself?

"What's up Zee," Tristan added before he drove off. "Aye, yo sis and I want to plan a little gathering at the crib. Barbecue, invite some friends, some fam, our parents."

"Ha! You think I want to have Dad over there?"

"Just Mom," she said. There was no way she was inviting both of them over, to be around each other. "Maybe Aunt Rita and Uncle Billy. We haven't had like a housewarming thing at all and it's been a month."

"Who's on the grill?"

"Me of course, fool. Let me know if you want anything special, while we're out now I'll just pick up the meat...and not from Whole Paycheck."

"Oh, she dragging you there!" Zee laughed. "Good luck with that. Okay, I'm out."

With Zee off the phone, she said to Tristan, "Why is she being an annoying big sister?"

"At least you have a sister. And a good relationship with her. Don't take that for granted."

"I don't."

Tristan drove for a bit before he said anything more. "So tell me this. Why do you not have a car in this day and age? Can't get anywhere without wheels. Don't you get tired of needing someone else to drive you around?"

"So you're saying you don't want to drive me around?"

"That's not what I said."

She shrugged. "My grandmother never drove. There was always someone to drive her around or she caught the bus. One of my uncles died in a car accident, and maybe she was afraid after that."

She wondered if her grandmother ever wanted to learn to drive. Maybe the answer was in her journals.

"Na! You don't know how to drive? Zee ain't teach you?"

"I never asked her to."

"Okay, I'm teaching you."

"Why?"

"Because you should know how to drive at this big age. Even if you don't buy a car right away, learn how to drive." He glanced over at her while they were at a light. "In the meantime, anytime you need to go somewhere, I got you."

They made it to Trader Joe's in Brentwood first and Tristan did not want to come inside and said he would wait in the truck. She bought some of her favorite fruits and veggies: apples, oranges, pineapple, peaches, salad mixes, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, corn on the cob to grill, and shredded Brussels sprouts. Then she added vegan cheese and butter, hummus, some bread, cans of beans, more oatmeal, and her oat milk. She preferred Whole Foods almond milk so she could get it from there.

She grabbed a ready-to-eat veggie hummus wrap and vegan spicy porkless skins. When she pushed her full cart toward the truck, Tristan hopped out to grab her bags out of the cart.

"Wait." She grabbed her veggie wrap and the vegan skins out of the bag. "I'm hungry, I was going to eat this in the truck."

She headed to the door to get into the truck but he yelled out to her. "Hey, wait!"

She frowned at him as to why she had to wait. He put her three bags in the back of the truck, put the cart in the carousal, then walked over to her and opened the door for her.

"I'm trying to be a gentleman." He helped her inside.

She wanted to say something smart about that but held it in. Things were going great between them, just being friends.

From her purse, she pulled out hand sanitizer wipes before she ate her lunch. She opened her snacks and dug in. She did not know what real pork skins or chicharrones tasted like since she had been vegetarian since seven, and vegan since about fifteen. Her mother never gave her pork skins at that age, or maybe she just did not remember if she had them. But the spicy vegan ones were good.

"What in the hell is that?" Tristan stared at the bag.

"Vegan pork skins." She turned the bag so he could see the front. "Want to try?"

"Hellllll no! The fuck? How is it vegan and pork...and skins? Explain that shit. So it's vegan crunchy curls or something, because it ain't pork, and it ain't skins."

"It tastes good."

"I'll not trust your word on that, but okay."

He drove off and headed to Whole Foods which was right around the corner from the Brentwood Promenade.

"Want some of my sandwich? It's just a veggie wrap."

"I might try that."

She unwrapped her sandwich and leaned over to feed him a bite while he drove. He took the bite and then grunted at her.

"You're trying to get me to have an accident, girl stop."

"You like it?"

"It's pretty good," he said after he finished the bite.

"I'll let you have this half. It's a lot for me."

"Girl if you think rabbit food is a lot..."

"I need to cook more, not eat prepared foods. My GiGi liked to cook a lot. She did not eat a lot of processed food. Still was a lot of meat, fatty and salty things, but she cooked everything from scratch. Once I started became plant-based, she catered some meals for me. She was a phenomenal cook. I wish I could cook like her."

"I like hearing you talk about her. Makes me envious I didn't meet her."

"I just want to be like her. Just a little of her."

Tristan pulled into the lot and looked for a space before he pulled in. He parked and turned the truck off.

"Hey lil bit, be your own self, not like anyone else. It's probably even better."

She smiled. "Are you coming in the store with me?"

"I figure I'd check it out. I've never been."

They sat there and finished their sandwiches while she talked more about her grandmother developing vegan dishes for her. How her mother never tried to adjust to her lifestyle so she fended for herself for most meals. Zee even prepared vegan foods when she cooked for them. All her mother did was complain she did not eat much and never bothered to buy the things she would eat.

"Why vegan? You love animals that much?" Tristan asked.

"The opposite. I don't care about animals and I don't want to eat them. No parts of them. For health reasons as well."

"Do you even workout at all?"

"No."

"Lil bit, being healthy is about more than eating right. Cardio, strength training, get into it."

She smiled at him. "So I can have muscles like you?"

He grinned and gave her a stare. "You like my muscles?"

She was hot and flustered again, looking at his handsome face. "Uh, we better get inside and get this shopping done."

She never been shopping with a guy, like ever. Her father was never around to raise her, so he never took her. Only with her mother or grandmother. She did not know what she was in store for, she figured Tristan would complain about the prices or the organic selection, or the plant-based meats.

He did not disappoint.

"What the hell is this shit made out of? Looks like what the cow chews up and spits out," he said of the Impossible Burgers she loaded in her cart.

Normally she did not like fake meat stuff, but she liked those grilled.

"Just make sure my burgers do not touch your dead animals on the grill. In fact, let's just get a second grill for my things."

"Word! But how is this a hamburger with no meat? It's just a veggie patty, right?"

"It's a burger!"

"A burger is meat, lady, this is...the fuck? Man-made chemical imitation, slime-looking-"

"Okay, okay, you don't talk about my food and I won't talk about yours."

"Oh no, because I'm going in!" He grabbed a pack of marinated seitan. "See-Tan? Say-Tan? Please tell me this is not demonic fake ass meat. And do not tell me it tastes just like chicken."

She laughed and grabbed it from him and put it back. "Stop embarrassing me!"

"What about this?" He picked up the Beyond Brats. "I want to see you eat one of these." He wrinkled his eyebrows up and down.

"Now you're just being mannish." She grabbed the faux brats from him and put them back.

"Mannish? I think you've hung around your GiGi too much."

Whole Foods had regular food, including all the meats and seafood, so she did not know why he was making a big deal. They went to the seafood department and he grabbed some fresh salmon and some shrimp, then some steaks.

"I feel fancy now," he chuckled. "But we need to hit up Schnucks for me to buy the real food for the cookout."

They headed back to the house and she put her things away before they made it to Schnucks, a local grocery chain. He did not want her things sitting in the back of the truck in the hot heat. She went along with him to the store to pick up things for their gathering. She picked up some of Zee's favorite things and two boxes of what was her and Tristan's favorite cereal, Cinnamon Life.

When she went to pay for the things she picked out, he stopped her.

"I got this."

"Okay, big spender."

"Me? You're the one that spent a hundred dollars for two things at Whole Paycheck."

He exaggerated because she had at least ten things. Her things from Schnucks totaled about twenty dollars so she did not feel bad about him spending his money.

The good thing about their day was they were getting along and she could finally call him friend.