Valerie hadn't heard from Luca in five days.

Five days since she told him that she thought she deserved better. Five days since she started tossing in her sleep. Five days and she'd been guilting herself into thinking that she'd passed up the best thing she'd been offered in her life.

If she'd taken the bait he'd given her, in a year she would've been set for life. Rolling out of bed and stretching, Valerie walked to her closet and laid out her clothes for the day. A simple olive green turtleneck and blue jeans that were ripped at the knee. For Valerie to be on such a tight budget she managed to dress nice, and not like she was hovering just above the poverty line.

She padded out of her room and into the kitchen, digging through one of the drawers attached to the counter she found the debit cards she and Nicki shared for food expenses. She'd been saving up three months worth of money from their government assistance to go shopping for Thanksgiving.

As she thought over just what she needed, she realized that she finally had enough to not go to the corner store Walgreens for groceries.

I can finally go to the fresh produce store downtown!

Valerie had always wanted to go downtown and shop for food. She'd grown tired of the brownish-yellow lettuce they put on the display at the local market. Last time she'd gotten a loaf of bread from there half the loaf was molded when she actually opened it up. Grabbing her purse then writing a quick little note for Nicki when she came home from her yoga class that she'd gone out, Valerie went on her way.

Just as she was closing the door she heard the jingling of keys that she'd grown to hate ever since she'd moved into the building. Turning around she stared into the face of her oh so lovely landlord, Lucinda.

Lucinda was in her late fifties, maybe even early sixties and she was a complete pain in the ass. She was a widow, the building was first owned by her husband until he got so drunk he fell down head first down a flight of his own stairs.

"Well lookie here, it's little Valerie Stevens who I haven't gotten my rent from in...two months?"

Valerie winced and leaned back onto the front door of her apartment, silently praying if she waited long enough Lucinda would just evaporate.

But, when she heard the awful coughing of the woman getting closer to her she sighed and opened her eyes. There Lucinda stood in all her mildewed bathrobe glory with huge soda cans that she used as curlers in her hair that was the color of dirty rain water. "Lucinda I promise to have your money on the first of next month. I promise."

Valerie couldn't get thrown out this close to Thanksgiving, she just couldn't. "Tuh, you said that last month. Hmm, where ya going?" Lucinda asks, her beady blue eyes lighting up at Valerie's wallet in hand.

 "Just going to the grocery store..." Valerie trailed off and tried to shake the woman's gaze off of the only currency she had.

"How about you slide me any cash you have on you and I'll let you slide for another month. Tacking on another twenty dollars as the late fee, of course." The woman said nonchalantly, even though the grin on her face was diabolical. 

 Blowing a stray curl out of her face and holding fifty dollars out to Lucinda, Valerie caved. Quickly, the woman's claw-like magenta nails snatched the paper and stuffed it into the pocket of her robe.

"Nice doing business with you, Val. See ya next month. Better have my money." With those as her parting words, Lucinda walked down the hallway. The chiming of keys still following her.

Valerie refused to let Lucinda ruin her day. 

Remember, she was going downtown to shop! 

Her spirits instantly piped up and she hurried down the stairs and outside to the nearest bus stop.

***

When she arrived downtown Valerie looked for the Giovanni building, she hoped to catch a glimpse of Luca. She hadn't known the man for a week consistently, but for some odd reason she missed him.

Giving up her silly attempt to spot him, Valerie went on her way to the produce store and when she finally came in front of it she felt as if she was in heaven. In the front of the store big green fluorescent lights read, Lillian's Fresh Market.

To everyone else it was just a regular grocery store.

To Valerie, it was the gateway to the highlife.

Stepping through the door Valerie was hit with a burst of cool air that didn't smell like rotting produce. It was quite a change. Hearing an irritated cough behind her Valerie realized she'd just been standing in front of the door blocking people from coming in. A blonde woman in a bright pink sweatsuit jogged past her, her curls that ran down her back bounced along with her.

Shrugging, Valerie continued to the grocery cart section and began pushing one down the aisles of the store. They had literally everything imaginable in this store. Rice cakes, lentils, blocks of tofu...literally everything.

First on her list she had to get the canned peaches and dough for her famous peach cobbler. Valerie made it every Thanksgiving. It was a sweet and simple dessert that's alway a hit with everyone. Rolling down the canned food aisle she picked up the cans of peaches that were needed and continued one her merry little way. That was until she saw the little sample trays of turkey...

***

By the time Valerie had stopped sampling everything they had on display in the store she had a cart full of food that she sure couldn't afford. Her measly food stamps could never cover all of this. Her heart sunk when she realized she'd unconsciously mad her way into the register line.

Someone was already behind her and for some reason the soles of her feet weren't cooperating with what her brain was telling them to do. 

Get out of the line and fast.

The man in front of her with a salt and pepper faux hawk moved up and began being serviced by the cashier. She was next in line. Valerie surveyed the contents of her buggie again. Millions of slices of cured ham, roast beef, salami and some kind of fancy bologna. The butcher in the meat section sure was a smooth talker.

"Paper or plastic?" The cashier asked, his red smock dingy and his name tag that read, Teddy, gleamed in the bright lights of the store. The man nodded at the plastic bags and Teddy grabbed his items and began bagging them. Valerie was still in the line, three seconds from throwing up. 

She was next.

"You can step up, ma'am."

I don't think I can.

Valerie's heart was in her throat. Slowly she began to roll her cart up to the register and the cashier began ringing up all the items in her cart. Every beep of the scanner Valerie flinched. "That will be $88.50."

God dammit.

Pulling out the debit cards she was so confident in this morning, she was sure they wouldn't cover the full expense of the food.

She heard Teddy, the cashier, snicker a little bit but it was quickly covered with a terrible fake cough. "Ma'am, we don't take food stamps here. Do you have any real money?" That's when Valerie's blood ran cold, she quickly looked at the growing line behind her and all eyes were on her. She locked gazes with a little girl who looked like she was only about five.

"Mommy, why isn't she paying for her food?" The girl spoke, her voice so high pitched she almost sounded like she was a cartoon character.

"Baby, she doesn't have any money."

That broke Valerie's heart. She was so embarrassed. Sighing heavily, she stuffed her food stamps rather angrily in her purse. Blood was pounding in her head and the blush that stained her cheeks burned. "Alright. T-Thank you. I'll return the items." Teddy just nodded, he had pulled out his cellphone.

"No, I got it."

Practically the whole line turned around to see who spoke along with Valerie. And for some reason she wasn't the slightest surprised when Luca seemly came from nowhere.

 Instead of a perfectly tailored suit he had on dark, low slung jeans and a black tee shirt. Luca pushed his grocery cart up to the front of the line and stopped when his was directly parallel with Valerie's cart.

With one fluid move he'd taken out his wallet and placed a blue note in the cashier's hand. "Luca, no. I'll never be able to repay you. I can return the food. It's no problem." He gave Valerie a look and she practically fainted.

She knew exactly the way she could repay him.

Marriage.

Valerie almost jumped over the cashier counter to stop him from putting Luca's money into the register. "Um excuse me. I'm not buying these anymore please just give him back his money." Luca didn't even have to move a muscle to strike fear in the boy behind the register. He just continued to put the money in the register and began counting the change to give back to Luca for his one hundred dollar payment.

She couldn't contain the glare she gave Luca even though he didn't look at her. Valerie was imagining she had lasers shooting from her eyes and was setting Luca's handsome face on fire. Once she was bagged up, Valerie childishly pouted as she rolled her cart off to the side. She was waiting for Luca to be served, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

Luca had only a family sized bag of Doritos and some bread in his cart. He was serviced quickly and pushed his cart towards Valerie with a smug smile on his face. Valerie kept her unhappy disposition. "Who do you think you are?" She whispered angrily. She didn't want to cause a fuss in public.

Yes, she missed his stupid face, but she didn't miss his need to take control of every situation. 

Even if she was very grateful at this moment.

Luca simply shrugged and pulled out his huge cellphone that looked like it was top of the line. It was vibrating softly and he answered it with a smooth, "hello". Valerie was livid. Softly, she took the phone from his hands, "Hello? Hi. Luca will be right with you in a second. Thanks." 

Then she put the phone in her back pocket although it jutted out awkwardly from her jeans. "What you just pulled was not okay. Yeah, thank you for the groceries, but you know I can't fucking repay you." She gritted out, shoving her index finger into his chest. Luca just glanced at it with amusement.

"What did you want me to do, Val? Let you do the grocery walk of shame? I couldn't." He admitted with no air of remorse. He looked down at her like she was a child, his hands now encompassing her waist as he brought her into him.

She was flustered now, and moreover she was grateful.

"I don't know, but you weren't supposed to do that." Valerie started again, trying to ignore the fast beating of her heart. Knowing if she pulled away from him right now it'd cause a bigger scene.

"You know I can't pay you back. Not in the way you want anyway. You just want me indebted to you forever, huh?" Valerie spoke almost as if she was talking to herself as she ran her hands through her curly mane. Luca stroked the stubble on his chin almost as if he was thinking about it.

"Valerie, calm down. Just think of the groceries as a gift. What are you doing with all of this food, anyway?" Valerie was too focused on the way her name rolled off of his tongue to respond to him. Her eyes were honed in on his lips.

 Luca called her again to snap her out of her trance. "I know I'm good looking, baby, but I need you to stay with me here. What are you doing with all of this food?"

"Thanksgiving is tomorrow, Luca. I have to cook." She stated, in a "duh" tone. Didn't he know that? Luca raised his brows almost as if he'd forgotten. 

"Wait, you didn't know it was Thanksgiving? Don't you have someone's house to go to? Like your family? Maybe friends?"

Luca shook his head and her heart broke a little. "What do you mean?" Valerie asked, hoping she wasn't being too nosy. Luca just shrugged. "My mother does have dinner over my parent's house every Thanksgiving. I'm always working though. I guess I've started forgetting."

It was Valerie's turn to shake her head. Even though her Thanksgiving spirit had long died she still continued the tradition of trekking over to her parent's house even though it was a two hour long bus ride. Her sister Susan sometime's decided to grace the family with her presence and her snooty husband and disrespectful children.

That was the reason the Thanksgiving spirit was gone.

Valerie knew she was going to regret her decision, but her conscience was going to haunt her if she didn't at least try. "Luca..." She started, her eyes closed because she couldn't look in his terra cotta colored eyes and make it through her sentence. "Would you like to come with me to my Thanksgiving?"

It was silent. Other than some chatter from the other customers and the constant beeping of the check out tool scanning items. Valerie peeked one eye open to see Luca staring at her with fondness in his eyes, but when he realized they had locked gazes he coughed to cover it up. He was back to his intimidating self.

"I'd be honored to go to your Thanksgiving dinner. Pick you up at seven?" Luca was grinning at her. Almost like a child who'd been granted another cookie from the cookie jar.

"More like three, Luca. This isn't a date." Valerie rolled her eyes as she began to take her groceries out of the cart to leave.

Valerie was shocked now. She didn't think he'd actually agree. She was hoping he'd decline.

Pushing his cart past her, Luca reached into her back pocket, grabbing his phone. She'd stiffened  for a second, the brief body heat they shared causing goosebumps to appear.

He wasn't trying to grip your ass, Val. He was just grabbing for his phone.

"You don't even know where my house is!" Valerie shouted at Luca's retreating figure as he ushered himself out of the grocery store.

Luca now had his phone pressed back to his ear, "Yeah ma, I'm still here." He spoke into the cell and Valerie heated a thousand more degrees.

I snatched the phone from him being on the phone with his ma! 

Oh for fuck's sake.

He turned around smugly,"You don't think I know how to reach you by now?" Then with a wink he took his bags out of his cart and disappeared. Leaving Valerie red faced by the doors of the store.

This man is going to be the death of me.