Days Go By | lavashipping

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Kai waved for the basket with sweet chilli sauce in hand and put the bottle in when Cole moved it closer. They worked like a perfectly synchronised machine, all because Kai refused to let go of Cole's hand no matter what but in the end, it's not like Cole had anything against it.

“When you said, ‘I need to buy groceries,’ I thought you had… other stuff in mind…”

“What? This is groceries.”

“Yeah, but I mean… I just thought it was the sorta stuff you need to refill every other day, and not…” Cole looked at everything the basket was filled with so far. The bottle of sweet chilli sauce, some tea Kai insisted on buying despite Cole trying to convince him it was fine and that he could get it himself, some toffees, an air refresher, parmesan, and an apple. A single apple. Why there was a single apple was a mystery to Cole. “This.”

“What? This is essential. I'm out of sweet chilli, I'm out of air refresher… What's your problem?”

“Why are you buying only one apple?”

Kai shrugged, staring at him like he was blabbering absolute nonsense. “Because I feel like buying only one apple. I'm not gonna eat more.”

“But what if you'll want to eat more?”

“I'm not gonna want to eat more.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“What is this? An interrogation? Why are you so obsessed with the apple?”

“I'm not! I'm just a little confused. I thought this was flour-milk-eggs-bread sorta groceries shopping. People usually buy more of everything so that they don't have to go shopping every other minute.”

“That's because they're stupid. I know what I want.”

“It's not about wants, it's about needs,” Cole continued arguing, even when Kai pulled him along through the aisles, their mind already settled on something else.

“Oh shit, I don't have any bread.”

“That's exactly what I was talking about but whatever.”

“Don't act so smart, everyone forgets stuff.”

“I'm not denying that. I just think your priorities lay way, way elsewhere. Maybe you should try shopping lists, I feel like you're doing this just to have a reason to walk around and hold my hand.”

“Those are outrageous accusations and I will not speak with you anymore.” They stopped and Cole watched Kai look around them, on the surroundings made of bottles of laundry detergents and a huge assortment of soaps. “What did I want?”

“Bread.”

“Yeah, obviously, I know. It was a rhetorical question. I said I'm not talking to you.”

“Sure.”

“Shopping lists are made just to be left forgotten at home and to give you a false sense of being a responsible adult. It's a scam, and I do not condone scams.”

“I was just about to agree that's a fair point. But you do scam Lloyd a lot.”

There was no doubt that what Kai expressed was astonishment, as well as there was no doubt that the legitimacy was nonexistent. “I would never! Family above all!”

“Kai, we both know the ice cream didn't cost as much as you said it did.”

“I need to make money somehow, don't I?”

Cole's own sigh seemed to mark the end of that discussion. After a while they emerged from the maze to the right section and the smell of freshly baked pastry filled the air. Unfortunately for Kai (and Cole also) he had to let go of his hand if he wanted to deal with the bread without additional struggle. If they weren't like magnets before, they definitely were now. Completely incapable of parting for more than a meter, of not holding onto one another in some way.

“Cole,” Kai said, forming a huge grin, “you will never guess what I got.”

“A diabolical idea? A plan to let anarchy take over?”

“No. I, actually, got some days off too.”

“How?”

“I'm a man of persuasion, you know that best. And I also know exactly what we're gonna do.”

“Oh, I don't like the look in your eyes.” But instead of assuring him that everything was fine, Kai only smiled more.