I never liked grocery shopping. I found it tedious. Having to think about what you needed to buy, getting it all packed in and then having to unpack it as soon as you got home. So boring. So tiresome.
‘So, what do you need?’ I asked, grabbing a shopping cart and hoping it wasn’t one with a dodgy wheel.
‘Everything. Couple weeks worth of stuff,’ Raegan replied.
‘You’re going to need a lot then.’
We usually went to the grocery store every week in order to have enough. Maybe we ate like pigs at home. Then again, if I was living alone, I probably wouldn’t need to go every week either.
‘Are you saying I eat a lot?’ she asked in a mock offended tone.
I rolled my eyes. She would not be offended by an insult as weak as that. It’d take a lot to actually piss her off. And I did not intend in finding out what did truly annoy her.
I followed after her around the store, leaning on the cart lazily as I gave her some suggestions. She was a very indecisive shopper it turned out.
‘I’m guessing you did not do the grocery shopping for your family?’ I asked, not expecting an answer.
‘Nope. Mom did mostly. It’s a lot more difficult than it appears. Am I supposed to meal plan? I don’t like that. I prefer not knowing what I’m going to eat every night,’ she frowned, carefully placing some eggs into the cart.
‘I meal plan. But there’s three of us. And dad doesn’t really eat at home much. It does get kind of boring though,’ I admitted. ‘But another thing to not worry about.’
‘Is it better now you don’t have football to think about?’
‘Uh-huh. More free time. Now I just have to worry about you,’ I smirked.
‘Don’t waste your energy on that. D’you like avocados?’ she added with a frown. ‘Is this ripe?’
‘I like them mashed up on toast. There’s this cafe in town that makes the best avo toast. You should go. You know, if you ever wake up early enough.’
‘Hey, cool it with the snide remarks,’ she said, punching me on the arm. ‘I like waking up at a reasonable time. School starts far too early. What kind of human’s brain is ready to learn at that time?’
‘I can’t disagree.’
We took a lot longer than I expected to get all the items she needed; I think that was due to the fact that we spent a lot of time messing around. And also partly because she kept picking stuff up and putting it back. Personally, I couldn’t shop like that but I did manage to sneak in some gummy worms while she was distracted. We needed dessert after all.
‘Damn it,’ she muttered when we arrived at the final aisle - cereal. ‘How can I choose out of all of these?’
I shared this problem. There were far too many choices. Fruity ones, bran flakes, chocolatey ones which didn’t much taste like cereal at all.
‘The way I do it is to try a different one every week,’ I told her with a shrug as I scanned the shelves. ‘I haven’t tried this one before,’ I said, pointing at a brightly coloured box on a high up shelf.
Chocolate and strawberry? Totally her.
‘No wonder why. It looks like a children’s playground,’ she snorted before stretching up to reach for it.
Short people problems. I couldn’t imagine struggling to do basic things like grocery shopping just because I wasn’t tall enough to reach the products.
