The Way Love Changes You; Book One: Love's Firsts

5/V: Lunch "Date," Part One

As we got seated, Indy helped me look around the menu. They had a lot of options other than pizza, but since I was only in the mood for pizza, she showed me the pizza menu. The build-your-own pizza section had so many choices to choose from. The many different sauces, several varieties of cheeses—including the vegan one, which I really wanted to try—, and the countless number of protein toppings. Before I could ask Indy about them, our waitress asked about our drinks for the day. Indy chose strawberry sweet tea, which sounded pretty good.

"Make that two, please! I'd like to try it," I said. Indy's smile couldn't get any bigger. While the waitress took our drink orders, I continued looking through the protein list on the build-your-own pizza menu. I happened to see "tempeh" on the menu, and it piqued my interest.

"So, have you tried the tempeh here? Or, is that a meat option?" I needed to know because for as long as I've been vegan, never in my life have I heard of tempeh.

"That's actually the very first thing I tried when I found out about this place," Indy said. "Tempeh is similar to tofu, except the soybeans aren't mushed and solidified into a block. It's fermented soybeans! It has a very similar texture to sausage! It's pretty good, especially if you get it with jerk or buffalo sauce!"

You learn something new every day...

"I'm glad I asked. I just might try it!"

Indy clapped. "Yes, go for it! You honestly won't regret it! Now, the vegan cheese—oh my GOD! It literally melts like dairy cheese, and it's something to die for! You won't regret trying that, either!"

The way she sounded so unapologetically enthusiastic about the menu choices and explaining them. She obviously must enjoy the food here that much; that or she really enjoyed going vegan. Either way, I really liked that in a person: someone who isn't afraid of showing enthusiasm for things they love or care about. I could really see us being good friends after this.

As our waitress brought our drinks, I told her that we'd share a large pizza. While we wanted mostly the same things, Indy wanted jerk tofu on her half, and I wanted jerk tempeh on mine. I didn't want to damage her wallet if we both got two different pizzas. I wanted to be courteous. I wasn't used to letting people pay for me, let alone do something nice for me and refuse to let me owe them anything, but I wanted to let this slide because I really grew to like her from the start of the road trip. I did owe her, however. I wanted to do something nice for her in return whenever I had the opportunity.

"So, this begs the question: how long have you gone vegan?" I was dying to know. I had to ask while our pizza was being made.

Indy winced in an amused way. "You won't believe me if I told ya."

"C'mon, how long?"

She inhaled, bracing herself to tell me. "I've gone vegan for a little over nine months."

I was flabbergasted. "Nine months?!"

She wheezed, laughing at my reaction. "Told ya!"

"But...I'm impressed though. I've gone longer than you have, but you seem to look into it and do your research and find very interesting things to suit your lifestyle. You're, like, more enthusiastic about it than I am, and that really says a lot. Which now I got a follow-up. How? Or what made you change your eating habits?"

She took a sip of her tea before she spoke. "Well, pretty much, I used to eat so much junk food. So much processed shit. So much meat. It got to the point where I had a health scare one day, which was a sign that I really needed to eat better, or I would further damage my body. I never really thought that I would get a health scare at the young age of 22. So, in November of last year, I took on the vegan lifestyle. The first few months were very hard because I was giving up meat that I used to enjoy, and it made me miss eating it. But then, I started finding alternatives for most of those meats. Now I'm just content with how I'm living now. The funny thing is: I would've chosen to be vegetarian, but when I found alternatives to dairy, I found out that I was also lactose intolerant...which explained a lot of things. So, all in all, I'm very happy with my choice."