Dear Sophia,
I love you. What a miracle today was. I can’t wait to spend every weekend with you.
I was just going to look for a magazine. I don’t usually buy magazines but I saw someone in Starbucks yesterday reading one that had a picture of Brian Jones on the cover and something about Ozzy Osbourne too.
Brian Jones died in a swimming pool. He was in the Rolling Stones. He died around the same time as Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. They were all twenty seven. I don’t really buy into that twenty seven thing everyone talks about but it is pretty weird. It’s interesting to read about at least.
I know some people think Ozzy Osbourne likes to bite the heads off bats at his shows but that’s not true at all. People believe any crazy story they hear. He did bite the head off a bat on stage once. But only once. I don’t really know if it was even alive or not. Someone else threw it on stage. It’s not as if all his shows are him showing up with a cage full of live bats just so he can bite their heads off. That’s all rubbish.
I never actually got round to buying that magazine in the end. It probably didn’t have anything I didn’t know anyway.
I got into Tesco and headed to the bit at the side where the magazines are. I looked for the face of Brian Jones among all the covers. I walked right up to one end of the racks and for some reason decided to look down the aisle. That was when I saw you. I saw you leaning over the fruit just a bit down from me. It was the best surprise in the world. You were picking up some bananas and you looked so beautiful.
You weren’t moving too quickly so I didn’t panic about losing you. I ran and grabbed a pen and pad from the end of the next aisle down. When I was back you still hadn’t moved. You waited for me. You knew it was where you were meant to be. I saw that you’d picked up some oranges and apples already. You put them in the basket with the bananas. I made a note. I realised it was the perfect time to learn what I’d need in the house to feed us both.
If there’s a better way to spend an afternoon than learning everything about the woman you love then I haven’t found it. You never went too fast. You made sure I could keep up and write everything down. It was just perfect.
I couldn’t always see the exact brands of each thing you picked up but I think I got most of it down right.
Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Chips
Chicken breast
Red wine
Pasta
Bread
Rosemary
Potatoes
Spaghetti
Bolognese Sauce
Tinned tomatoes
Corn flakes
Carrots
Onion
Peppers
Cheese
Butter
Baked beans
Sweetcorn
Soy Sauce
Milk
Chocolate
Crisps
Cod
Bacon
Sausages
That seems quite a lot for one person for one week. I don’t know what you do with it all though. Maybe you don’t come every week or maybe you do some shopping for your parents too. I don’t really mind. I just feel lucky you took the time to let me learn so much today.
Everyone else in the supermarket was angry and rushing about. You weren’t. You were as calm and graceful as you always are. You looked so at ease compared to everyone else. I think you knew it was a big moment for us. I’m glad you felt as comfortable with it as I did. It’s funny to think that soon enough shopping together will just be a regular thing for both of us.
I love you.
Yours,
Andrew