Chapter Eighteen
Dane had been leery of Adam’s mom at first. She was a beautiful lady who was, apparently, very intent on her family being healthy physically as well as mentally. She handed him her iPad and pointed out a recipe app that had thousands of things saved.
“If you click on the vegetarian group I’ve created, you’ll see a lot of dishes that are clean, whole food, without meat, but still full of the proper nutrients. Sebastian said you don’t eat meat but are okay with eggs and cheese. Is that correct?”
Dane could only nod as he got in the SUV with them. She didn’t say a word about the fact that Bas was still holding his hand. Dane liked the connection. It helped him feel grounded and not so afraid that if the world looked at him, they’d see something bad. Bas took the seat beside him in the middle instead of the front passenger one and showed him how to bookmark recipes he liked.
“How about fish?”
“Nothing with eyes.” Dane shivered at the thought. “Or bugs. Most seafood is bugs, right? Gross.”
“Okay. We can go to the warehouse and get bulk pantry stuff, and the Whole Foods store for produce. Does that work okay for both of you? I almost never buy fruits or veggies unless they’re organic. All the pesticides and chemicals used to grow foods can’t be good for our bodies.” Mrs. C steered them toward the big warehouse store first.
Dane found the crepes recipe and the cookie recipe in her vegetarian dishes. He also bookmarked a few really tasty looking meals, soups, and dips. Bas added the peanut butter recipe and browsed to find the hummus one as well.
“If you hit the shop button, this app will create a shopping list for us.” Bas clicked the button. “I have this app on my phone. Let me forward the list and combine it with the one I created this morning.” He clicked the device a few times and pulled out his phone. Dane had never been very tech savvy and was more than a little awed at the ease with which Bas used them.
“Can we make these today?” Dane pointed to cupcakes that looked like rainbow poop in grass. “It says it’s a vanilla bean cupcake dyed green. Frosting is just rainbow colored, but we could flavor it with something, right? Maybe like orange or lemon.” The more he thought about it, the more excited he got. “I bet Tommy, Ru, and Adam would love these. Maybe even Paige and Marissa. Do regular girls eat sugar? The girls at rehab never eat sugar.”
“I’m a regular girl, and I eat sugar,” Mrs. C said as she parked and they got out. She patted his hand. “Create what makes you happy.”
Bas scrolled through the recipe, adding the ingredients to his list. “Doable. We’ll find the food coloring at the Whole Foods store. More natural there.” He shoved his phone in his pocket and grabbed a flatbed instead of a cart. He placed Dane’s hands on one handle, still holding the other, and pulled his phone back out.
“Help me steer. We’ve got a ton to buy here, everything from toilet paper to soup.”
The first few minutes were a struggle of butterflies in his stomach and anxiety. Were people looking at him? Did anyone care that he was clinging to Bas like a lifeline? He followed Bas and Mrs. C, who were apparently pros at shopping the huge warehouse. They went aisle by aisle starting with paper products and moving through cans, chips, passing all the produce and then on to the meat area. Dane couldn’t help but flinch. His stomach heaved a warning. The smell was awful, though no one else seemed bothered.
Bas steered the cart away to a row of cakes and pastries.
“Stay here a moment, okay? I’m going to get some meat for the boys and put it in Mrs. C’s cart, then be right back. Will you be all right?”
Dane glanced at the rows of colorfully decorated cakes and nodded. “Just don’t be too long, okay?”
“I won’t. I promise. I’m less than twenty feet away.” Bas hurried away to where Mrs. C was waiting. Dane examined the cakes. Some of them were rolls of cake and filling. Others were layered. There were a few masses of cupcakes all squished together and frosted to make designs like flowers. Some cupcakes had even been cut apart and frosted in the middle to look like hamburgers. He smiled at those and wished for his phone to take a picture, but he was only allowed to have it when it could be monitored, so he’d left it at rehab. Maybe he and Bas could figure out how to make those.
Everything around him seemed to say spring, with bright happy colors. Obviously they hadn’t gotten the memo that it was still only ten degrees outside. Or maybe that was how people here coped with the cold. Dane admitted that he loved the summer. He would spend most of it on his tiny balcony feeling the night breeze or grilling veggies on his little charcoal grill. Of course, that had been before the band broke up. Life seemed so different then.
Bas grabbing his hand startled him out of his thoughts.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Dane nodded. “Can we take a picture of the burger-looking ones so we can try making those?”
“Sure.” Bas held up his phone and a second later showed Dane the picture. “They’re pretty cute.” The cart was packed and heavy, but Bas steered them expertly toward the front. “We’re almost done here, then to the Whole Foods store to get lots of beans, veggies, and fruit.”
“Some of those recipes look pretty hard.” Dane scrolled through Mrs. C’s tablet again, looking at his favorites while they waited in line. She checked out first and helped Bas load everything onto the conveyor belt. It was a lot of food. There were huge bags of rice, flour, sugar, boxes of salt, and giant stacks of canned soup and broth. All the meat was wrapped in bags, making it hard to see the contents. Mrs. C actually pulled a stack of folded cloth bags out of her purse and tucked the meat away in them after they were rung through.
Bas handed the cashier a credit card. Dane kept scrolling. Mrs. C said she was going to get the SUV and meet them outside.
“I’m sorry, sir. The card has been declined,” the cashier told Bas.
Bas stared at the card, confusion on his face. The bill was over five hundred dollars, but it seemed like they got a lot of food for not a lot of money.
“But this goes to the trust account,” Bas mumbled. He frowned and looked through the stack of stuff he’d bought. “Maybe I can do without some of this.”
“But you need all this for everyone, right?” Dane asked. He watched his friend’s shoulders droop and the tension that touched his brow.
“Yeah, but for some reason the card for the trust isn’t working. And I gave my personal one to Paige. I have maybe two hundred in cash.” He dug through his wallet. “But then there won’t be enough to get fruits and veggies for you.”
