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“Sylvain! Are you ready to go?” Ingrid yelled from the living room.
His bedroom door slammed open and he stumbled out, hopping on one foot as he tried to pull a sock on with one hand. His phone was precariously pinned between his chin and his collarbone as he stumbled into the wall, completely off balance.
Ingrid stared at him from her seat on the couch for a second before she burst out laughing. She doubled over on the couch, tipping so she was lying down, giggling furiously. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her stomach as she laughed, trying to get herself under control.
“Ingrid,” Sylvain groaned, closer now.
She opened her eyes and saw an upside-down Sylvain leaning over her. She grinned and sat up, Sylvain righting himself in her field of vision. He folded his arms and tried to look annoyed at her.
“I suppose you find my suffering amusing?”
“Of course I do,” she replied breezily, standing from the couch.
Sylvain cracked a grin. “Yeah, well, we’ll see how long that lasts for you."
She rolled her eyes and walked around the couch, heading into the kitchen. She grabbed her grocery list and stack of reusable bags. She gestured to her own list.
“You ready now?”
He patted down the pockets of his jeans and pulled out a crumpled slip of paper. He grinned and waved it at her. “Got it right here!”
Ingrid gestured towards the front door of their apartment. “Shall we finally go then?”
Sylvain walked past her and grabbed his boots from by the door. He locked eyes with Ingrid as he leaned against the wall for balance as he pulled his boots on. She grinned to her self and brushed past him to the bench by the door, sitting down to tie her own shoelaces.
“I’ll drive,” Sylvain offered, nabbing his key ring off the hook by the door.
“I drove last week, so yeah, that makes sense,” Ingrid replied, standing up. She pocketed her list and grabbed her purse.
Sylvain glanced past her into the apartment. “And you’re sure Felix didn’t need anything?”
Ingrid shrugged. “He came back from fencing, told me not to wait for him, and went and passed out in his room. He can make his own trip.”
Sylvain shrugged, opened the apartment door and waved a hand forward. “After you, milady.”
Ingrid made Sylvain drive the cart through the parking lot and into the entrance of the store. During the drive, she had snagged his grocery list to compare it to her own. Sylvain’s was much more bare-bones than hers, but he had claimed that he still had some stuff from the week before.
She was still holding both lists as they walked into the produce section of the store. “I’ll grab you the apples if you grab me a bag of lettuce,” she said to him.
Sylvain nodded and wheeled the cart towards the vegetables. Ingrid made her way to the bench of fruits and filled a small bag of apples for herself and one for Sylvain. She grabbed a bunch of bananas and a lemon before following Sylvain. He had fetched her lettuce, a bag of bell peppers, and was in the process of grabbing a head of broccoli by the time she caught up with him.
She dumped the fruit into the cart and started picking through a bin of brussels sprouts. She had a bag about half-full when someone lightly touched her hip. Ingrid jolted, not expecting it, and twisted, almost threw her elbow into Sylvain’s jaw. Thankfully, he seemed to have been expecting some degree of reaction, since he leaned back out of the way of her clumsy blow.
“Woah, Chief!”
Ingrid winced and turned. “Sorry, I’m jumpy today.”
Sylvain laughed and shrugged. “All good. I know you were at the stable this morning, you’ve been up for a long time.”
Ingrid nodded and threw a last handful of sprouts into her bag before she dropped it into the cart beside her bunch of bananas. “Moving on then?”
“Sure,” he agreed, grabbing the handle of the cart and steering it into the deli and meat section.
Ingrid trailed behind him, skimming her list for what she was going to buy. She was restocking her freezer so she had a bunch of meat on her list today. Sylvain had stopped the cart by the beef and was picking up a package of ground beef. Ingrid stepped up beside him and grabbed one for herself too.
She walked past him, to the chicken section. The breasts were on sale and she grinned, grabbing two packages of five breasts each. Then she grabbed a package of thighs and turned back to the cart. Sylvain raised an eyebrow at her. She narrowed her eyes in return.
“That’s a lot of chicken, Ing,” he commented.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m going to freeze it, stupid. It makes sense to buy it while it’s on sale.”
Sylvain nodded, considering her point. “Fair enough. Do you still have my list?”
“Oh, yeah, I do.”
She held it out to him and he grabbed it, scanning it over. “I’ve almost got everything I need. I just need eggs and milk. What about you?”
She looked at her own list. “Eggs, milk, bread, and cereal.”
Sylvain nodded. “I can get your eggs for you if you want to split up. We can share milk this week too. It’ll be easier on fridge space.”
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you at cash when you’ve got everything,” Ingrid said, turning to walk towards the bakery.
She paused partway there to grab a bag of spicy jerky from a snack aisle that she and Felix both liked. It would get eaten by one of them in the apartment so it was never a bag purchase. Besides, he had bought it for her a few weeks back so she owed him one.
She grabbed her loaf of whole wheat and then went on a hunt for her cereal brand. It wasn’t on sale, unfortunately, but at least it was in stock. Bread, jerky, and cereal in hand, she made her way to the front of the store to look for Sylvain. She spotted him easily enough, leaning against the cart at the exit of a freezer aisle, scrolling through his phone.
She quickly made her way towards him, but froze when she noticed something he had obviously added to their cart.
“Why are you buying pool noodles?” she asked, her face twisting in confusion.
Sylvain turned towards her, grinning widely. “They’re on sale! I get three for four bucks! It’s a great deal.”
Ingrid blew out a breath and dropped her bread into the cart, levelling a glare at Sylvain. “I shouldn’t have asked that. What you are going to do with the pool noodles?”
He shrugged. “Smack Felix with him when he’s least expecting it? Challenge Dimitri to joust with me when he comes over on Wednesday for movie night?”
Ingrid smacked her forehead. “Sylvain,” she said. “We are not buying pool noodles just because they’re on sale.”
He grinned and started rolling the cart towards a check-out counter. Ingrid stepped a front wheel and the cart squealed to a stop. Sylvain lifted an eyebrow, challenging her. She crossed her arms as best she could while still holding a cereal box. They stared each other down for a long minute, Ingrid refusing to move her foot from the wheel and let the cart move and Sylvain refusing to put his ridiculous purchase back.
“Why do they sell pool noodles at a grocery store anyway?” Ingrid asked finally.
Sylvain shrugged. “It’s May. Maybe people are getting ready for summer.”
Ingrid sighed. “It’s still a
grocery
store.”
“Hey, I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Sylvain replied happily.
She frowned and looked at their cart. It was mostly normal groceries for two twenty-somethings, but then there were Sylvain’s ridiculous pool noodles. The more she stared at them, the more she was enticed about walking into the apartment and whacking Felix with one or hitting Dimitri when he came to visit. It was exactly the kind of nonsense they had done as kids.
She smiled almost unwillingly and pointed at Sylvain sternly. “If you ever take one of those things up as a weapon against me, I will kick you out of the apartment.”
He grinned.
“And I want first hit against Felix,” she added.
“Done.”