"Okay, here you go", Donna hands Harvey a scrap of paper with some grocery items written in her neat cursive scrawl. "I'll get the stuff on my list, you get the stuff on yours and we'll meet back here in thirty minutes?"
"Okay," he takes a quick look at the list and grabs the handle of his cart.
"I added quantities and brands," she adds.
"Okay."
"If you need anything, just text me."
"Donna, I have been grocery shopping before," he rolls his eyes at her fussing.
"I know," she rolls her eyes right back, "I'm just saying. I've seen your fridge, it's not very practical."
"Excuse me, my fridge has everything I need," he frowns at her, actually sounding a little defensive.
She fights the urge to scoff because she wants him to cooperate. "Sure, if you're gonna eat takeout burritos and hot dogs and drink water for the rest of your life," she still cocks her head at him, lifting a knowing brow.
He huffs, "Fine." And off he goes with his cart.
She takes off in the opposite direction, heading to the meat aisle. She grabs the filet mignon they're having for dinner with her parents on Friday, then gets penne, spaghetti, eggs, milk, toilet paper, toothpaste and every other item on her list. Once she's done she makes her way back to the clearing in front of the ice cream refrigerators.
When she spots Harvey making his way to her, she actually has to take a closer look to confirm it's him.
His cart is completely full.
She's pretty sure she split the full list more or less in half and her cart is not even close to half-filled. He strolls the rest of the way and stops in front of her expectantly.
"Ready to pay?"
"Harvey…" she frowns, eyes widening, completely confused.
"What?"
"What is all this?"
"Oh, I got some extra things," he replies flippantly.
'Some extra things' is a huge understatement.
With a quick first glance, Donna spots: three identical bottles of ketchup, even though the list said one; truffle olive oil, as well as regular olive oil; kosher salt - neither of them is Jewish; five packages of Reese's peanut butter cups; three cans of something that looks like hard seltzer?; gourmet crackers; toast; two sticks of French butter; caviar; brie; three six-packs of Diet Coke; three bottles of deodorant taped together, possibly on sale; two 5 L gallons of orange juice; among apparently four thousand other things.
She is shocked, truly. Apart from dinner with her parents, they're not planning on having anyone over, they've been working like crazy because of Faye's tyranny and barely have time to eat at home - they have never even eaten caviar together?
She finally gathers herself enough to drag her eyes up from the cart towards his face. "Harvey, what the hell? I gave you a list!"
"I know," he frowns, "Everything that was on the list is in there."
"Yes, that and half the store!" she practically squeals. It's just groceries, but, honestly…
"Like I said, I just grabbed a few more things that looked interesting along the way," he shrugs, clearly not understanding her aggravation.
"What, like…" she fishes something random from the cart, "Candied chestnuts?"
"Well, I walked past it and remembered you mentioned the other day that you'd never tried it, so I thought I'd get them for you," Harvey replies, a cautious tone about him.
Okay, that was actually really sweet. Maybe she's overreacting a little bit. She takes a deep breath.
"Okay, look. I appreciate it, but is all of this really necessary?" she motions to the cart, more calmly this time.
"Of course not. But what's the point of doing your groceries yourself if you can't grab the stuff you want along with the stuff you need?" he's looking at her like she's an alien, or just really slow.
The point of grocery shopping, in Donna's opinion, is stocking the house with things you need and maybe grabbing a nice chocolate bar here and there, not shopping as if you're throwing a banquet for the Queen of England and twenty other guests. But it is his condo, and his groceries they're shopping for, and it's all going to be paid for with his card. And, now that she's taken a closer look, that seltzer looks a lot like the one she saw an ad for that she'd wanted to try.
Harvey seems to take her silence for annoyance because he grabs the handle of his cart again.
"Look, it's fine, let's just go to the cashier and I'll leave everything there and we can take only what's on the list." He sounds weirdly defeated, deflated.
She feels a pang of remorse. All of a sudden it's hard to explain what freaked her out so much - after taking a closer look, it's a lot of food, but nothing that they can't easily get through in two weeks' time if they just have dinner together at home, which is something she's been meaning to do more of anyway.
She doesn't know where his enthusiasm came from but it's cute. Actually, it hits her that she doesn't really know if that enthusiasm is always there when he shops for groceries. She's done online grocery shopping for him once or twice over the years and it was always just the essentials, but maybe Harvey has always enjoyed going to supermarkets or local stores or farmer's markets and browsing through the aisles just grabbing whatever he feels like.
It occurs to Donna that she knows a lot of things about Harvey; what he wears, how he talks, how he treats people and situations and how he interacts with the world. She knows his hobbies and pet peeves and his allergies. But still, there were things she didn't know. Like his morning routine, what he usually did on Sundays when they didn't have to work, where he likes to go for jogs. What he likes to buy for his home. Those were exactly the missing pieces, the tiny, domestic little details she'd spent thirteen years waiting to find out about.
And now she has, still is. And it just paints such a bigger, more vibrant picture of Harvey than she ever dreamed, than his immaculate suits and powerful demeanor at work let through. She's not surprised that Harvey can be goofy and soft and awed by things, she's known that for years. But she is surprised that Harvey can be all that at the supermarket, of all places. It warms her heart and makes her fall a little more in love with him.
And, well, maybe she still thinks her list-based system makes more sense and will save them money and calories over time, but… Yeah, maybe they can mix it up a bit from time to time. It's just another adjustment they'll make as they finally, finally start sharing a life.
"No," she finally says, then shakes her head, setting out to reassure him, "No, it's fine, if you wanna take all that, we will. I was just surprised, that's all. It's our first time buying groceries together, I didn't realize we'd have different… styles," she chuckles and rests a hand on his forearm.
"I'm just more of a practical shopper," Donna explains, trying to be careful not to hurt his feelings over groceries.
"Yeah, I can see that," Harvey looks down pointedly at her austere shopping cart.
"Maybe next time we'll just do it all together," she steers her cart to align with his and hooks her left hand around his right arm, pushing her cart with her other hand. "That way we can deviate from the list without buying every last thing that seems interesting here," she teases as she leans closer to him, relieved to feel his muscles relaxed and his mouth stretched around a lazy grin.
"We'll see what you have to say when I make you this mushroom sauce I found," Harvey replies smugly as they make their way to the line.