They meet at a grocery store near their apartment building. She thinks that he is charming. He thinks she has a delectable bum. She noticed him around in the parkade, he can't stop looking at her delicate throat. "So, tell me, Ms. Leary, what is your cereal of choice?" It's Two Scoops. He goes for Shreddies.
He is loudly crunching his cereal, she thinks he is the most adorable thing she has ever had in her kitchen. The cheeks under the thick beard are moving, he is absorbed in his newspaper. She is staring at the entrancing jaw line, he is pretending to read. "You are ogling me, Ms. Leary." She blushes, he gives her the entertainment section.
He shoves her on the kitchen table and pulls the belt of her bathrobe, she stretches and arches her back. Her shoulder bumps into the box and the brown crunchy squares spray around the floor. "I never liked your cereal anyways," she laughs. "You know nothing of the breakfast cereal." His beard tickles her stomach, she moans.
She throws the box across the kitchen, but it is empty. The sound doesn't bring release. "Why don't you just leave?" He looks lost, she is crying. He sinks on a chair, "I can't." She goes back to her bedroom, he is smoking in the kitchen. She says she will take care of it. The bleeding comes on its own two days later, she asks for her key back.
They have one-night stands, they move on. She dates, he shags. They see each other at the parkade, she pretends to text. She knocks at his door one night. She doesn't stay till morning. It is as good as they remember, it is much more hurtful in the morning than she hoped.
He is drunk, she is disheveled. He is banging on the door, she is surprised she opens it. They shag on the kitchen floor. She comes three times, he is mumbling words of love. They move to the bed. She thinks they will talk in the morning. She wakes up alone.
They meet at the grocery store, he asks if she is dating anyone. She retorts, he says, "It matters. I want to know." She pauses, he takes her hand. His blue eyes are pained, she misses his throaty singing in the shower. They kiss in the cereal aisle. He is clenching her coat, she can finally touch the grey strands on his temples again.
Tom likes the tasteless brittle squares like his father, Unna likes Frosties. With the third one on the way she always forgets at least one kind of cereal at the grocery store, he loves her more than life itself. She stares at his sleeping face, he makes her ginger tea in the mornings. The ultrasound shows two hearts, he mumbles "Out of a frying pan."