They first met in a grocery store.
He was buying onions, she was buying asparagus. He first noticed her when she knocked a whole row of asparagus on the floor. He chucked and went to help her clean them up. His pant leg caught on the shelf of onions, and he found himself with a similar dilemma to that of the woman across the isle.
She let out a muffled giggle, and he gave a sheepish smile.
The vegetables rolled across the floor and scrambled together. They tried to carefully sort the onion from the greens, but ended up grabbing armfuls of both and hastily trying to shove them back on their respectable shelves before someone noticed.
They failed.
First it was a young teenage employee of the run-down grocery store. He thought about telling the manager, but decided he was too lazy.
Next it was an old lady who lived down the street. She scolded the young man and woman but forgot about the event several minutes later.
After that a dedicated employee who had been working at the store for nearly 20 years witnessed the chaos in section 1C, isle 13.4. She stormed towards the now-laughing couple and promptly informed them that they would now have to purchase every damaged item, and were never allowed in the facility again.
"What am I going to do with fifty plus onions?" he asked
"What am I going to do with so much asparagus?" she replied
They glanced back at the several employees pushing a number of full grocery carts across the parking lot in their direction.
"Let's have a feast." He said as he watched the employees slowly make their way towards them.
"Excuse me?"
"We'll cook onions and asparagus in every way conceivable, and then some."
"Um....okay....but I'm going to need you address and phone number so we can arrange a date for this, 'feast'".
The meal was set for a Tuesday night at four o' clock PM. She arrived exactly eight minutes late, and they began cooking immediately.
They deep-fried, sauteed, marinated, baked, seasoned, grilled, fried, boiled, and steamed for several hours, and at last with great satisfaction placed the last onion into a boiling pot of water.
"Now," he said, "we get to eat it all."
She laughed.
They kept in touch for the next year and quickly became close friends. On a friday of the next year they went to a local baseball game together. After several minutes of laughing and talking while they absent-mindedly watched the game he asked if this counted as a date.
She said yes.
Most would call them an odd couple: He was an artist and she was a businesswoman. He had a condo and she lived in an apartment building. He had a sports cards collection and she fancied porcelain and china dolls. She drove a brand new sports car and he drove what some would call a piece of junk while others would say it was an antique. She was energetic and active, he was down to earth and somewhat active.
Nonetheless, they fell in love and on their first, 'official' date he made her a porcelain doll. It wore a beautiful smile on its face and was wearing a lovely satin red dress. In its hands was placed a slab of porcelain with the phrase, 'love never fails' inscribed upon it.
She loved it.
They continued to see each other for almost another year, spending almost every moment they could together. She supported his artistry, and convinced the company she worked for to invest in his work.
He made her sculptures and paintings, and dedicated his car to her after he transformed it into an impression of the goddess of love: Aphrodite. They were happy together, and he came up with a grand scheme to ask her to marry him.
He planned a trip to Paris with money that he had been saving since before he met her. They were going to climb the Eiffel tower, and he would make sure it was timed so that when they reached the top the sun would be setting. Then he would ask her.
And then she left him.
They were at her apartment, arguing about something. It was late. She was angry at him, and he didn't know why. She told him to leave and come back in the morning so she could sort out her thoughts.
He went home and tried to sleep, but couldn't get his mind off of the argument. He was confused.
"What did I do?" kept running through his head.
He left the next morning in a hurry, and didn't think twice about eating breakfast.
When he arrived at her apartment, she was hesitant to let him in. They sat in silence for nearly half an hour, when he finally asked her what was wrong.
She told him she needed to move on, and that she couldn't see a future for them. She said she was sorry, and that it was fun while it lasted.
He said nothing, and stormed out the door. He slammed the thing shut so hard that several of her dolls fell off their shelves and shattered on the floor. She burst into tears as she began cleaning up the shards: The first doll he had ever made for her was one that had fallen. It was barely recognizable, save for the porcelain slab containing the phrase, "Love never fails". It was almost completely intact but for one chip which quite resembled a messy pile of asparagus and onions.
The elevator seemed to take forever in reaching the main floor. The satisfying, 'ding' finally came and the doors slid open. He walked quickly through the main lobby, his eyes misty with tears. He snaked through a small crowd of people and through the front doors of the fancy apartment building. He didn't bother to look before crossing the street: it wasn't usually busy. He didn't even hear the blaring horn of the oncoming bus, and barely felt the impact as he was thrown into the air by the fast moving vehicle. He felt cool air rushing through his hair, and opened his eyes one last time to see the ground moving towards him at an alarming rate.
Damn.
