Between trying to get my wheelchair through the unreasonably thick Tuesday night grocery crowd and trying not to run into any shelves, stacked fruit, and random towers of bananas in the process, I’m on the border of a serious fit and I have to stop in front of the shelf of jellies and preserves to take a deep breath before I try to move on.

This is what I get for coming to the grocery store at all. 

I should have just put strawberry jam on the shopping list for the caregivers to bring next Friday when I get my next set of groceries, but I told Utkarsh I would try to get some fresh air today and I might as well get in some practice being useful again…

I can feel someone staring at the back of my head.

Looking up slowly, I see a little kid, probably six or seven years old, run off and hide behind his dad’s leg while his parents argue about sugar-free marmalade.

Whatever. 

Where’s the brand I usually get?

Please not the top shelf…

I never had to care what shelf anything was on before the accident.

I mean, I’m not a basketball player, but I could grab my own groceries.

This must be how Alicia feels when she goes shopping…

And children.

But nobody would mind helping a little kid or a cute short girl grab something. It’s totally different when you’re a cranky grown man.

And I don’t want…

Ughhhh….

I spy the brand I’m looking for on the top shelf and there’s no way I’m getting it down. 

It wouldn’t even be safe to try something stupid considering that all of these jars are made of glass, but I really don’t feel like asking somebody for help.

I glance up again like that could rescale the distance, and suddenly somebody is beside me with one hand on the back of my chair.

“Would you excuse me?” a short guy smiles like he’s laughing, his longish black hair bouncing as he shakes his head.

“My sisters sent me out for some ‘emergency’ jam for this pastry they’re concocting and they’ll have my hide if I'm not back in time to start assembling the layers.”

I slide out of his way with as good-natured an expression as I can manage and try to breathe out my frustration as he stands on his tip-toes to grab a jar of Welch’s and a jar of the strawberry jam off the shelf.

He studies both jars in his hands for two seconds like he’s reading the labels and then with a swift motion he places the strawberry jam in my hand and hurries down the aisle again mumbling to himself, “Butter and jam. Butter and jam…”

***

Hey Everybody! This is Leyelle (the author) and I’ve got big news!

My new romance novel “A Dozen Morning Glories' is making its debut June 15th, here on Tapas, and it stars the man Kattar interacted with here in this chapter.

Don’t worry, “Damsel in the Red Dress” is not ending. It’s just time for another story!

This story is not actually connected with the DITRD series in any way, so sorry, but this clip from Kattar’s POV is not canon. “A Dozen Morning Glories” is very different from DITRD in almost every way, but all of the great plot, character dynamics, and story you’ve hopefully come to expect from me at this point are still very much alive and well in this piece as well.

I’ve got big goals for the novel, one of which (crazy I know) is to try and get 100 subs on it, before its debut chapter releases June 15th. 

So if you’d like to help me with this, click the link in my description and subscribe.

The goal is to do a special treat for all my supporters if I succeed, so please make sure you vote in the comments whether you’d like to see:

1. A Limited edition collection of poems free to download on my Patreon
2. A crazy one-shot chapter of a novel written to YOUR prompts (or a bonus chapter of DITRD written to your prompts.)
3. Something else - leave your suggestions in the comments.

Also share your assumptions or guesses about who this guy is, what he’s like/his personality is like, and so on. Let’s see how many of your guesses are accurate! Feel free to make them as far-flung as you like, or really try to detective him out based on this interaction. Either or. I’d love to see what you guess!