Page 31 of Breaking Hollywood

I head out onto the street and take the directions Harry gave me, and I find the store, no problem.

I grab a cart and fill it up with groceries. Then, I pay and pack my stuff up into a few bags.

Thank God I’m not too far from his building, as I’ve got a lot of stuff.

I lug the bags back to his building.

Harry rushes to open the door when he sees me. “Do you need a hand, getting these upstairs?” he asks, taking a couple of bags from me.

“No, I’ll be fine. If you could just get me in the elevator, that’d be great.”

Harry puts the bags on the floor in the elevator for me, and I climb in.

“You sure you don’t want a hand?”

“No, I’ll be fine. But thank you.” I don’t really want him to come up with Gabe sleeping on the sofa.

Using Gabe’s key, I get the elevator moving.

It opens up, and I grab all the bags. My heels click on the floor, so I kick them off. Barefoot and being quiet, I carry the bags through the living area, heading to the kitchen.

Gabe is still sleeping.

I dump the bags on the counter and then start unpacking the food.

When I’m done, I start on making some soup for Gabe when he wakes.

I hope he likes carrot and ginger soup. It’s one of my favorites.

I love cooking. I used to cook for Jeremy all the time. It’s not so much fun though when you’re only cooking for yourself.

I make up the vegetable stock I bought. Then, I chop up the carrots and boil them in water to soften them. I pour the stock into the sparkling clean blender. Add in the carrots, ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, sour cream, and some wholemeal bread, and I blend the whole thing together. Then, I pop it in a pan on the stove and heat it through.

When I’m done, I head back into the living room.

The smell of cigarette smoke tells me that Gabe’s awake.

“Hey,” I say, walking over. I open the door to the terrace to let in some fresh air. “You sleep okay?”

He rubs the palms of his hands over his eyes. “Yeah. Guess I needed it.”

I walk over, pick up the ashtray on the coffee table, and hand it to him.

“Thanks.”

I perch on the sofa next to him. “I made soup. I hope you like carrot and ginger.”

“I wondered what that nice smell was.”

“Surprised you could smell it over the stench of your nicotine stick.”

“Surprised you can cook.”

“Hey!” I shove his arm with my hand.

God, his biceps are big.

He chuckles. “Just kidding, Speedy. Where did you get the food from?”