Okay, so Erewhon is ridiculous. Like, I knew it was expensive, but seeing actual kale labeled like it’s a gemstone? That’s a lot. My sisters are already filming, yelling about prices, holding up jars of almond butter like it’s gold. And the camera is rolling, obviously, because chaos is content.

I’m wandering the smoothie section, because yes, naturally I immediately get distracted by the colors. And she’s there, quietly reading the ingredients on some overpriced super-green smoothie. And I swear she looks like she belongs here more than I do calm, composed, not flailing over a $12 jar of coconut yogurt like the rest of us.

I sidle up next to her, pretending I’m looking at the smoothies too. “Do you think they actually taste better because they cost so much?” I whisper.

She looks at me like I’m the only person in the store. “Maybe,” she says, “but probably not.”

I laugh too loud. She smiles. And it’s one of those smiles that makes you forget where you are like, I’m standing in a grocery store, $14 almond milk in my hand, but suddenly none of that matters.

We end up picking our smoothies and sit at the little tasting counter. I’m way too conscious of my hands because hers are close just resting on the counter, casual, but somehow it’s not casual at all.

“Here,” I say, pushing a straw toward her. “Try mine. I think I got the crazy chocolate mint one.”

She takes it. “You’re the only person who would mix chocolate and kale.”

I shrug, grinning. “It’s called adventure.”

She laughs softly and leans a little closer. Just enough that our elbows touch. And I definitely feel it. My stomach does that flip flop thing it always does when I’m around her. I try not to stare at her too much while she sips, but somehow, I can’t stop noticing how her eyes light up when she smiles.

“So… this is your first time?” I ask, trying to sound casual.

“Yeah,” she says, “but it’s kind of fun… in a chaotic, slightly overpriced way.”

I nod, grinning. “That’s exactly what this place is.”

We sip quietly for a second. And then I realize something: I don’t want to leave this spot. I don’t want to stop talking to her. The store, the cameras, the chaos around us it all fades into background noise.

She catches me staring, and instead of making it awkward, she smiles again. Like she knows exactly what I’m thinking, and maybe she’s thinking the same thing.

“Want to try the next one together?” I ask, because, of course, I can’t keep my tone calm.

She nods. “Yeah.”

And somehow, standing there in Erewhon, sipping wildly expensive kale-chocolate smoothie, I feel like maybe this is the start of something… soft and messy and exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.