The Things That Happen At The Farmers Market

“These are Californian apples,” said the lady selling different varieties of apples in the farmer’s market.

She handed me one and I took a bite immediately. The sound of chewing an apple was kind of crunchy, but that was when he showed up. Suddenly, I felt butterflies in my stomach as if I was back in high school, but I wasn’t. The atmosphere around the farmer’s market was like a bazaar. Instead of clothes and pieces of jewellery, there were all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The collective fragrance of them seeped into my senses, including his. To that, I wanted to curse my thoughts, yet the truth was I wanted to accept my thoughts.

“Ma’am, do you like them?” asked the lady who gave me an apple.

I looked at the stall again while I was fixed in just one position after taking a bite because seeing him, my heart had already skipped a beat as if taking a bite of its own. “It’s lovely,” I replied. “Pack a few of these Californian apples,” I said. It was at that moment I heard his voice.

“Hey, how are you?” he asked, suddenly beside me.
I turned pretending as if I didn’t see him through my reflexes. “I’m great,” I said and shook his hands.

There was natural confidence attached to his persona when he just looked into my eyes. He then glanced at the apples. “Give me what she is having.”

“I thought you weren’t going to arrive,” I spoke.
“Time is time. With you, time is precious. Besides, I told you I would be late but…”

The lady hands both of us the recycled box where the apples were kept. Taking it, we started to stroll. Our hands then touched. My fingers furled into his fingers. That second I felt the meaning of being whole. Also, the word ‘being’ was like talking about spirits. If there were really spirits in this world, then we really felt connected to each other. Every time we had held our hands, for me, it was always like a first-hand touch because it was the significance of love.

“How’s your accounting thing going on?” he asked.

I stopped at that moment. Looking into his brown eyes, which was splendiferous, I just felt like hugging him. His build was like I was hugging a brick wall, yet I knew his heart was soft and his brain had a child-like curiosity. The way he then wrapped his hands around me in the midst of all the people buying organic stuff, I felt his affection. It was genuine, so did mine. “Does the accounting matter?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Well, it’s going great.”

He began gazing into my eyes again and then my sundress. “You are like a flower itself. A flower wearing a flower,” he chuckled.

My dress did have a plethora of patterns and that design had comfort that matched the summer vibes. There was something about it and I loved his compliment or compliments whenever he gave, which was always. It was also like our love matched our current atmosphere. Everything felt serene. It wasn’t like I had come to the farmer’s market and suddenly had discovered him. The significance of this market finally made me understand what the word ‘relax’ meant and what it meant to live a good life. It was simple and that simplicity, I did feel with him. There were usually many ways to describe men, but he was something. He was different. When I clasped my arms around him, I felt his warmth. Besides, his eyes had empathy and his arms were the definition of strength. Though I had been his forever, in the present moment, his presence felt eternal. “Are we really having a date?” I asked.

“We don’t have to define every moment, and defining it won’t be living it,” he replied. “Also, can I say something if you don’t mind?” he asked.

“Of course, you can.”

“The first time when I saw you, it was your dress that I spotted. Among the crowd, you were the only one that I suddenly had my eyes on. That time too you were buying apples,” he spoke. “It might sound cheesy… but you had become the apple of my eye. Even though I didn’t see you that time, my internal world was like… I just can’t live without you.”

“After that, love had become our night and day.”
“Like a heroine,” he chuckled.
“Yeah, compacted under the universe,” I looked in the sky.
“Yeah, like a quiet emotion as if like oxygen. It might not make sense—“ “It makes sense to me,” I interrupted and replied.

He smiled again as if he had taken my heart again. We then carried on our way. I then started paying attention to my sundress. It was too blue like the sky and had floral patterns. The other thing about it was that it matched the landscape. The sky was all bright and the ground all green. Even the landscape reminded me of him. He was a painter. A well-established one. I could see in his hands as he was still holding me. I was an accountant which didn’t seem to bore him. It was strange for me because we would talk randomly and we were talking randomly. That was lovely because that was love. I always felt that the love between us was deep gratitude.

When you enjoy everything about living, time goes fast. That was what was happening as we kept on trolling around the farmer’s market. We bought some fruits and some veggies. “I think I feel like a farmer,” I said as I kept the boxes in my car.

My Tesla had a great trunk, not all Teslas had one. Nearby the farmer’s market, there was a forest and after that, a lake. He was seeing that lake on the painting that he had drawn and had given to me. That painting was still there over the passenger’s seat of my car. As I was checking the boxes, I saw his open and loving eyes. He was kind of amazed.

“Every day, I see that painting. It’s always there at the back of my car,” I said. “Why?” he asked even though he knew the answer.

“It’s because I love you,” I spoke these words as if they were sacred and transient like the eternal cycles of living that we would be having like fairytale dreams.

His eyes then looked in the sky again. After that, he saw my face and smiled brightly. With the touch of his gentle hands, he asked, “Wanna go to the forest?”

He knew that the morning had already vanished. The afternoon had started and soon the evening would arrive. Strolling in the forest, the noises of the insects felt like a symphony. There wasn’t any technology with us. We had left our cellphones in the car. As we walked and walked, our silence had become our conversation. We at that moment felt synched with nature. We knew that the forest was dense and had spread over a few kilometres, yet we had completed that distance as if without sweating anything until we reached the lake.

“Look at this pure water,” he said.

“Isn’t it reflecting our love?” I sighed because his face was close and his bodily presence was like gravity that couldn’t be separated ever. It was then we kissed. It was ineffable for me to describe that moment, but one thing was sure: the evening had approached. Our date was just continuing. Or was it really a date? I thought it was just living by now.

Going back again, he had requested as I was driving that we didn’t have to wear something fancy. We didn’t need to go to our homes. He told me that I looked spectacular wearing a sundress. It was just that we had to carry on to the restaurant he had chosen for us. It was an open restaurant. The radiance of the lake outside there, a different lake that was part of the same ocean, matched his confidence. Meanwhile, his glance again did observe the pattern of my dress: tiny stars and moons that were infused with a lot of flowers. Also, in the background, there was constant music, but the background felt blurred the second he decided to get up and extended his hand. Taking it, we came close. His hand then touched my waist. The other was cascading toward my back. I kind of did the same as we naturally began dancing slowly. That was our night: just a few words and more living. The eternal presence of bliss.