Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

[witchoftheflesh]

Adrian had come to work bearing gifts!

A very belated Christmas gift of an entire crate-full of pickled, canned, dehydrated, fermented, dried, and otherwise preserved late fruits and vegetables from his garden. Yes, autumn had been over for awhile, but these things took time.

But now they were here, with a big red cloth bow on the crate to make it festive, and a witch who was very pleased with himself behind the counter.

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[joan_of_bark]

"You look pleased," Pam observed, unnecessarily, as she stepped into the store from the back. "... And brought something."

[witchoftheflesh]

"Correct on both counts," he said, angling the crate towards her. "Hello to you, too, Pam."

[joan_of_bark]

"Hello, Adrian," Pam said, sliding her hands into the pockets of her overalls as she approached him. "What've we got here?"

[witchoftheflesh]

"Looks to be a crate with a bow on it, boss," Adrian said innocently. "Maybe a delivery of some kind?"

[joan_of_bark]

Pam shot him a dry look. "You're very cute."

[witchoftheflesh]

He beamed at her. "I know," he said. "Good genes." And then pushed the crate a little closer to her. "Merry Christmas, Pam. A little late, but I think you'll appreciate it."

[joan_of_bark]

"We'll see about that," Pam said, but she pulled the crate closer. She pulled the bow out of the way, and--

"Is this a care package?" she asked. It was meant to come out dry, but the corner of her mouth tugged up as she said it.

[witchoftheflesh]

"We talked about me giving you some of the vegetables from my garden," Adrian reminded. "I'm making good on the promise."

[joan_of_bark]

Well, he got to enjoy seeing Pam genuinely startled.

"I'd forgotten all about that," she admitted, after a moment. "Thank you, Adrian. We can really use this."

[witchoftheflesh]

"I was thinking about you in the Swamp," he said, his smile softening. "I wanted to make sure you had healthy food that you didn't have to worry about going bad."

[joan_of_bark]

"We get by," Pam promised him. "But-- this will go a long way." Her mouth twitched up into more of a smile. "And might stop Janet complaining about how hard it is to shop for me, at least for a while."

[thatwaslucky]

"You look happy," Rey noted as she cane in.

'Happy' was of course her preferred way to see him.

[witchoftheflesh]

"I brought Pam a crate of vegetables!" he said, with far more excitement than one might expect from that statement.

[thatwaslucky]

"That is a reason to be happy," she said, heading over to give him a kiss. For congratulations.

[witchoftheflesh]

He loved how this worked, as he gave her a kiss for just being there and pretty.

"I promised her some back in the fall, but it's taken me till now to preserve them all, so now Pam gets a bunch of local produce in jars."

[thatwaslucky]

"And it's just for storage?" she asked. "Or is it like what they do with jam?"

[witchoftheflesh]

"...What do they do with--oh!" Adrian laughed a little. "Yeah, for storage and long-lasting and stuff. Pam has this swamp that she is fixing up and I thought it would be good for her to have access to good food there, too."

She might actually even eat then!

[thatwaslucky]

"Of course you would do the most helpful thing," Rey said fondly.

A kiss for helpfulness! ...Look, you try dating this guy and not kissing him all the time.

Actually don't try it, she was being selfish while she could.

[witchoftheflesh]

"I mean, giving Pam homegrown vegetables is pretty much a no-brainer when it comes to gifts," he said, sliding his arm around her waist to keep her right where she was, thank you.

[thatwaslucky]

If he was going to do that, she was going to make sure she was nestled up against him.

"Not for most people," she pointed out. "It's sweet."

[witchoftheflesh]

"I was about to argue that you might be biased in my favor, but then I came to my senses," he said. "I'll take the compliments."

[thatwaslucky]

"I can be biased and also right," she said.