With You┃Dylan O'Brien ⓵

A Preview of "Without You"

Cheese.

We had come to the grocery store for one block of smoked cheddar cheese.

And yet, here we are, thirty minutes later with a forest green basket full of various food items that have no business being in there.

This is what happens when your chef of a boyfriend walks into a high-end grocery store. With expensive meats, tasty pastries, exotic fruits, a plethora of "healthier" and small brand items and more, bringing Dylan here was like bringing a kid to a Toys R Us. They even have fancy, high quality kitchenware at the store, plus their little deli and cafe on the side.

I complain about having to spend a lot of time in the store, but really it's not so awful. The cafe is my favorite. They make such delicious snicker doodles, not to mention their pomegranate-raspberry tea, ugh. I drink that stuff year-round; iced in the summer, and hot in the winter. Dylan likes their vanilla lattes, and even Ophelia gets excited because she knows I'll bring her one of their homemade dog treats.

Overall, it's safe to say the high end grocery store is a place we all love. It's hard not to. But there's something about a "quick run to the store" turning into a full in-depth and simultaneously aimless shopping trip that leaves me slightly irritated and mostly bored. With a hold of my boyfriend's hand, I lazily follow him around and play games on my phone as he excitedly ponders the myriad of grocery and home items.

"Mon amour!", Dylan exclaims with his french accent. I think its his favorite nickname for me. "Look! They have a red velvet cake with white chocolate frosting and raspberry coulis! I've always thought red velvet paired better with cream cheese frosting but now I feel like I need to try it."

My eyes linger on the nearly full basket in his hands as he adds a slice of the cake to his collection.

I give him a meaningful look, "Babe..."

He has continued walking but briefly turns back to look at me over his shoulder, "Yeah?"

"You're about to spend like a quarter of your paycheck right now. And none of this is really stuff you need. All we came here for was smoked cheddar and toothpaste, remember?"

A guilty look crosses his face, "Ah... I get too carried away. Okay, I know I have to put like half of this stuff back but how am I gonna choose?!"

"I mean, we come here almost every week so why don't you limit yourself to trying one or two new things a week?"

His thumb strokes my hand as he looks thoughtfully into the distance, "That's a great idea. But now I don't know which one to start with."

"Well, you can narrow it down to three choices, and then I'll decide for you!", I give him an excited and assuring smile.

Nearly five entire minutes later, we have finally decided on a steak and chimichurri sandwich. I also said we should keep the red velvet cake because I don't want him to be too upset. And I kind of want to try it, too. After we've paid for our items and stopped by the store's cafe, we climb into my range rover to head back home. As we start to buckle up, Ophelia, who is now too heavy for me to carry around like I used to, wags her tail excitedly and looks at the two of us expectantly.

She knows this store. She wants her treat.

As I start pulling out of the parking lot, Dylan gets her to sit and wait before happily tossing her the sizable treat which she happily and quickly consumes. We cruise easily down the streets of Northeast Los Angeles with the windows down, luckily without too much traffic. Not ten minutes later, we're parked outside our apartment building.

We've been living here for just over a year and I'm only just now really getting used to everything. I'm still accumulating to our new lifestyle and calling this place home, but every day it gets a little cozier and life gets a little better.

~

Without You, the long awaited sequel to this story, comes to fruition on Sunday December 15th.

I thank you all for your support & love. This is all for you.