In the courtyard,  Javier grins at you, showing a mouthful of about fifty gleaming teeth, half of which are gold.  You think you can see a diamond in there too.

''Andale, amigo,'' he says.  ''I hope you are a good cook.''

You feel a little downhearted at this.  You're game for most things and willing to give it your best shot, but cooking is really not your forte.

You search inside your head for your rare moments of culinary genius and start making a mental list:

Beans on toast

Beans and sausages

Beans and burgers

Beans and bacon

Beans, cold,  from the tin

You find yourself hoping that he and his are fans of beans, because otherwise he'll regret his purchase.

He leads you to a pick-up truck and indicates that you should sit in the back.  You look around for something to hold onto while he drives.  There is nothing, so you resign yourself to a bumpy ride.

Thankfully, he drives only a short distance, just as far as the nearest convenience store, but his driving is so erratic that you still manage to lose your Raybans.  Bummer.  

He stops the truck and nods at you to get out.  You follow him into the supermarket, where he grabs a cart and places your hands on the handle, grinning and showing his blingy smile again. 

You follow him around the store,where he throws item after item into the cart.  To your dismay, when you reach the canned vegetable section he completely ignores the beans.

At the checkout, you wait until he is busy with his wallet, then dash out of the store.

RATE THIS BRANCH!

Click to View Author Guidance

Before you ask -- I wrote this back in 1999. It was on my original first-take for the CYOA site concept, so I figured I'd toss it up here as a keepsake.

I realize it's probably not up-to-snuff with my current stuff here, but I thought it was funny and it was one of the stories I launched this site with, so it's here for nostalgia's sake more than anything. :)

Play on!

updated Sep 3 by nickb