"I happened to meet her at the potluck, as it turns out. She's lucky to have someone so thoughtful around."

She grins, looking over at him as she says it, continuing the bean work in the meantime.

"And everyone else as well, naturally. Truthfully, I hadn't considered the needs of vegetarians until recently, when one of my newer friends turned out to be one. But that's just part of my travels - most of us were just glad to have a hot meal at the end of the day, so much so we never asked what went into it."