Everyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE beef. Steak, pot roast, beef stew: you name it, and I’ll eat it! One of the guys at work calls me “meat lady”, because he knows how much I love it. For my birthday he gave me a gift card to a store called “Just Meat”. Need I say more?
I have a couple of places that are my favorite for buying beef. I love Hannaford; and any day (or many days!) of the week you can find me prowling around the meat counter, drooling over the cuts of beef, imagining which ones I’ll buy and promising to come back for them. Sure the butchers look at me askance, but who cares. The beef is so alluring!
There’s a butcher place not far from where I live. I’m not going to name it, but they have wonderful beef and each week something wonderful and new is on sale. One time they had prime rib for $5.99 a pound, so the girls and I had that for Christmas Eve dinner. Yum, yum! And another time they had filet mignon on sale for $7.99 a pound. It was so delicious!
So I had been waiting for a few months for that filet special to show up again and finally it did! By now though it was $8.99 a pound but I didn’t care: I was going to buy a pound of it for me since both girls were working. I went there after work one afternoon and marched myself past the deli counter and into the wonderful butcher emporium. I perused the marvelous cuts of beef, and a butcher I hadn’t seen before approached the counter. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’d like a pound of the filet mignon,” I replied, barely able to contain my giddiness.
“Oh I’m sorry, but we only sell them whole.”
I was crestfallen. “What? Last time I bought a single one.”
“Well, if you really want one, I guess I could cut one for you.”
Dejected, I said, “That’s okay; don’t go to any bother.” I looked at what else was on sale and noticed the New York Strip, which I also like. “Um…just give me a strip please.”
“Okay, but I don’t think the other customers would appreciate me on the counter taking off my clothes.”
When he said this I looked up and started laughing, that remark was so unexpected. So I came back with, “But I have a wallet full of singles!” and he laughed too. He was really cute: taller than me, dark hair, pretty eyes and apparently a good sense of humor. He picked out a nice NY Strip steak for me and wrapped it up. As he handed it to me he said, “Listen, sometimes when a person buys a whole filet, they want us to cut it for them and there’s a piece left over. If someone does this tonight or tomorrow, would you like for us to call you?”
That was a no-brainer. “That would be great!” I enthused. “Okay, let me write down your number and hopefully we can work something out for you.” I gave him my number and happily went to the cashier to pay for my steak, hope springing up in me that I would get a filet.
I got home, started changing my clothes and the phone rang. “Hi, it’s Rob the butcher. I just wanted to let you know that a customer came in and bought a whole filet, and there’s a 9 ounce piece left over. Would you like it?” “I sure would! How late are you open?” “We close at 7.” I looked at the clock and it was 6:30. “I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”
When I got to the shop, he held out the filet. “Is this good?” “You have just made me the happiest woman in New York State!” I replied. “Well then my work here is done. Here you go.” “Thank you so much Rob, and if you have any more pieces left over before the sale is over, keep me in mind!” “I will!”
I went home, made that filet and ate it. It was sooo good! I was very happy; then settled down to watch “Everybody Loves Raymond” with the pets. About 15 minutes in, I got a text message. “It’s Rob the butcher. I just wanted to check and see if the filet was to your liking.” I immediately texted back, “It was awesome! Thanks again.” From him: “No problem. Is it okay that I texted you?” I replied, “Sure, anyone that can provide me with filet mignon can text away, haha!” And with that, we texted back and forth until almost 1:30 in the morning!
Now things like this don’t usually happen to me, but I figured that God had finally answered my prayers for the man of my dreams: a butcher, to keep me in red meat forever! Hallelujah!
However, that isn’t exactly how it went. We texted that night, then all through the next day and until almost 2 in the morning. But then, the texts…kind of veered to the left. As you can imagine, after a couple of days the tone changed to a very sexual one, and as much as I tried to move on to another path, he liked the one he was on. I told him that if he was looking for a one night stand, a hit it and quit it situation or sexting, then I wasn’t for him. He swore out he didn’t do one night stands either, but unfortunately his texts seemed to suggest otherwise. And then, the piece de resistance: he sent me a picture of his own “filet”! When I saw that honest to God my eyes got warm! I asked him WTH and he said that he wanted me to see what he had to offer, gave me his address (like 4 blocks away!), told me to come over and we’d “hang out”. I told him it looked like he was already “hanging out” and called him "Stranger Danger"! What kind of nutjob would I be if I showed up at his door? “But I’ve got candles,” he said. Dude, seriously?
So that was the end of that! It took a long time for me to venture back in there. When I look back, it makes me wonder what kind of impression I was giving that made him think it would be okay to send me “junk mail”? Ugh! I had thought about talking to his manager to let him know what one of his employees was doing with customers’ phone numbers, but figured someone else would beat me to the punch; and they did. He was dismissed, thank goodness. So now my loyalty lies with Hannaford, with second place going to Price Chopper. And so far: no "junk" mail from their butchers! I count that as a serious win.
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