Come for the broccoli, stay for the romance

Recently, author Tessa Dare (A Night to Surrender) asked her Twitter followers for suggestions of the most unromantic fruit. When that proved fruitless, so to speak, the topic turned to vegetables. Aspersions were cast on beets, broccoli poetry was written. "Now I want a hero to show up at a heroine's door with a bouquet of broccoli," I said. "Dare you to write it," said Tessa.

I confess, I cannot resist a dare. Or a Dare.



 Kate fluttered around her apartment, trying to find where she'd left her earrings. To be accurate, one earring. As far as she knew, it wasn't yet in fashion to go out with one ear naked. Sure, she could find another pair... a pair that wasn't determined to drive her to an early grave mere minutes before her date... but Andrew had picked these out for her special, in honor of their shared love of Harry Potter. After all, they'd met at a midnight screening of The Half-Blood Prince, two adults in a sea of tweens. Two adults in costume in a sea of tweens. If that wasn't fate, Kate didn't know what was.

She performed another frenetic sweep of her living room, checking under photo frames and behind pottery (with no irony involved whatsoever), until she found the dastardly, evasive piece of bling. Perfect rubies, surrounded by diamonds... she couldn't think of anything more appropriate to wear on their third anniversary. Her timing was impeccable. Just as she screwed in the back, the doorbell rang. She tottered -- not Pottered -- to the door and threw back the deadbolt.

There stood Andrew, her dashing young wizard. All blond hair and green eyes and — thankfully — not dress robes. That wouldn't quite be appropriate for dinner out in the Muggle world. And in his hands, he held...

"Broccoli?!" Kate had to admit, it was a rather nice head. A healthy shade of green, divinely arranged, with little springs of cilantro standing in for baby's breath. But... "Why do you have broccoli?"

"What else was going to match your radishes?" he grinned.