Tucked under a desk was the Bon Appetite branded thermal bag that somehow had worked its way into their collection. She couldn’t remember where it had come from, but there it was. She grabbed the zipper and opened the lunch bag, ravenous. She was grateful she had gone through trouble to pack something. Her salad, composed of what she schlepped up from Portland, wasn’t something she was looking forward to eating. Away from home, from her kitchen, in a rented house above Chambers Bay, she made do with what was available.

Composed of tinned tuna, kalamata olives, sliced fennel cloaked in watered down hummus standing in for salad dressing, she was dubious it would even taste good and wasn’t looking forward to eating it. She briefly considered skipping lunch. But, at 37 she had finally learned she was not longer able to pull off thirteen hour days fueled by coffee and chocolate, not in a good mood anyhow. The fork went into her mouth. Her lips closed around it. The corners of her mouth began to curl upwards. She felt relived by her good fortune. It tasted, good, really good. So good in fact, the aroma caused several employees crammed into the office, tapping away at keyboards to take notice. “What’s that?” “Ohhh, that looks good.” “Did you make that?” She ate, in silence, reality slowly fading out of focus.

Simple salad of Tuna, Fennel, and Boiled Potatoes: sliced fennel, a tin of high quality tuna, drained, boiled new potatoes, halved or quartered into bites, kalamata olives go into a bowl. If you don’t have olive oil and white vinegar but happen to have some hummus, take a good spoonful and water it down. Drizzle, toss, season with salt and pepper.