Day Ninety-nine

Today's words:
Value
Lover
Tonic
Cook
Shopping center
Noun

Of what value
Is a faithless lover?
Much better a tonic
Whipped up by a sexy cook,
Or a trip to the shopping center.
The last noun

I'm looking for here is a boring noun
Like "value."
Like goods at a shopping center
Those are the last items you'd want. My lover
Has to also be a good cook
And make a super gin and tonic.

Because sometimes a gin and tonic
Is just the antidote for that noun
Known as depression. That's also when a good cook
Can be of real value,
Almost more so than a thoughtful lover
Or 25% off store-wide at the shopping center.

I went to the shopping center
To see if I could scare up a tonic
For my frayed nerves; my so-called lover
Had recently transformed to another noun
That started with "ex-." Not really something I value
Even in a cook.

I asked the cook
At the restaurant in the shopping center
What herbs would be of real value
In a tonic
To ward off that noun
Arising from your lover

Leaving. "You don't need a lover,"
Said the inventive cook,
"I've got a better noun
"For you, right here in this shopping center.
"Take a drink of this tonic
"It'll be of more value

"To you than any faithless lover." I left the shopping center
With the cook.  Turns out he was the tonic
To cure my bluesy noun. Now there's a great value!