β you got me there, β a hesitant pause as teeth grazed her tongue, stained a purplish hue from a handful of skittles. while she mightβve appeared collected, inside her head an imaginary rope was being pulled to-and-fro in contemplation. should she say it ? no. yes. no. yes. a back and forth for what seemed like eternity despite only seconds being lost to silence. β rommanibal lecter. β instant regret at the quick-witted wordplay mightβve been expected from others, but jude embraced it with a chuff of a laugh. short-lived given the immediate shift in tides.
she was skirting somewhat uncharted territories now, an innocent attempt to peel back another layer to the onion of a man. complex, stoic, a touch stand-offish. truthfully, he reminded jude of shrek β which, essentially, made her donkey. it wasn't a wrong assessment either. she could be annoying, she could be a bit much; but she liked to think it was just persistence. if she hadn't attended that initial meeting and sat beside him, she probably never would've been sitting across from him now. granted it wasn't an easy triumph.
would've hit him with a 'it's good to talk about these things', but she'd rather not exhaust a statement spat like a broken record during meetings. instead, she simply sat back and listened. 'have ... had' β his slip-up didn't go unnoticed, but all jude could do was offer a soft smile.
β you. β she finally chimed in, finishing the statement roman left to linger, with a playful roll of her eyes. β yeah, yeah. i get it you were a catch back in the day. β obviously she knew who he meant, but she wasn't going to force it out of himΒ and she definitely wasn't about to have a heart-to-heart while somebody told me by the killers softly played in the background. now if angel by sarah mclachlan was queued up then it'd be an entirely different story. β so, d'you have a favorite song ? of your own, i mean. or in general too, m'always eager to scrutinize. β she teased.