Although Nina didn’t really get her answers, she just cheerily breathed a sigh of resignation through her nose. She gleaned that he liked fiction. Historical fiction? Realistic fiction? Fantasy? Literature? She did want to know as much as she could about him, but she knew that she would have to chip away at it. He wasn’t much of a chatterbox, but she could be. The last thing she wanted to be was annoying to him.
Something useful? Like some kind of instructional manual? Huh. Probably not anything to do with building– she didn’t see any kind of construction project going on at their place. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Somehow the idea of Worick building something made her laugh. It would probably include him losing his temper and swearing while trying to hold up pieces of wood by himself.
[Sure, what did you have in mind?]
As soon as she heard that it had nothing to do with building, Nina was the tiniest bit disappointed. She touched his arm as she passed by him and pointed to the other side of the store. If she remembered correctly, the clerk said that the cooking section was near the gardening and home sections. Nina slithered in between rows of shelves until she spotted related titles and a makeshift sign taped to the middle of the bookcase. Nic waited for her to solve the maze before following.
[What’s for dinner?] She joked, actually asking what kind of recipes he was searching for.
[Maybe something for a hobby. Bird-watching, whittling, cooking...]
Some bullshit examples with one not quite like the others... In reference to Nic, all three were pretty beyond his realm of interests. Nic wasn’t really a gentle, patient guy by default. Nina brought out the best in him, which was definitely no surprise to anyone who knew them long enough. But Nic was pretty terrible at lying. It came with the strong, silent, violent bundle.
Too honest for his own good. Too raw.
Nina was smart, but Nic was praying to whatever god existed that she wouldn’t catch on.
When Nina found what she was looking for, Nic joined her and blinked slowly at her question. Well...he wasn’t really sure and he didn’t know yet whether Alex bought ingredients for dinner tonight or not. Knowing the woman, however, it’d be something simple or a recipe diligently copied from Granny Joel. Pursing his lips in careful thought, Nic eventually gave a half-hearted shrug.
[Stew.]
There was stew for just about any occasion, right? So whatever Alex ended up buying, she could use it. Plus, she didn’t even need to use it tonight. Hell, it wasn’t even guaranteed that Nic would give her the book tonight. Or rather, Alex would find it tonight. He might just put it somewhere she’ll notice tomorrow morning.
Why was he thinking about this so much?



















