❛ hey, at least your light reading is grounded in real - life application. don't be hard on yourself. ❜ he half jests and teases, realises maybe this is not the best of times to reveal his sideshow in speculative extraterrestrial biology : academics tend to shrink back when he pulls out the alien card, and he doesn't want her to shrink back. his nightstand is a shambles, books on chemistry and genetics colliding with ' the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ' and guides to their solar system and what might lie beyond. that and sudoku collections, which are probably the most dog - eared and scribbled in with use. ❛ harleen's nice, it's unique. i mean, i haven't heard it before, but i also didn't know pâté had meat in it, so . . . hey, do you get the barista problem where they butcher it in spellings you've never even dreamed existed ? because i do. now i just tell them my name's john. ❜
the ramble is one borne from enthusiasm rather than nerves, which makes a nice change. he had felt a little discomforted after realising his social faux pas of not asking her name, but it dissipates in minutes . . . annnnd comes back again once his unfortunate situation is brought back to light, uneasiness fluctuating like a tide. he winces alongside her, mirrored expressions even if slightly different in execution : where her cheeks redden, his is all at his neck, and her eyes scrunch as his nose does the same.
it would be amusing if it wasn't my cross to bear, and i'm not really sure if i should just brush it under the rug for both our sakes or give a vague summarisation of the facts : i got cold feet, acted a fool, and she left me for a guy named mark, who i'm pretty sure she's been seeing for the last three months on work trips. it seems a lot to put on someone, whether it aligns with their field of work or not.
❛ you know, it's not so bad. i can't blame it entirely for the tacos, i've definitely made that mistake before, so . . . ❜ he swirls the last melting pool of his froyo idly, decently impressed he managed to get down as much as he did without bringing it back up. ❛ she, um — she found someone else. it happens. he's in computer science. up and coming. ❜ this is given with a playful attempt at farce, head careening back to look at harleen with an eye roll that he hopes comes across ironic rather than bitter. he wants to deflect, not just because of the subject matter, but because she seems far more bundles of fun than him : she's not from here, an accent he can't place and a cadence that isn't native to the locals. maybe that's why he's enjoying himself. he figures she has better stories to tell than his slowly decaying relationship with linda, if only he know how to pry them out.
❛ what about you ? you're not married, you read academic journals for fun— ❜ he lists on his fingers, tub discarded. ❛ you don't like your name and you eviscerate gummy worms within an inch of their life. what have you got going on ? all good things, i'm sure. ❜
