“So this ‘galaxy burrito,’ you say it’s sweet and there’s a lot of it?”
“That’s what you got from the story?”
“I heard it. There was some stuff about cinnamon.”
“What else?”
“A bicycle?”
“There was no bicycle, you lug. Now get over here and help me. You can be my apprentice.”
“Ahhhh, the student has become the master.”
“Can you separate eggs?”
“Sounds easy enough.” He took two eggs from the glass bowl and set one at either end of the island.
“You are a laugh-a-minute. Here.” She placed two bowls in front of him. “Yolks there, whites there.”
Tox fumbled through the first egg, breaking the yolk.
“Here’s the easy way.” Calliope stood close. She cracked an egg on the flat of the granite counter and held it over one of the bowls then she tipped the raw egg into her hand. The white slid through the gaps between her fingers, the yolk remained, nestled gently in the cradle of her palm. She reached across his football field of a chest and deposited the yolk in the other bowl.
“Got it?”
He repeated the procedure while she remained beside him. They both watched intently while the viscous white ran over and through his long fingers and plopped into the bowl beneath. Then he deposited the yolk in the adjacent one.
“It broke.”
“That’s okay. I only try to keep the yolks intact so I can count how many eggs I’ve done. I get a little fizzy in the kitchen.”
“Fizzy?”
“You know.” She made jazz-hands by her head and rolled her eyes. “I’m not the best multitasker.”
“Lucky for you I’m an awesome multitasker. I once triaged a guy while driving.”
She didn’t allow the gravity of the comment to sink in.
“Another opposite. Do we have anything in common?”
“I also hate coffee. I mean I’ll choke it down if I have to, but bleh.” Tox scrunched up his face.
“Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. It doesn’t taste good.”
“So, there you go.”
“A relationship built on a mutual hatred of coffee. Could work.”
“Relationship?”
“In the broadest sense of the word,” Calliope hastened. “I mean, I expressed my feelings in the tree and again on our date and was rebuffed. I just meant in terms of two people interacting. Connecting.”
“Interacting. Connecting.” Tox nailed her with a stare that liquified her bones. “And what do you mean by rebuffed?”
“I told you I wanted you to kiss me the other day in the tree, and you said, and I quote, ‘Noted.’”
“Honestly, I was worried I would fall out of the tree if I kissed you up there. You have this way of making me lose my head.”