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“And you… how do you find meaning in life, Min?” Min’s gaze rose to his face to find those intelligent eyes trained on her.
“Ah—” She gave a little shrug. “Like you, continuing my father’s dream, the bookshop, building on where it is now, so it can reach more monster species, help them to get an education and just, you know, learn to love reading. When I’m sad, I lose myself in make-believe worlds… and the garden, of course, I spend time tending that. The soil needs a lot of work with the Westerly being in the middle of a sandy plain.”
“What do you read?”
Novels, biographies, anything that passes through the shop, really. I’ve learnt a lot about monsters that way.”
“Ah, yes,” he said softly.
“And your interests… You play the piano, right?”
He looked away now, embarrassed, she thought. “I hesitated over whether to put that down.”
“Why?”
“Oh, you know… It’s just a hobby.” He shrugged. “But it gives me pleasure.”
“Doing things for pleasure is just as important as achieving things, don’t you think?” Min said.
She saw his tail, which had been coiled around the chair leg, flick, just the end of it, and felt a little flip low in her belly that she couldn’t explain.
He laughed a little huskily. “Well, this got very deep, very quickly. We haven’t even got to Adina’s set questions.”
“No. I guess we should, then.”
They both stared at their respective papers. She peeped up over her glasses to see him chewing his lip and frowning, the scales on his forehead ruffling up and down in a cute, boyish way.
He must have felt her eyes on him because he looked up and their gazes caught again. Min blushed, noting his color also shifting and shimmering. Was that the equivalent of a dragon blush? she wondered.
“Er, well, we’ve mentioned hobbies so erm… Yeah, what’s your favorite food?” he asked.
“I’m vegetarian. I’m very partial to avocado on toast. With poached eggs on top.”
“Same. A breakfast favorite of mine. Though I do add bacon.”
“Well, there we are,” Min breezed. “That covers breakfast then.”
She tried not to think about what happened before breakfast.
“Sure. Do you drink coffee or tea in the morning?”
“Tea. Coffee gives me the jitters.”
“I have a strong short black. Sets me up for the day.”
Min nodded and then, to her utter dismay, blurted, “And, er—just to address what I wear in bed, it’s pajamas with unicorns on them.”
His brows shot up. “Right.” Then his lips twitched. “That is not so surprising.”
“Really. Why?” She cocked her head. She felt almost… flirtatious. Just getting into role, she told herself.
“There’s something… I don’t know, almost innocent about you.”
“Is that a polite way of telling me unicorn pajamas are childish?
“No, not at all.” He looked suddenly alarmed. “On the contrary, it’s… charming.”
“Right.” Min took a deep breath and squeezed the paper tight in her fingertips. This was feeling very personal. But not unpleasantly so. In fact, she was finding Ethan remarkably easy to talk to. She read the next question. Morning routine. Imagined him pulling off the bed cover and padding to the bathroom… naked.
