“Maxine and me?” Noah turned, looking shocked. “No. I am not her type.”
“Really? I would have thought you guys were, all muscles and all.”
“No, she likes these nerdy small guys that wear glasses and work in IT. The last one ran a bookstore.”
“What?” I sat forward in my chair, intrigued. This was not what I imagined.
Noah leaned in too, as if gossiping. “She’s on this dating app for guys who like muscular women and want to be tossed around and wrestled a bit.”
“Nooo.” I gasped now. “I would never have guessed. And she likes to wrestle them then?”
“She must, or she wouldn’t be on it.”
“A dating app,” I mused thoughtfully. “I wonder if I’m on one?”
“Well, if you’re not in a relationship, you probably are. Everyone is.”
“Are you?” I suddenly heard myself ask, and it seemed like such a personal question I wasn’t sure if I had crossed a line with it.
“Sure. Some,” he said, sounding deliberately nonchalant, as if he was trying not to put effort into what he was saying.
“Some? How many?”
“Not all of them.”
“How many are there?” I asked.
“Too many to count. Most are total crap, though. People just looking for hook-ups, you know?” He looked at me now, blue eyes coming into contact with mine. They almost had a sound to them. Like the sound of lasers cutting through the air, or a jet hurtling into the sky.
“And . . . you’re not into, just, hooking up?” I looked away now. This conversation seemed to be veering somewhere else now, and in my entire life, which was short, granted, I’d never had a conversation like this before.
“Well, I mean, it’s fine from time to time, I guess. But it’s not really what I want. It’s hard to find what I’m looking for. I work long, strange hours and I don’t get to meet many people in my job.”
“People that aren’t unconscious,” I piped up.
“You were conscious,” he said back quickly.
“But I was also a little out of it.”
“The animals went in two by two by two,” Noah suddenly sang.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You don’t remember singing it?” He looked amused now.
“No. When?”
“You kind of thought I was Noah, as in of the ark.”
“Noooo! I didn’t! Oh wait, I did.” I face-palmed. “That is so embarrassing. I asked you about the snakes. You must have thought I had totally lost it! No wonder you got such a shock when I came here. Not only did you probably think I was a stalker, but a crazy one at that.”
He laughed. “I didn’t think you were crazy. Just confused.”
“I’d say. Thinking you were Noah of the ark.” I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Those blue eyes met mine again, slightly different sound, this time more of a whip cutting through the air, and I wondered if my eyes also had a sound to him? Or was I the only one hearing things? I looked at my chocolate. I’d almost forgotten I was holding it and it had gone soft where my fingertips were clutching it. I raised it to my mouth and took a bite.
“Oh wow! This is so much better than the Coke!” I crunched down on the chocolate and immediately felt a whole bunch of things flick on in my head. Not memories, but little dopamine circuits zapping back to life and firing on all pistons and sending messages of pure damn joy circulating around my body. It was so much better than I’d anticipated.
Noah was watching me with an amused sort of interest, it seemed. I took another bite and a loud long “Mmmmmmm” sound escaped my lips, which caused Noah to smile. And then, unexpectedly, he rolled his shirt sleeve up and scratched a red mark there on the top of his arm.
