"Something like that."
"Oh. Cool."
Then he took another sip of his drink.
I found myself waiting for the follow-up.
It never came.
Kieran didn't reach for his phone. He didn't start firing questions across the table. He didn't suddenly seem more interested in me than he had thirty seconds earlier.
And for reasons I didn't fully understand, I found myself wanting to stay right where I was.
We continued to talk after that. With Kieran, topics seemed to appear naturally. One minute, he was explaining why kindergarteners should never be trusted with paint, and the next, he was telling me about a disastrous art project involving glitter and a group of students during a recent classroom placement.
"Glitter is forever," he said with complete conviction. "I don't care what anyone says. Twenty years from now, somebody is going to open that classroom closet and find glitter."
I laughed.
Across the room, a group of office workers in Santa hats erupted into cheers as someone fed another song into the jukebox. Mariah Carey’sAll I Want for Christmas Is Youfilled the bar, drawing a mixture of groans and enthusiastic singing from different corners of the room.
Kieran shook his head. "It should be illegal to play Christmas music this much."
"It's December eighteenth."
"It's been playing since Halloween."
"I think that's a separate crime."
His smile flashed again.
The sight of him smiling made it difficult to remember what we'd been talking about. I'd known him for less thantwenty minutes. That probably wasn't a great sign. I dragged my attention away from his smile and looked down at the table instead.
He hadn't touched more than two bites.
"Is the cake terrible?" His gaze dropped to the plate. "You've had, what, two bites?"
A faint flush crept into his cheeks. "I was talking."
"That's not an answer."
A laugh escaped him. "Maybe I'm saving it."
"For what?"
He pointed his fork at me. "See? This is exactly the kind of pressure I don't need on my birthday."
I smiled despite myself and nudged the plate slightly closer to him. "Pretty sure birthday rules require at least three more bites."
"According to who?"
"Me."
"That's convenient."
"It is."
For a second, he just looked at me. A faint smile tugged at his mouth before he shook his head and took another bite. Kieran swallowed and pointed at me with his fork again. "You're weirdly invested in whether I finish this cake."
