Page 68 of Hard to Get

“What can I do?” His deep voice comes from behind me.

“Nothing. I mean, here.” I hand him the salad. “You can put this on the table.”

In a minute, we’re sitting down at the table.

“It’s coconut chicken,” I tell him. “Marinated in lime, fish sauce, and coconut milk, then breaded with panko and coconut.”

“Sounds amazing.”

“Here’s the sauce for it. Spicy mayo. And the salad is… I made it up. Thai inspired, I guess.”

When he takes his first bite of chicken, he closes his eyes. “Wow. Delicious.”

Pleasure flows through me. “Thank you.” I cast about for a new topic of discussion. “Do you know why people say bless you when you sneeze?”

His fork pauses in mid-air. “Uh. No.”

“It’s because in medieval times, they believed that sneezing expelled demons.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

“Also, you don’t sneeze in your sleep, because the nerves that trigger sneezing are also asleep.”

“Interesting.”

I’m babbling about nonsense. “Sometimes, when I pluck my eyebrows, it makes me sneeze.”

“Huh. I knew someone who sneezed after sex. Every time.”

“Wow. Was it a woman?”

He pauses. “Maybe.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Did they sneeze because of the orgasm?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll have to research that.”

“Do you sneeze after sex?”

“You should know the answer to that.”

He wrestles back a smile. “Right. You did not sneeze.”

“I hate it when people scream when they sneeze. We have someone in the office who does that.”

“I hate it when someone sneezes more than a few times. Come on, man, get a grip.”

I nod. “I get it.” I cut a piece of chicken and fork it into my mouth.

After a moment of silence while we both eat, he says, “You can show me my stats after we eat.”

My head snaps up. Our eyes meet.

“I really don’t want to push you to do something you aren’t interested in. If I crossed a boundary, I’m sorry.”

“I am interested. I really want to do better this year. I want our whole team to do better.”