AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So what do you think?” I asked.
He wasn’t here to talk pizza. Neither one of us were. As far as icebreakers went it was a shitty one, but I was at a loss. At least for now.
“I’m from New York,” he said simply.
“I know. Brooklyn.”
He nodded slowly.
“And?”
“Well if you know that,” he shrugged, “you’d know that this isn’t pizza.”
I smirked at him from across the table. “So you’re gonna go all pizza snob on me now?”
He shook his head. “Don’t have to. I come from the best pizza on the planet.”
I leaned back into the uncomfortably hard booth. It was like some sort of unwritten law — pizzerias everywhere were incapable of installing any sort of comfortable seating.
“Best on the planet is a bold statement.” I dropped my crust and dabbed at my mouth with a napkin. It came back greasy and yellow. “How do you back something like that up?”
“Don’t have to,” he said again.
“And why’s that?”
“For one, it’s not my job to convince anyone I’m right. I know I am.”
“And two?”
He pointed downward. “If this pizza were any good at all you’d still be eating that crust.”
I though about telling him I wasn’t done, or I was saving it for later, or something equally lame. Instead I caught his gaze with mine.
“Brooklyn pizza, huh?” I offered. “Maybe one day you’ll show me.”
“Maybe.”
The word trailed off into uncomfortable silence again. He was a strange read. Sullen and silent and all too serious. But every once in a while there’d be a crack, and his wry sense of humor would peek through.
“So why’d you avoid us last night?”
The words just tumbled out, without me really thinking about them.
“Who said I was avoiding you?”
“Work. You said you had to work.”
“I did.”
“But when we got back you were already home, though. Your bedroom door was closed.”
He shrugged and took another bite. But he still didn’t look away.
“You could’ve come to hang out with us in the living room. Or made a snack in the kitchen. Said hello. Anything at all, really.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “It was my first night in the house.”
He sipped on his soft drink. Rattled the ice around a bit.
“I was tired.”
