“How was your dinner last night? I interrupted it when I stopped by,” he said, trying to make conversation, something he was out of practice on.
“You didn’t interrupt my dinner. I did go shopping at the farm market. Got some eggs…”
Finn shuddered when she said eggs and tried not to picture the chickens. “Oh, yes?”
She was staring at him quizzically. “Don’t like eggs?”
“Nope. If they’re blended into something I’m fine, but…nothing from a chicken.”
“Are you allergic?”
“Nope. Just nothing from a chicken. I can’t stand those feathery little fuckers.”
A smile twisted on her lips, her open eyes sparkling. “Are you afraid of chickens?”
“Cocks in particular.” His eyes widened as the words left his mouth.
“What?” Margaid started laughing, holding her stomach, and he realized what he said and how it sounded.
He groaned and rolled his eyes. “Roosters.”
She stifled her laughter. “It’s not that I’m laughing at your fear. It’s valid, it’s just…the way you said it.”
“I know,” he grumbled. “Is being afraid of roosters and chickens a real fear?”
He wanted to get off to topic of cocks and his fear of them.
“Of course, it’s a valid fear. Alektorophobia.” She sighed. “Sorry for punting you with my weird random facts. I tend to bore people with them.”
“No, I like them.” Which was true, he did. “So, what’s the fear of monsters called?”
“Teraphobia.”
“Well, that makes a bit more sense than alektorophobia. Teraphobia sounds like it belongs to monsters. Alektorophobia sounds like you’re afraid of people named Alek.”
She cocked her head to one side. “I suppose it does.”
“Do you have an irrational fear?”
“Arachnophobia, not really that weird, is it?”
“Spiders?”
Margaid nodded. “I get paralyzed when I see them. There aren’t any…spider monsters in town are there?”
“If there are I haven’t met them yet,” Finn quipped. “But after the Great Revelation, monsters were welcomed here, and we’ve just made a home for ourselves.”
“Making a home sounds nice. The closest I have to that is probably California. It’s the longest my mother and I stayed in a state, but I haven’t had or felt at home in years.” There was a hint of sadness to her voice, a bit of longing, and he found that incredibly endearing. It was sort of the way his dad used to talk about Manx or the way Sven and Magnus would talk about their old Viking settlement in Norway, long gone.
He was lucky that this was always where he belonged. This was his home and he forgot that other people didn’t have that connection. Some people were just transient, whereas he was glad to be here.
Even if he mostly kept to himself around town.
“What else did you buy?” Finn asked, trying to change the subject.
“Some veggies and cheese. Uh, usual stuff.” She was gnawing on her bottom lip and looking sideways.
“What else did you buy?” Then he sat up straighter. “Oh no, you didn’t buy one of those crocheted phalluses my mother is insistent on making.”
