“What is your favorite food, if coconut is the least?” he asked like the answer really mattered.
“Chocolate, duh. Yours? No, what’s your least favorite?”
“The wolf is not a fan of marshmallows, it turns out.”
She shook her head. “That doesn’t count. That’s the wolf, not you.”
He tugged on his ear, chagrined. “It’s an open question how different we are, or how much he’s an actual wolf or?—”
“Or?”
“Nothing.”
He examined his next hand closely. He already had something, and judging from the way he matched them together, it was at least a pair.
“How much are you a real human being?” she asked, then winced, aware of how awful that sounded.
He only shrugged. She studied her own cards extremely closely. Just a few days ago, she would have asked the same question, and the answer would not have been positive.
“I don’t love sparkling water,” he said after far too long.
“Wow,” she said as he put two marshmallows in the pot. He was definitely a straight player. She had nothing but tossed in her own marshmallows.
“You have to try a fresh coconut,” he said as he held up three fingers for new cards.
“Where the hell am I going to get a fresh coconut?” she asked as she gave them to him and dealt herself three cards for something to do.
“Your grocery stores don’t have coconuts?” he asked.
“My grocery stores don’t have radishes for six months of the year because they wilt before they can get up here.”
“Holy shit.”
“That’s your deal breaker? You can’t stay because there aren’t radishes?”
“Oh, I was never staying,” he said easily, and why did that hurt? “Raise?”
“Fold,” she said firmly, and he collected the pot.
He handed her his cards. “I can’t imagine the supply lines in this country are so feeble that we fail to supply the entire country with bitter vegetables that no one likes.”
“Okay, so radishes should go on the list? Sparkling water and radishes.”
“Okay, fine. There are other foods I don’t enjoy, but I will eat a salad with a bunch of radishes that, in their bitterness, become a delightful note.”
“Your food is songs?” she asked, charmed.
“I guess so. You’ve got a bunch of different instruments with different notes coming together to make a harmonious whole. You need radishes in those circumstances.”
“Got it,” she said.
“What don’t you like? Besides coconut?”
“Sweet pickles? Cooked carrots. Olives. Not a fan.”
He squinted at her. “Those share no characteristics.”
“And that’s a problem?”
