“I’d love to watchSunset Boulevardwith Norma Desmond played by a red-lipped batfish.”
“I’d watch that,” she said. “What fish should play Max?”
“A sturgeon, I think,” said Norris after some thought. “Not the most attractive of fishes, but valuable and impressive.”
“A fish with gravitas,” she agreed. “What about Joe Gillis?”
“A bluegill?” Norris suggested. “I’m just riffing off the name, though.”
He knows his film noir, she thought.He has a Jewish grandma. What’s not to love?
“What’s your favorite fish?” Annabeth asked.
“Living or extinct?”
“I meant extinct, since that’s your specialty, but let’s start with your favorite living one.”
“Ostracion cubicum.The yellow boxfish.” Norris chuckled. “I could claim it’s because they’re so biologically fascinating, and they are, but really it’s because I love that there’s a fish that’s bright yellow with black spots and is shaped like a shoebox.”
“I can’t judge,” said Annabeth. “I picked mine because it looks like it just got lip plumpers and put on twelve coats of Chanel Rouge Allure. Okay, what’s your favorite extinct fish?”
He beamed at her. “The Dunkleosteus!Dinichthys terelli. They’re a Devonian period armored fish. They were the size of an SUV and had the strongest jaws of any fish before or since. Maybe the strongest jaws of anything ever.”
“I didn’t know their jaws might be the strongest ever,” said Annabeth, intrigued. “That’s very impressive. But I do know about them in general. They’re my favorite extinct fish too. They’re just so cool.”
“You’reso cool,” he said, then blushed.
Annabeth watched the color rise in his cheeks, and was nearly overcome by the desire to fling herself across the table and kiss him. It would break all the rules of dating, but...
At least I’m not telling him about terrible exes,she thought, and leaned forward.
At the same moment, Norris leaned forward. They almost smacked foreheads rather than kissing, but managed to reorient at the last moment. Their lips met, and she saw stars. Or maybe bioluminescent plankton, given that she felt like she was floating in deep water. She felt absolutely weightless with happiness. Norris put his strong, warm arms around her, and she wished the moment could go on forever.
A series of clinks interrupted them. Annabeth blinked dazedly at the chocolate egg cream, vanilla malted, and enormous platter piled with smoked fish, bagels, and all the trimmings that had just landed on the table in front of them.
The waitress winked at them and said, “Don’t mind me. But you don’t want to let the lox sit around for too long.”
“Er... no,” said Norris.
Annabeth seized a toasted everything bagel and began spreading it with cream cheese. She carefully arranged capers on the cream cheese until Norris whispered, “It’s okay, she’s gone.”
She giggled, feeling as dizzy as if she’d had several cocktails, and took a drink of her vanilla malted. It was so thick, she had to suck hard to get it through the straw. “Marvelous. My coffeeshop ought to make malteds. They make everything else.”
“I didn’t see egg creams,” said Norris, sipping his.
“No, no egg creams. They probably figure people would think they actually have egg in them instead of just soda water and milk and syrup.”
“Their loss. Try mine?” He offered her his egg cream.
She took it and held out her malted. “Switch?”
His fingers brushed against hers as he took her drink, sending shivers down her spine. It was incredible how charged even the briefest touch could be when you really liked someone. His chocolate egg cream was very chocolatey. The tiny bubbles popped against her tongue. She felt like her whole body was fizzing with happiness.
The date seemed to both fly by and last forever. They talked about grad school, her job, his job, their favorite movies, and their favorite marine mammals and crustaceans and mollusks.
Norris had recently gotten a job at the Natural Science Museum, but he was cagey about what he’d been doing between getting his PhD and getting the museum job. But she knew how hard it could be to get a job in the marine sciences. Probably he was avoiding the second-worst date sin, complaining about being unemployed. She thought of telling him not to worry about it. He obviously wasn’t a complainer by nature, and she wouldn’t mind listening if he did want to complain about complain-worthy things. But she decided against it. Why push? He could tell her in his own time.
Annabeth was startled when Auntie Esther came by their table to tell them the deli was closing. “Already?”
