I brought both plates to the table and noticed Sydney was uploading photos.
"Are those the ones you took?" I asked.
She snapped her laptop shut as if she was caught doing something bad. "Yes," she clipped.
I sat down next to her, a smirk gracing my lips. "Can I see?"
She set her laptop aside, avoiding looking my way. "They aren't done yet." She looked around. "Can I have a fork and knife?"
I stood and grabbed one quickly. "What do you mean not done? Don't you just snap the photos and... done?"
"Thank you," she said as I passed the utensils over. She cut off an edge and took a bite. Even when she ate, she was so perfectly composed and polite.
I picked up my piece and ate half in one go. The runny yolk broke, dribbling down my chin a bit. I caught it with my finger and trailed it back up to my lips.
When I brought my glanced back to her, she was eyeing me, but I didn’t see any judgment there, just interest.
"To clarify, there's much more to photography than just snapping the photo. I edit them all afterward to get the look I'm going for. And half the time, the photo isn't usable."
I furrowed my brows. "Why not?"
"There's so many things that go into a good photo. Lighting, camera settings, composition. I spend hours before editing just shuffling through to see if I got anything I like."
"I didn't know that.”
She shrugged. “Most people don’t.”
We finished up breakfast. She tried to do the dishes, but I told her it was fine and shooed her away.
"You're letting me stay here and eat your delicious food; the least I can do is the dishes," she insisted.
"I’m glad you liked it,” I said with a satisfied smirk. “You can relax before we need to go out," I told her. "We have a long day ahead." I had planned for us to visit the fields so she could gather her samples, meaning we would be out for hours.
"I insist," she said, not budging.
I sighed, my tail flicking behind me. "I wash, you dry?"
She crossed her arms. "Fine."
So we did just that. Between the two of us, it didn't take long, even with her learning the layout of my kitchen.
Once we were finished, I grabbed Chicken, and we headed out to my mother’s.
“Oh no. I forgot Matilda. We should have gone to get her at the inn,” Sydney said. She looked… guilty.
“It’s okay, don’t worry. We can go there right after.”
But when we arrived, Matilda was already there and reading to my nieces and nephews, who were enthralled by her storytelling. Even my mother was sitting with her knitting on the couch listening.
“What’s goin’ on?” I asked Beau, who was still at the table eating.
“Oh, Gramps picked her up this morning and brought her here. Matilda is great with the kids. They’ve been stuck to her since she got here. And she keeps pulling these from what seems like nowhere.” Beau reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy I recognized well. It was that one that looked like a strawberry on the outside. I had no idea what they were called or why it seemed only old people had them, but they were good.
I plucked that one from his fingers faster than he could react, quickly unwrapping it and popping it into my mouth before Beau could fight me for it. “Hey! That was mine,” he snapped.
I sucked the candy harder and shrugged as the slightly sour strawberry taste filled my mouth.
“Don’t fight, boys,” Matilda said from her chair, noticing the commotion. “I have more.” She pulled a handful from her cardigan pocket. Beau was right; that looked like way more than would fit in that small pocket.
