“That’s...” Voice trailing off, he seemed stunned at my response as I put the jars in the cart. “That’s very logical.”
We’d come back to this one.
“I watched a woman lose her mind in Walmart once because evidently every time she went in to buy T-shirts the sizes were completely different. She was very loud and very frustrated, so several aisles around her got a long lecture on how insane it was that the sizing changed every few months.” That would never be an issue I got thrown out of Walmart for, but I could understand her frustration.
“That would make me crazy.” Ferris glanced down at his clothes. “I think I ran into that before, though. This brand doesn’t do that. It’s always the same.”
Ah.
“I’m glad you found a brand you like.” I hadn’t noticed that, though, so I made a mental note to figure out where he was buying clothes from. “Alright. What are the best pasta shapes?”
Before he could finish opening his mouth, I raised one eyebrow. “Every American has insane views on the best shapes, so don’t even try to tell me you don’t care.”
He let out a huff before hunching over and giving in. “Fine. You don’t pick the bad shapes, though.”
If there were bad shapes, I needed to know about it.
“I’m glad. Let’s make sure I get the right ones, though.” I had a feeling I was going to end up saying that a lot, but I was going to count my blessings for having won the war.
A few extra skirmishes were acceptable in the long run.
“You’re very stubborn.”
If he meant that to be a dig, I didn’t see it that way and grinned. “Thank you, boy. I like taking care of you even if you don’t seem to understand you deserve it.”
And he was back to being stumped and confused again.
Hopefully we’d get through this traumatic experience before we got home because I had plans for the rest of the evening that didn’t involve arguing over groceries.
****
“I’m sorry.” Pouting, he slumped over in his chair. “I should’ve told you which rice I liked better to begin with. Dinner is better with the right ingredients.”
“There. That wasn’t as hard as you thought it would be.” And I wouldn’t have made him admit it if we hadn’t stood by the rice for nearly five minutes in the store with his arms crossed over his chest. “I like this flavor. You were right that it tastes different.”
I was a creature of habit, but not in the way Ferris seemed to see it.
He didn’t have any idea what to say to that but he let out another long sigh and stood up to walk around the table. “Can we go sit in the chair?”
“Yes, baby.” Standing up, I kissed his head. “Let’s go.”
Cleaning up the rest of the kitchen could wait, so I took his hand and led him upstairs to our talking chair. My dramatic cutie flopped onto my lap as soon as I sat down, so I wrapped my arms around him and made a pleased sound as he started stroking my chest. “I’m proud of you for letting me know you wanted to come sit down with me.”
His sigh that time wasn’t quite as dramatic. I knew we were moving in the right direction when he traced his fingers around my pecs. If he was using my muscles as his fidget toy, he wasn’t as upset as he was trying to project. “Thank you, Master.”
I kissed his head and stroked his back as I waited. It didn’t take him long to snuggle down until he was cradled in my arms, but I knew he was shifting into the right headspace when he rubbed his face against me. “I moved around a lot when I was a kid.”
Oh, that was an understatement, but I just nodded and waited quietly.
“I learned to adjust to what they had in their houses and I wasn’t rude.” His earnest tone made that believable but I was pretty sure it’d also been incredibly stressful as well. “I just learned to keep my opinions to myself.”
“But once you were out on your own, you could make all those decisions for yourself. I bet that felt good.” When he nodded against me and let out a pleased sound, I kissed his head again. “You got to pick out all the right products but you still understood that people liked different things. You handledthat amazingly, but now we’re a partnership, so we handle it together.”
Oh, that longsuffering sigh.
“I’m not very good at handling things together.”
Because he literally had no practice doing it.
