“I’ve been eating things pretending to be things,” I mutter.
“What do you mean?”
“Cauliflower pretending to be rice, oat milk pretending to be cow’s milk. Jackfruit pretending to be meat when it’s nothing like it. Nothing…substantial.”
“All I hear is that you’ve been famished for far too long and for no reason. Eat up, okay?”
“Yeah.” I nod in agreement. “I’m going to do that.”
“Cheers to that!” he toasts, and I’m more than happy to clink my glass with his. “You can only get more beautiful, Callie..” He says this so factually that I cannot tell if there’s anything behind it, but I’ll take the compliment as is.
Later, after Danny insisted on doing the dishes and we’re back on the couch with more wine, he asks to see the polar bears again. We watch for over an hour.
“Look at that one, swimming in the pool. The cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.” Danny pauses. “And now, another one is rolling around in a snowbank. I’ve never seen any creature more delighted by anything. I could watch this forever. Although they don’t seem to hang out with each other much. They look like they should be snugglers.”
“Turns out that they’re very independent, and it’s pretty rare that you catch them even sleeping close to one another.”
He yawns and lets his arm fall across my shoulders. “That’s sorta sad.”
“I agree.” My voice is only a whisper, as I’m so damn tired. “The feed won’t be live for much longer. Time change and all.”
“I could stay like this forever,” Danny says.
“Same,” I admit without reserve as I fall into him. Into the shape of him and into the way he soon eases us onto our sides.
And I fall asleep to polar bears, to Danny, and to peace.
