Page 16 of Three Meows

We piled into my car and to my surprise it really ran smoothly, without the scary clanking noise it had produced before. Guess I had to forgive them for helping themselves to my keys if that was the effect. I brought the three men to a tapas place I was salivating to try.

“Do you want to make me go bankrupt?” I mock-complained as Rowan inhaled a whole plate of empanadas.

“It’s hard to believe all of that food fits in his thin body,” Chester nodded his head sagely.

Rowan glared and pointedly showed his biceps. He was pretty tall and slender but his body was one of an athlete.

“Yes, yes, you are perfect. You don’t have to show off,” I muttered.

Rowan leaned forward intently.

“I think he is waiting for you to praise him some more,” Elijah chuckled.

“I’m not doing that!” I spluttered.

Rowan looked so disappointed as he leaned back and slumped in his chair I hesitated.

“Fine,” I groaned. “I maaay have been calling you ‘tall, dark, and handsome’ in my head.”

“Do me next! Me! Me!” Chester nearly climbed onto the table as he waved his hand in the air.

“I would not be opposed to receiving words of praise as well,” Elijah said quietly, his words nearly drowned under Chester’s enthusiasm.

“You’re not the worst,” I deadpanned at Chester. My gaze softened when I turned my attention to Elijah. “You make me want to commit only arson and not homicide, when I work on the school assignments by your side.”

“Heh, high praise indeed!” Chester clapped Elijah on the shoulder.

I was joking but, at the same time, I was unbearably serious. The work dates with Elijah have been a godsend and I enjoyed our quiet talks when we pushed our work to the side for a moment of reprieve or when Elijah told me about his books.

“What about me?” I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “What praise do I get?”

“You are my duck,” Elijah blurted out, then looked as if he wanted to spring out of the restaurant.

“…thanks? I guess?” I said, baffled.

“It’s this concept guys in IT use, right? Talking to a yellow duckie?” Chester asked.

“Yes,” Elijah said, fighting his blush. “What I meant to say is you help me gather my thoughts and come up with new ideas when I’m stuck and have to talk about a particular stubborn plot point. Programmers have this tradition of talking to a rubber duck to solve their problems because sometimes you just have to talk about something out loud to discover a new approach or find an obvious solution or… I just mean you are amazing, Lisa.”

I was struck speechless by such an explanation.

“I’m your duckie?” I beamed at the man. “Even if it has a logical explanation, this is still the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me.”

“Elijah, man, did you have to set the bar so high?” Chester groaned, sprawling onto the table and pushing his dishes away in his dramatic tiff.

Rowan shook his head at his antics and pulled out his phone. His fingers flew over the screen and not long after my phone pinged with a new message.

That was a lot of emojis.

There were sparkles and stars and sun and moon. My screen was covered in flowers, and fire, and an emoji of a cat with hearts in its eyes. A dancing woman, a crown, a bird, a unicorn, a doughnut, spicy pepper… I laughed when I saw the cheese emoji.

“Why cheese?” I asked and turned the screen away to prevent Chester from peeking at the message.

A second later I got an image of an old book proclaiming ‘You may fascinate a woman by giving her a piece of cheese’.

That was… apparently correct. Damn it, it did work! The hooded stare Rowan sent me told me he knew it as well.

“Whatever Rowan sent you seems to meet your approval,” Elijah grinned. “So now we have only our resident redhead left.”

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