Page 12 of The Gift
Oh, Daniel. Honey, if you onlyknew.
“What about mushrooms?” he asked suddenly. “They’re like a cross between meat andvegetables.”
“Mushrooms,” I said flatly. “You mean, devilfungus?”
He laughed again and stretched out his legs, situating himself more comfortably on the log—at least, he somehow made the dirty, hard surface look comfortable. It simply wasn’t fair for someone to trudge up a fucking mountain and still look like they’d stepped out of aphotoshoot.
“So I see that mushrooms will not be our common ground,” he said sadly. “Why thehate?”
His eyes danced at me and if this were a book, now would be the time when he’d lean forward and kiss me. Sadly, he merely reached for his water bottle and waited for me tospeak.
Which, honestly, was pretty freakin’ okay, too. I’d never met anyone who asked me so many questions or seemed to be honestly curious about theanswers.
What the fuck were we talkingabout?
Oh, mushrooms.Right.
“They’re little slimy… things,” I said intelligently. “Every time we got pizza when I was a kid, I’d spend my time trying to pick the damn things out of my slice while my brothers scarfed down the rest of the pie, but it was no use. They infect everything they touch with their… you know.” I waved my hand, unable to fully articulate thethought.
“Slime?” heguessed.
“Yes!Exactly.”
“Uh huh. So why do you get mushrooms on your pizza if you’re only going to pick themout?”
“I don’t when I’m by myself, obviously. But my familylovesthem.” I shrugged. “You know how it is withfamilies.”
He nodded slowly, like maybe he didn’t actuallyknow.
“Do you have brothers?” I asked, folding my granola bar wrapper into a very precisetriangle.
“Ah, no. Onlychild.”
“So you get only the pizza toppings you want!” I crowed. “Lucky.”
“That’s me,” he said. “Lucky.” Only it sounded like maybe he didn’t know that,either.
He fell quiet after that, but this silence felt charged, and I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t sure how to fix it. I cleared mythroat.
“Do you see many bears out at your place? People forget that there are bears in these woods sometimes, especially close to the campgrounds. You should arm yourself with bear spray, especially if you’re going out hiking alone, and especially-especially when there are young bears around. Sometimes they’re really curious and get closer to humans than they should and…” I reached for my water bottle and took a deep drink, mostly to cut off my verbaldiarrhea.
But Daniel didn’t seem annoyed or even mocking. He noddedseriously.
“I haven’t seen any bears. Coyotes,though.”
I nodded. “Well, coyotes are everywhere now. Humans push into their territory and they try to take it back. Did you know coyotes even follow train tracks into the city?” I nodded. “Truefact.”
“I didnotknow that,” he said. “That’sinteresting.”
It was pathetic, more like. My brothers would give me sixteen helpings of shit if they were here. “Welcome toAnimal Facts with Julian,”I said, feeling my face flame.“I tend to go off on tangents and not shut up.”Especially when I’m nervous, I thought but didn’tsay.
Improbably, he grinned. “If I had as many interesting things to say as you do, I wouldn’t shut up. I like it.” I felt my belly warm in a way that was totally inappropriate and more than a littledangerous.
“You’re extremely interesting. You’re a meat fetishist who likes slimy fungi and weird animal trivia. It’sfascinating.”
He laughed again. “I suppose when you put it likethat…”
“Okay, favorite place you’ve evertraveled?”
