Page 8 of Magically Generated
“Burlington.”It wasn’t all that far away.Well, it could be if traffic was shit, which it usually was.But she had no reason to go to Burlington anymore, so it didn’t matter.“You?”
“The Bay Area,” he said, “then Victoria.”
“The winter here must have been quite a shock to you after that.”
She wondered what it would be like to live in a place like San Francisco, which didn’t have seasons in the same way as Toronto.Even though she hated winter, would she miss it?
Maybe she would.
It occurred to Nora that it had been a long time since she’d had a getting-to-know-you conversation.It might have happened more often if she did things like date, but she didn’t.Her small family and Aimee were the important people in her life, and she rarely spoke to anyone else.Normally, she told herself that was fine and she didn’t miss socializing, but this was kind of nice.
“What do you do?”she asked.“For work, I mean.”
“IT support.”
That sounded like a nightmare.Mind you, an awful lot of jobs sounded nightmarish to her.But the idea of dealing with people who did ass-backward things to their machines—or couldn’t perform basic troubleshooting—sounded horrific.Though to be fair, she probably didn’t have an accurate idea of what his typical day was like.
They arrived at the small bakery, and Nora could see why Everett liked it.Anyone who liked the Christmas season would appreciate a place that was festooned with a variety of garlands and painted gingerbread men, each wearing a Santa hat.
And the ice cream?They’d gone all out with the Christmas flavors.There was eggnog (gross), candy cane (slightly more palatable), roasted chestnut, and gingerbread house.Not gingerbread, but gingerbread house: swirled in with the ice cream were broken pieces of assorted candy.Could you put a whole gingerbread house into an ice cream maker?That’s what appeared to have happened.
Nora selected her plain hot chocolate—she avoided any of their special seasonal offerings—and Everett got a cup of gingerbread house ice cream.In silent agreement, they headed to a table at the very back.That way, she wouldn’t be chilled by cold air whenever someone opened the door.
Everett took off his jacket and scarf, but not his toque.He was wearing a wool sweater that looked particularly cozy.As he started eating his ice cream, she found herself thinking that there was something incongruous about that tiny spoon in his large hand.
“Good?”she asked.
“Very.”He crunched a mint.
She’d take his word for it.
“You wouldn’t order this for yourself?”he said.
“Well…”
“Ah, I know.”He held up a finger as he had another small bite of ice cream.“Not enough gumdrops.”His voice was solemn.
A giggle escaped her lips.An actualgiggle.
Everett’s serious expression turned into a smile.
“Yes,” she said, “not enough black gumdrops.”
“You like the licorice ones?Gross.”
“Have you ever made a gingerbread house?”She was pretty sure of the answer, but she asked anyway.
“I have, but only from a kit.”
She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been gently teased by a man.Her brother-in-law was the only man she saw on a semi-regular basis, and he wasn’t the teasing sort.Back in university, she’d briefly dated a guy whose teasing was downright mean.
She couldn’t imagine Everett being mean, but she reminded herself that she still didn’t know him very well, and even people you thought you knew could surprise you.Besides, she’d proven herself to be a rather poor judge of character.
“Is something wrong?”Everett asked.
“Just thinking about all the stuff I have to do tonight,” she lied.
He nodded and returned his attention to his treat.A droplet of melted ice cream clung to his beard, and she itched to wipe it away.
