Page 33 of Finding Jack
EMILY: I accept.
JACK: And for every question you ask, I get to ask you one too.
EMILY: Any other rules?
JACK: We can choose not to answer any questions we want.
EMILY: This isn’t turning out to be a very high stakes game.
JACK: Them’s the rules.
EMILY: Fine. Me first.
I took my hands off the keyboard so I could think about how to ask the questions that would get me all the answers I wanted. What could I ask Jack that wasn’t “cocktail small talk” but would still help me get to know him?
EMILY: What are the best and worst purchases you’ve ever made?
JACK: 8 inch chef’s knife. That was the best thing.
EMILY: You like to cook!
JACK: No. I like knives.
EMILY: That’s not disturbing at all.
JACK: Yeah, I like to cook. I think this is where I’m supposed to impress you by telling you that I like making my own pasta from scratch.
EMILY: I’m impressed.
JACK: Don’t be. I don’t actually do that. But I do cook a lot.
EMILY: Is it small talk to ask you what your favorite thing to cook is?
JACK: Hmmm. Yes.
EMILY: Okay, then what’s the biggest kitchen disaster you’ve ever had?
JACK: That’s a good one. That I don’t want to answer.
EMILY: Too revealing? Will I be able to psychoanalyze you too well? Does it involve fava beans and nice Chianti?
JACK: Nicely done with the Hannibal Lechter reference, but maybe I’m the one that should be nervous you had that just sitting in your back pocket.
EMILY: If I can overlook your knife obsession, you can overlook this.
JACK: Fair. And I don’t want to tell you because it’s embarrassing, not revealing.
EMILY: I know I agreed to you vetoing questions, but I get to add a rule now: you can decline to answer on the grounds that something is too revealing because it would allow an internet stranger to track you down at your place of employment, but not because it’s too embarrassing.
JACK: But what if I don’t agree to that rule?
EMILY: Then I log off, and we don’t play anymore.
JACK: I’ll agree to the rule.
EMILY: Then you’re up. Tell me the kitchen disaster.
JACK: My brother and I had a double date for the winter formal one year. To save money, we decided to make dinner at home. We decided to make pasta but not from scratch. From chefs Barilla and Ragu. That’s already embarrassing.
