Page 20 of The Pale Rider
Aeron triumphantly whipped something from his bag and shoved it right in my face.
“I was saving this, but you’re being cranky. I found Cheetos!”
He was about to smash the bag of Cheetos right into my nose. I snatched the bag away from him and tore it open. I was starving.
“I have every right to be cranky, asshole. You got us chased by a bunch a cannibal corpses so you could kill some cannibal humans.”
Aeron whipped out a bag of Funyuns and gave me this shit-eating grin.
“Yeah, but it fucking worked. Eat your Cheetos, Ariel.”
“You aren’t always going to be able to bribe me with orange cheese, you know.”
Aeron leaned back against the tree with his Funyuns. He closed his eyes like Funyuns were his Kryptonite. He had this dreamy look on his face like he did when we were pigging out on nachos. Note to self—look for Funyuns when we were out looting.
He said I liked Cheetos, and he saved these just for me. In a way, it was probably the nicest thing he’d ever done for me, aside from singing me to sleep. I popped one in my mouth and chewed. Oh, my god. When the popped corn and powdered orange cheese hit my tongue, I nearly came. I closed my eyes and just savored it.
“You’re doing it again,” Aeron said, snapping me out of my cheese reverie.
“What?” I asked, sucking all the powdered cheese off my fingers.
“You’re making sex noises.”
“Well, I apparently like food, and it’s not like I’m getting laid any time soon. You hate me. I’m not sure why you’re so insistent I come with you to kill the president. It’s not like there are any other options out there right now.”
“Who said I hate you?”
“You treat everyone like dirt, cupcake.”
Aeron’s mouth hung open with a Funyun poised to go right in.
“I don’t treat you like dirt. I got you nachos and Cheetos.”
“Yeah, you did, but you’re still gruff with me sometimes.”
“Nachos don’t impress you? Getting those during the apocalypse is almost impossible.”
Was Aeron… trying to impress me with his storeroom haul? This whole time, I thought the nachos and pancakes were because he wanted them and needed to eat too, but was that Aeron’s way of being kind to me?
“The nachos, pancakes, and Cheetos are pretty fucking impressive, cowboy.”
“Then, what more do you want, Ariel?”
“You never talk to me, and when you do, you act like you don’t want to.”
Aeron ran his fingers through his pale blond hair.
“It’s not that I don’t want to, Ariel. Your memory loss is tricky. If I say the wrong thing, all of your memories will flood back in at once, and the damage would be irreversible. I say little because I have less of a chance of hurting you.”
“You can’t even make bullshit talk about the weather?”
Aeron laughed and resumed mowing his way through his Funyuns.
“Fair enough. We can chat about that.”
“Apparently, orange cheese is my weakness. Are those Funyuns yours?”
“Close. Have you ever had one of those fried onion blossoms with just the right dipping sauce? I’d walk through a herd of Rage Heads just to get one right about now.”
