Fleur’s Features Had Relaxed
(we repeat: candied hot dog bits)- Are you two brothers?
- important step in any relationship
- I’m happy to avoid it
- squeezed his elbow, hard.
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Fleur’s features had relaxed into an approximation of her normal, cagey misanthropy. She said, “My fondness for you is on a par with my fondness for candied hot dog bits (we repeat: candied hot dog bits). Make of that what you will.”
What I made of it was that she had partially thrown off the compulsion induced by the trigger phrase, but only partially, and everything she said was still technically true no matter how bizarre it sounded. The specificity of the thing of which she was as fond as she was of me had to mean something. Another code, no doubt.
One of the side effects of the programming she was under seemed to be loquaciousness. I listened, eager for more confessions from my wife.
“The first time I met him, he was looking at a photo of you. I asked him, ‘Are you two brothers?‘ and he laughed. I realized that he was like a you that I didn’t hate. Getting past the hate is an important step in any relationship, but I’m happy to avoid it whenever possible. You should know that it was all my idea. Jason was a perfect gentleman, at least until I reached out and squeezed his elbow, hard.”
bonus points for using them in order