“Well, I woke up and had my coffee—”
“What’s your coffee?”
“Just regular coffee with sweet cream in it,” I said, putting lotion on my legs.
“And where’d you drink it?” I heard the ping of an elevator.
“On the sofa in the living room while I scrolled through my phone.”
“So day off today then,” he said.
“Day off. No nursing until tomorrow.”
“Why’d you become a nurse? Did you always want to do it?”
“Yeah. Always. Since I was ten.”
“Really? Why?” he asked.
“I have the right temperament for it. I’m patient. I’m not easily frustrated or grossed out. I have a high threshold for stress—”
“And you knew this at ten years old?” he asked.
“I did. I mean, I knew I wanted to take care of people at ten years old. I was already good at it.”
“Who did you take care of at ten?”
“My mom.”
“I see…” he said. “Was she sick or something?”
“Or something.”
He must have sensed my disinterest because he changed the subject. “So is there a view from your living room? What’s your house like?”
“We have a fully furnished two-bedroom A-frame cabin,” I said, leaning over to grab the red nail polish off my nightstand. “We always try to find someplace fun. A beach house or a loft in a big city where we can walk to things. We stayed in a converted grain silo once, it was really neat. Oh, and a tree house.”
“A tree house?” He sounded impressed.
“Yeah, it had rope bridges and everything. We were on a quick two-week assignment to Atlanta. Maddy and I had to share a bed, but it was so cool.”
“Wow.”
“In Hawaii we’re staying in a condo,” I said, my chin to my knees while I painted my toes. “It’s not that exciting. But we can walk to the beach.”
“Nice. So you drank your coffee. Then what?”
“Then I made breakfast,” I said. “Scrambled eggs and cheese on an English muffin. Grapes.”
“Seedless?”
“Of course. I’m not a sadist.”
“So you know how to cook,” he said.
“Yeah. Do you?”
“Yeah. I’m a good cook,” he said.
“What’s the last thing you cooked?” I asked.
“Well, the last thing I cooked was mac and cheese with hot dogs in it for Chelsea. She’s four. The last good thing I cooked was slow cooker ribs. I have a Crock-pot in my kitchen, under the watchful eye of the Toilet King.”
I laughed.
“So then what?” he asked. “What else did you do today?”
I smiled. I had to admit, it was refreshing that he was asking about me. I found that most men I dated just liked to talk about themselves.
“Well, then I went to Target for nail polish remover—”
“And you went to Starbucks.”
“Yes, I went to Starbucks. I had to, it was right there.”
“The absolute chokehold that Starbucks has on us. What do you get there?” he asked.
“I get a salted caramel cold foam cold brew, but as a decaf Americana since I already had regular today. What do you get there?”
