Page 85 of Prayers for the Prickly

“I bet.”

“It does taste pretty amazing, though,” I said after my first bite.

Another five-star flavor profile, there were already several on the list. Far more than the out and out fails, like lime pickle, that one had needed a few sips of water to rinse off the pallet. I’d have to play with that a lot to see if I could nail it or would have to come back to the pickle from a different angle.

“It really does.”

“Just three more left and we can clean up and start getting ready for dinner.”

“Bring ‘em on, though I think it might take a day or so before my tongue goes back to being the right color.”

I giggled as he checked it out in the camera on his phone. Orange in one spot, purple in another, he was right, it probably would take a day or two, and I might just laugh every time I saw it, too.

The next one was a bright, brilliant green, and I watched his mouth damn near turn inside out when he tasted my first attempt at sour acid candy, a wicked blend of green apple and watermelon and a dash of pickle. His eyes watered as he reached for the bottle by his hand and guzzled the last of his pop.

His tongue flicked out a few times and he smacked his lips, too, working his mouth, nose scrunching like he was still struggling to deal with the intensity of the flavor.

“Too sour I take it?” I asked, my finger poised over the page, waiting for him to confirm so I could make my note.

“Don’t even taste it,” he said. “Seriously, just, no, no no, no no no.”

“Now I have to taste it.”

“Better have your water bottle at the ready then.”

I did as he said, and pulled my bottle closer, took off the cap on the end of the straw, and prepared myself before taking a smaller bite than any of the ones I’d previously tasted.

Oh holy shit, fail, fail, fail!

It felt like my mouth was burning from all the citric acid, the sourness assailing my tongue as I swallowed and started gulping water down. I was gonna need to pee here in a minute, but a break was seriously in order after tasting that.

Not even half a star. I wrotenobeside it because there was just no way of knowing where to start making adjustments with that one, everything about it was just sourly, painfully wrong.

“Oh goddess, that was awful,” I moaned when I could speak again.

“I tried to warn you.”

“That was one of those times when I was too stubborn for my own good.”

“Yup.”

“You don’t have to be so quick to agree with me.”

“Meh, you’d do the same, and have, if the shoe was on the other foot.”

“You can keep all of your shoes after that, I don’t care which foot they’re on,” I grumbled in between sips, wishing I has something I could run over my tongue, even if it was just a piece of lemon, to erase the lingering taste.

No, never mind, not lemon. I just hoped neither of the other two flavors were sour ones. Hmm. I studied the labels before choosing, where as before, I’d just grabbed one, glanced, jotted down the name and proceeded to pour.

Cinnamon candy and lemon zest?

Come on, universe, work with me here.

Groaning, I chose the cinnamon candy, though I knew the scent would give it away before he tasted it. At least it proved to be sweet and just spicy enough that the cinnamon shone through without being overpowering. After the citrus disaster, I needed a win, and the cinnamon candy was a solid three. A little bump in a few places and it would taste like red hots on a stick.

“That’s not bad,” Gregor said. “I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon candy but it’s not bad. I wouldn’t turn it down if it was the only flavor left in the pack.”

“Good to know. It’s definitely a keeper even if it still needs a little work.”

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