Page 69 of Sunflower Persona
“Right.”
An uncomfortable awkwardness surrounds us as we lapse into silence.
Rather than focus on it, I turn my attention to the basket of chips on the table, breaking them into tiny pieces. A sheen of sweat forms on my date’s forehead as he watches my fingers work. He swallows hard and wipes away the perspiration with the back of his hand.
“It’s hot today, huh,” he mutters, and I damn near lose it.
No.
Just no.
There is no way we are going to be so awkward that we resort to talking about the weather.
“Freeze,” I tell him, and he listens, but his heavy brow furrows.
“What did I do?”
“The weather? Really? We can do better than that.”
“I didn’t think small talk would be this hard. I guess I’m more out of practice than I thought.”
“Who wants to make small talk? Small talk is terrible. Small talk is for strangers and coworkers you secretly hate. We aren’t strangers, and I don’t hate you, so let’s skip the awkward get-to-know-you bit, okay?”
“Okay.” He lets out a deep breath and folds his hands on the table in front of him. “So what do you propose instead?”
“I don’t know. I’ll look up some date questions. That has to be better than this.”
I pull out my phone and google first-date questions. My face twists as I read through the list. I don’t know how they managed it, but whoever wrote this somehow created questions that are both incredibly personal and superficial at the same time.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
Who are you closest to in your family?
What’s your favorite season?
Do people seriously ask each other things like that?
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“These are terrible.”
“Let me see.” He reaches across the table, and I hand him my phone.
He scrolls through it, his brow furrowing deeper with each passing moment.
“Yeah, you’re right, these suck.”
“If you had to eat a crayon, what color would you choose?” I ask the first thing that pops into my head.
“What?” He chokes on a chip as he tries not to laugh.
“You heard me. What color crayon are you eating?”
“Is this a normal pack, or are we splurging for the big one with the sharpener on the back?”
“Sharpener, obviously.”As if we’d waste our time with anything else.
“That’s a lot of options. I’m gonna say one of the oranges.”
