Page 21 of Fake As Puck
She walks over to the counter, and I catch a whiff of something that might be shampoo or lotion, and my brain short-circuits slightly. Bea didn’t smell like this.
“What’s this one?” she asks, lifting one of the lids.
“Goat cheese. The kid at the pizza place said it wasfire.”
“Goat cheese?” she questions.
I shrug. “I don’t hate it.”
She looks at me like I’m insane, which is fair because I’m pretty sure I am.
“What about this?” she asks, pointing to the collection of sauce containers. “Did you order every sauce they had?”
I nod. “I wanted options.”
“Options,” she repeats.
“Yeah.”
“For pizza.”
“For pizza.”
She shakes her head but she’s almost smiling, and I consider that a win.
“Well,” she says, opening the pepperoni box, “I guess we’re not going to starve.”
We eat standing at the counter, which somehow feels less formal than sitting at the dining room table but also more intimate because we’re close enough that I can hear the way she chewsand see the way she picks the pepperoni off her slice before eating it.
“You’re eating pizza wrong,” I say.
“There’s no wrong way to eat pizza.”
“You’re picking off the toppings.”
“I’m customizing my experience.”
“You’re defeating the purpose of pepperoni pizza.”
“The purpose of pepperoni pizza is to make me happy. Mission accomplished.”
She takes a bite of her now-pepperoni-free slice, and I have to look away because there’s something about the way she eats that’s oddly mesmerizing.
This is insane. I’m losing my mind over the way she chews food.
She reaches for the honey mustard and dips her pizza crust into it, and I actually feel something inside me malfunction. Who dips pizza crust in honey mustard? Who does that and makes it look like the most delicious thing in the world?
“You okay?” she asks, noticing my expression.
“Fine. Just... honey mustard on pizza crust is an interesting choice.”
“It’s good. Don’t knock it till you try it.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Your loss.”
She finishes her slice and reaches for another one, this time from the veggie pizza, and I realize I’m just standing here watching her eat like some kind of creep.
