Page 26 of Let's Talk About Love

“And,” Essie said, “he notices how much you stare at him.”

“No, he doesn’t,” she said, not that she would know. She had spent the majority of the shift looking at anything and everything besides Takumi’s face. When she had to give him instructions, she looked at his shoulders or above his head at the ceiling. “I mean, he can’t because I don’t.”

“I’m definitely getting a vibe.”

“There is no vibe.” She rolled her eyes before realizing this would be great information for Feenie. Was Takumi being friendly or flirting and why, oh why, couldn’t she tell the difference? “But if there were, how would said vibe feel? Just, you know, wondering.”

“Stop being silly. You know what I mean.”

No, she really didn’t, and she hated when people made that assumption. If she had known, why would she bother asking?

“How do you know him anyway?”

“We have my cousin in common. I owed her a favor so I gave him a job,” Essie said. “So what color would Takumi be?”

“I have a color?” Takumi asked, walking back in.

“Yes!” Essie held up her hands like she was preparing to tell an epic story. “Okay, so Alice has this color system she calls the Cutie Code and she uses it to determine how cute something is. I’m Yellow-Orange, which is close to the top by the way.” She actually began to preen.

If Alice weren’t mortified beyond recognition, she would have gotten up and run for her life. The Cutie Code™ was sacrosanct. Essie didn’t know Alice told only certain people about it—people she thought would understand and not ridicule her to death.

“Oh yeah?” Takumi asked, turning to Alice. “What color am I?”

Kneecaps were generally uncute, so Alice stared at his. She had only one option in this increasingly perilous situation: damage control.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I decided to retire the Cutie Code. So.”

“What? Since when?” Essie exclaimed as the intercom chimed—Cara telling Essie to come back upstairs. She huffed, standing up. “I’m pausing this conversation. I have thoughts,” she called as she darted from the room.

“Could you unretire it for two minutes? If you randomly saw me, what would I be?” Takumi asked once Essie was gone.

“Why?” Alice said, ducking behind her monitor.

He walked to the other side of her desk. “I want to know. I figure I have to be Yellow-Orange. I’m at least as cute as Essie is.”

His tone wasn’t superior or arrogant or mocking, surprising Alice.She lifted her gaze to his face. The amused way he smiled at her, interested and waiting… she felt like her answer would mean something to him. He cared about what she would say.

A spot in the center of her chest began to warm up.

“I don’t know,” she said, pushing her theory along. “Essie is very, very cute. Besides, girls typically rank higher.”

“Personal preference, or am I sensing some sexist undertones?” he joked.

“Well, cats rank higher than everyone. Am I being species-ist?”

“No. Cats are everything. I swear, there are more cat videos on the Internet than porn.”

Her eyes lit up as she made a shocked gasp. “I know, right? I have this theory that the only reason why the Internet was invented was so people could share pictures and videos of their cats with the rest of the world.”

He laughed and she kept going because she desperately wanted to hear that sound again.

“There’s this cartoon calledFuturamaand they have this episode where cats are actually aliens who come to Earth to disarm the human race with their cuteness and take over the planet. It’s on Netflix. Or I could loan you my box sets.”

He raised his eyebrows at that.

“I mean, if you want.”

“I’ll, uh, get back to you.” He turned and walked toward the door.