[October 9, 2042]

“You like to eat food,” Cal commented, half bemused and half impressed.

He was watching Ellie inhale an entire stack of pancakes. They were sitting at the counter of a retro-styled diner, on stools with padded cushions that reached far past the ground and gave whoever sat upon them a faint sense of vertigo. In the background music from the 1970s played over the speakers.

“Mhmm,” Ellie said. She swallowed. “Why thank you, boss. That comment must be due to your keen powers of observation and not your tactless treatment of young ladies.”

Today she was dressed simply in an athletic jacket over a crop top that revealed a lot of her smooth, dark belly. It was a trend of Ellie’s outfits that Cal had picked up on over the weeks he had known her. The other girls at Otter Manor often dressed in conservative feminine clothing, but Ellie’s wardrobe appeared to be extremely varied and have little consideration for how much skin they showed. This extended to her attitude towards Cal. Multiple times he had come across her in hallways wearing nothing but a shower towel or her underwear, but if she was bothered or embarrassed by these encounters she showed absolutely no indication of it. Eventually, as he got used to this, even Cal forgot about his own awkwardness. At first, he would sheepishly avert his eyes when he would catch a sight of Ellie emerging from her room wearing only panties and a shirt (usually to grab something from the kitchen) but now he was so used to this kind of encounter that he didn’t even bother to acknowledge her nakedness or half-nakedness. He would nod to her or say a quiet “hello” as they passed, and they both went about their days as normal.

It wasn’t that Ellie seemed unaware that Cal was a boy and that that fact could cause certain tension considering he lived with nothing but girls. In fact, she had teased him about it many times (“usually boss, when guys want to get a girlfriend, their plan doesn’t involve becoming the caretaker of an old, haunted manor, but hey, whatever floats your boat”). Rather, in Cal’s estimation, Ellie was a person who thought that the dynamics of gender and sex, as far as they concerned her, were completely and utterly superfluous.

At her comment, Cal smiled slightly, leaning his head against the bent arm that he had propped on the counter. He took a sip from the glass of water in front of him. “You want to be treated like a young lady? From now on should I speak to you with reverence, madame?”

Ellie threw her head back and laughed freely, her dreadlocks swinging around her shoulders and her white teeth shining. “Okay, okay! Call me a fat-ass if you wish, I don’t care. I can take it — I got thick skin. I’m still ordering another side after I’m done with these pancakes, no matter how you tease me.”

Cal shook his head in wonder. “You’re voracious. I don’t get where it all goes.”

“I’m like a grizzly bear, boss, I’m simply stacking on fat for hibernation in the winter. I’ll emerge in spring as a beautiful butterfly, and then you’ll have no choice but to bow before me and admit your wrongdoings.”

“You’ve mixed your metaphors there, I think.”

Ellie grinned, tapping on the electronic screen mounted on the counter to order more food. “Want anything? I invited you out, so I’ll pay.”

Cal shrugged. “No, I’m alright.”

“Seriously, you’re just going to drink a single cup of water and watch me eat multiple entrees? You’re going to make me shy.” Ellie frowned. “You don’t really eat a lot of the meals you cook, either. I always noticed that. They’re so good, but you hardly take a bite. Why is that?

Cal shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess I don’t have a big appetite in general. I didn’t have big meals growing up.”

Ellie tapped on the electronic screen. “I get that. The meals my family ate were always small — and I know why that was, I’m not complaining — but I got kind of tired of it after a while. That’s why I’m taking my time living here to eat so much delicious food! And it’s all so delicious, seriously, how can I not take advantage?”

She pointed her fork at Cal. “Yet you’ve gone the other direction. You’re not a person who seems to enjoy food a lot, do you?”

Cal shrugged. “I guess not.”

Ellie shook her head. “You’re incredible. Okay, let me put it another way. What’s your favorite food?”

“What?”

“Geez, your favorite food dude.” Ellie’s brown eyes furrowed in annoyance. “It’s a straightforward question, isn’t it?”

Cal didn’t say anything for a second. “Tangerines.”

Ellie blinked. “Tangerines? That’s unexpected. I’ve never seen you eat one.”

“Why would I eat one?”

As they had been talking, Ellie had been casually tapping on the touchscreen menu. But now she fully turned her attention to Cal, an expression between annoyance and confusion on her face. “What the- what do you mean? Why wouldn’t you eat one if they’re your favorite food?”

“Oh,” Cal’s eyes lit up in understanding. “You meant favorite to eat? In that case, I don’t have one.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Ellie was completely nonplussed. “What else could I possibly mean with that question, you-”

She laid her cheek on the counter, defeated. “You know what, never mind. You win, boss. I don’t get it. Every time I speak with you I feel like I’m folding back the layer of an onion that just keeps on going forever.”

Cal casually took another sip of water. “I thought when we ran into each other on campus you were just inviting me out to chill, but you want to talk about something as random as this?”

“I did just want to hang,” pouted Ellie, drumming her fingers on the counter. “You were sick, so I thought it would be nice for you to get out a bit. But I guess, it just feels like every conversation we have gets immediately derailed when I learn about some other ridiculous aspect of your personality.”

“You shouldn’t put your head down there, people eat off it.”

“Oh hush,” Ellie flicked her long fingers in Cal’s direction. “Let me internalize.”

Cal didn’t say anything for a long moment. David Bowie sang over the speakers.

He leaned his head to look squarely at Ellie, whose face was still horizontal on the counter. “I really don’t think I’m that strange. I mean, I spend the most time with Mel, and she calls me “boring” or “too serious” every five seconds. I was under the impression that I have a pretty neutral personality.”

Ellie raised her head sharply, making her dreads bounce. “Oh, come on, Mel doesn’t count! She’s blinded by-”

She stopped. “Well, she doesn’t count. And hey, maybe I’m just overthinking things regarding your personality, but I think Bridget picks up on this, too. It’s like this: I consider myself a pretty good people person-”

Some fries arrived, delivered by a rectangular robot with a smiley face drawn on its smooth, featureless white face.

“I feel like I get people, read them, you know?” Ellie took a fry, ate it, and nodded in approval. “Mel is a sweet, romantic kind of girl — erm, ghost, ghost girl. Aina is pretty stuffy, but harmless, probably. Ram is quiet but has more going on under the hood, I think. Bridget… well, if I had to pick anyone to win, it would be her.”

Cal watched her dip a fry into a little cup of ketchup. “What does that even mean?”

“But you-” Here Ellie pointed at him with the fry, and Cal dodged a flying speck of ketchup. “I can’t get a read on you. Like, you’re polite and intelligent and calm and all those things, but then you’ll say something completely out of left field that will throw me off.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be sorry, tell me your preferences. Let me understand. Tell the basic, boring things about you. Like, what’s your favorite movie?”

Cal clicked his tongue. “Don’t have one. I didn’t really watch movies growing up.”

“Dude what? Okay, how about music? You into music?”

“Not really.”

Ellie put her face in her hands. “For stars’ sake. What’s your type? What kind of girls do you like?”

Cal considered the question. “Girls that wipe their boots on the welcome mat before entering a house, I guess.”

Ellie banged the counter in frustration and leaned aggressively towards Cal, which made him flinch. “That is not an answer! Are you trying to pick a fight?”

“...I’m just sitting here drinking my water, Ellie…”

Ellie heaved a great sigh, her indignation quickly fading. She ruthfully ate another fry. “You can’t give me anything more specific? Hair color? Personality quirk? Something like that? Hell, I’ll take preferred boob size at this point.”

Cal bit his lip, as if thinking hard about something. “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think about things like that.”

“...You really don’t, do you?”

Ellie leaned back on her stool deep in thought, even her food temporarily forgotten. Up until this point, her conversation with Cal had been playful if investigative, but her detached casualness had only been a bulwark against showing a more concerned side to Cal, against showing that the questions she was asking weren’t entirely made in folly.

It was overall an odd, disquieting feeling. Ellie seemed to feel like this whenever she talked with Cal — she had felt it even the first day she had met him. She remembered walking into the kitchen and seeing him there, outlined against the morning light, his dark eyes gazing at her, through her. It had made her pause: that sight, this tall boy with the sad face. Ellie had never felt intimidated, or frightened, or uncomfortable in his presence. After all, by all impressions, Cal was quite personable and had hardly said a bad word about anyone. But it was always off, always slanted. Her conversations with him seemed to go perpetually in circles, never reaching any greater understanding. Ellie was a girl who couldn’t truly befriend who she couldn’t understand.

Seriously boss, if I’m being honest, you creep me out a little, sometimes. I can’t help it. The way you act occasionally — as if you’re simply an outline of a person with all the details missing. It’s like… it’s like you’ve never once considered anything that could make you happier.

You’ve got no appetite, Cal,” Ellie said slowly, the color of her eyes mixing with the lights of the diner, “that’s your issue. You’ll break somebody’s heart one day, if you carry on the way you are.”

Cal met her ponderous stare with calm apathy. “Maybe.” He paused. “I don’t know. Maybe I already did. I don’t think I’d know.”

The energy of the conversation had fizzled out, replaced by an awkward silence and 70s radio hits. Lunch hour was almost over. It was nearly time for both of them to return to the university campus.

“I’ve thought about what you said.” Cal broke the tension at last. He had reached over and taken a fry from Ellie’s pile, which she had abandoned. “From earlier.”

“Mmm?” responded Ellie, raising her eyes and propping her elbow on the counter in the same way that Cal had done. “Which part? About appetite?”

“No,” Cal said the word almost shyly, and he played with the ends of his dark hair. “About girls. My type.”

Ellie’s familiar smile returned to her lips, instantly evaporating her look of uncertainty. “Oh, really? Please elaborate. Lay it out, all the cards. I’m at the edge of my seat.”

Cal took a deep breath as if preparing for some difficult challenge. “I kinda have a thing for…” His voice went quieter, and Ellie leaned in a little to hear properly. “...I think mature, responsible girls are pretty cute.”

“Hmmmmmm…” Ellie grinned widely and punched him in the shoulder. “I see you, boss. Right on.”

“Ow,” Cal massaged his arm. “Why so hard?”

“Ah,” said Ellie, ignoring him. “More of my food is here. Think I can take them to go?”