Pseudosapien

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Three short knocks sounded on Garth's front door and he knew immediately that it was Anemone. Although she had warmed up to him enough to feel secure at his house while they hung out and chatted or drank, the more muted side of her personality showed in the way she knocked. Even though it reminded him of how she'd been when he'd first seen her, it didn't bother him.

In fact, it made him smile whenever he heard the familiar dull rapping at his door.

"I brought cake." The hazelnut haired woman practically shoved the bag in his face.

"There an occasion attached?"

"My neighbor's husband's birthday. I nearly ran over the wife on my way to my date last night."

"I bet that was exciting. How was the date?" He chuckled softly as he accepted the bag from her hands and let her in.

"Oh, it was nice. We're having another one...well, I told him I'd call him and let him know what day was good for me." From the sound of her voice there was a 50/50 chance that things would work out or crumble. It was always so hard to tell with her and he frowned as he dished her and himself up.

"Won't he get jealous knowing that you are having a morning chat with another guy?"

"We aren't serious. Besides, you aren't the type of guy that likes to compromise a woman's loyalty." She winked.

"You wouldn't have agreed to date him again if he was the type to freak out about something like that, anyways."

"Exactly my point, Garth. Though, I'm sure that he might be a little worried if he saw how attractive you were. Not to mention that I shared my yummy chocolate cake with you." Of course that was something he'd have to worry about. Garth knew looks didn't matter much to her but who she shared her cake with was something completely different. There was a surge of pride that made him shake his head. How bad did he have it when her simply sharing cake with him instead of this Emmanuelle fellow made him feel like he had something over the guy?

"I'm thinking about getting fish." Annie mentioned out of nowhere.

"I thought you had bad luck with fish..."

"I do." She stated with her mouth full of cake.

"Then why would you waste money when you might as well buy dead fish?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"I wasn't finished. I decided that I'd get two tanks and put them in the dining room. One tank would hold fish that eat smaller fish...and the other would be the smaller fish that I'd feed fishy food." Her smile was wide as if thoroughly proud of her choice.

"Guppies?"

"Probably."

"And the bigger predator fish?"

"Not sure yet." Garth figured that by that time it would be a good idea to throw in his riddle of the day, which he was steadily running out of.

"The person who makes it, sells it. The person who buys it never uses it and the person who uses it doesn't know they are. What is it?"

"A coffin." Her reply was quick, too quick. It was almost as if she had heard it a thousand or so times.

"Very spry. Correct as usual." He commended before chasing his cake down with a glass of milk.

"I think it was a funny one, you know...since you're a coroner and all."

"Too bad I don't have any ink blot, Pavlov, or Jung riddles."

"Be sure to let me know if you find any."

"Of course." Then his phone began to ring and the tone was so rarely heard that Garth had to check the caller ID. It was his boss.