Safer This Way

Chapter 37

Yay, new update! Kind of a filler chapter, but still kind of fun...Happy Reading :)

*Sang*

"Why are you holding it like that? Have you never touched a banana before?"

I turn away from the counter full of fruit to look back at the overprotective mama bear standing by the grill. Then I try not to laugh at how red Luke's face is as he tries to hold in a dirty come back to the phrasing North just used. Meanwhile I try to decide whether I'm grateful or disgusted that I understand the joke.

I come to the conclusion that I'm grateful, after all if I couldn't get dirty jokes, I would miss half of the conversation with these guys. So instead of laughing with Luke, and further derailing the conversation, I focus on the brooding man that keeps nitpicking my kitchen habits from telling me to be careful every time I pick up something even half sharp to now critiquing the way I hold a banana.

Withholding an eye roll, I ask "What do you mean, North?"

Only he's not looking at me exactly, but the upside down yellow fruit in my hands. I think his eye is even twitching a little. Weird.

"The banana. You're holding it upside down, when everyone knows you open them from the stem." When I must not show the 'oh yeah' lightbulb of realization that he was hoping for, he sighs and holds out a hand. "Do you want me to take over?"

Do I want him to– "I'm not an idiot, North. I am entirely capable of peeling a banana by myself," I hiss at him. I'm more than a little offended by his assumption, despite knowing that he probably didn't mean it that way.

Or maybe he did, because the next thing he does is raise his eyebrows and then his hands in a gesture very similar to calming a crazed animal or child. And the patronizing tone in his following words makes me imagine taking a running leap to punch him in his pretty, brooding face.

"I'm sure you are, but Uncle wants us to finish this stuff for the breakfast rush and I don't have time to fix your banana peeling form or teach you how to do everything," he tells me as if he actually believe everything he's saying and I hear Luke choke on a laugh somewhere to the left.

"Dude..."

We both ignore him, staring each other down. I move to grab the banana I'd set down, determined to prove him wrong, and he takes it from me. "North–" I start, and then shut my mouth to watch him masacre the hell out the poor fruit when the stem doesn't break.

It takes everything in me not to outright laugh at him, since the embarrassed flush on his face is doing the job for me. Eventually, he manages the remove the peel, but the banana is half smashed and totally unfit for anything but smoothies and banana bread recipes.

Quietly and without flourish, I grab a fresh new banana and pointedly turn it upside down, pinching the end and cleanly whipping away the peel.

"Hey cool!" Luke shouts in admiration.

North shuts his gaping mouth and crosses his arms over his chest. "Beginner's luck."

Rolling my eyes, I peel a few more bananas in quick succession, and I'm about to grab a fifth when North finally relents. "Okay, okay, you were right."

Deciding to be a brat, I cup a hand around my ear and lean towards him. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

If I wasn't watching so closely, I would have missed the way his lips twitched upward before he smothered the smile. "I said you were right, you little shit."

I wonder what it says about me that him calling me a little shit make butterflies go crazy inside of me. "Thank you," I respond diplomatically.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?" he asks and I shrug.