Pseudosapien

Steps

"Can I sit?" Anemone looks up from her spot on the bench to see Garth and gives a small smile.

"Sure."

"Thank you." He smiles back as she moves for him to sit.

"So, what brings a coroner out of his morgue and into the park?" She jested.

"I saw you here the day before I met you at your work and thought...well, hoped, that it'd be a regular spot for you."

"I thought you already had a therapist."

"I'm not here for my psychoanalysis."

"I'm not too good with much else."

"Well, I can't say I'm the best person to give my opinion on these kinds of things, but I'd say you're doing pretty well."

"You're out here to talk to someone that prefers to watch others live" Young stated.

"It's a good break from all the dead bodies that I surround myself with." He pointed and she nodded with a grin.

"I figured that I should get out and make at least one new friend instead of moping around my house...and isolating myself in my morgue."

"Last relationship not end well?"

"You could say that. Found out it was for the best."

"That happens sometimes. Can't say I don't know how you feel."

"It might be a little complicated."

"Oh? Do tell."

"Well...she was a beautiful woman with common sense and daddy issues. The mixture was too good for me to pass up. My coroner job pays pretty well and what do you know...my funds are what made me most attractive to her. We had nothing in common. The sex blinded me for awhile, so I thought everything was fine. Once I cut her off her pay, she left. Not long after she rolls up into my morgue. She, uh, would've killed me if she hadn't been killed herself. A serial killer saved my life." Anemone paused, taking in this information.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"You want to know something?"

"Is it a secret? I love secrets." His tone made her laugh with a shake of her head.

"My last relationship ended because I couldn't give him what he wanted in bed. He was a necrophile. I locked myself in my room, he left, and within the next day or so I found out he had been killed by a serial killer." It was Garth's turn to pause for a bit before responding.

"How long ago, I might have met him. I think I did not long after I read about him in the paper."

"You've got a rather good coping mechanism."

"I'm not sure if Browning would agree."

"Not many people who pride themselves on their social lives when they aren't working would agree. That is, only my guess, though."

"No girlfriends for shopping sprees, pillow fights during sleepovers in nothing but underwear, or movie nights with ice cream during bad break ups? Not like that one in particular, maybe."

"I'm partial to delivery pizza, fast food, Chinese- you name it as far as food goes; love the convenience. I didn't make those kinds of friends in high school or college, and does that really happen when girl's sleep over?" She was trying to keep a speculative expression even though her eyes gave way to her amusement.

"Or dorm rooms and although a lot of guys wished that was how it worked, no, it is not." Garth shook his head slowly, but smiled at Annie. 

She was proving to be much more interesting than he had originally believed.