Worth Trying by Chloe B. Young

Author:Chloe B. Young [Young, Chloe B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2021-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

“What did those peas ever do to you?”

Charlie looked up from mashing his peas into a bright green mass on the edge of his plate. Innes had been watching him do it with growing amusement ever since they’d gotten their meals—steak for him, chicken for Charlie.

“Are they not to your liking?” Innes pressed.

“No, they’re fine, they’re just, uh,” he stammered, taking a forkful of the ones he hadn’t destroyed, but not bringing it to his mouth. “They’re different from what I’m used to.”

Innes frowned down at them. They looked pretty standard to him. “All right,” he said and left it at that.

Or at least, he tried to.

“You know I’m not going to make fun of you for not eating your vegetables, right?” Innes said after another minute of watching Charlie try to subtly hide the rest of his peas under the remains of his chicken.

Charlie looked up again, biting his lip and putting his fork down with a clatter. “I know,” he said, close to pouting. “Would you stop looking at me and pay attention to your own damn food?”

“I will when you stop being more interesting than my boring old meat and potatoes.” He leaned back in his chair, grinning. “Now, are you going to tell me what those peas have done to mortally offend you?”

“They’re really small!” Charlie burst out, loud enough that the man at the table next to them looked over momentarily. “And . . . fresh, I guess. I’m not really used to fresh peas.”

“As opposed to frozen? I didn’t think there was much of a difference.”

“Not frozen,” Charlie said, shifting in his seat. “Canned. I’ve been eating them that way my whole life. They’re cheaper than the frozen ones.”

“Ah.” Innes suddenly felt like a dick for pushing.

“The peas I’m used to are huge and grainy and they taste like the inside of a tin shed, but I guess I like them that way. It’s weird.” Charlie picked his fork up again and poked at his chicken. “Now that I have a little bit of wiggle room in the budget, I could probably get myself some frozen peas, or some brand-name pasta, but I don’t think I would, even if I was suddenly a millionaire. I’m stuck in my ways, I guess.”

“Probably not as much as you think. You transitioned to an office job pretty well,” Innes pointed out.

Charlie grinned. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Such modesty! Such tact!”

He poked his fork at Innes. “Shut up. You said it first, not me.”

Innes used a single finger to push aside the tines of Charlie’s weapon. “You are a very aggressive person, did you know that?”

“Assertive,” Charlie rebutted, his mouth suddenly full with more food. “And yes, I am aware. I’ve been called some synonym of that by every teacher I’ve ever had.”

“No, I think ‘assertive’ is far too tame a word for you. Sometimes I think you must have been raised by a particularly angry tiger in the wild.”

“Grr,” Charlie said, attacking the last of his chicken with his knife.

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