“So how did you two meet?”

“Well, it began with me posting the words ‘swamp witches’ on twitter. For some reason, it got retweeted a lot, and I gained a couple of followers from it. She was one of them, and we orbited around each other for a couple of years after that. Then we randomly ran into each other at a convention, and things started rolling”

“I must say it seems your relationship emerged very gradually”

“We’re Canadians. We wouldn’t have it any other way”

“…you’ve waited a long time to say that, haven’t you?”

“Oh yes”

“Hey, remember that restaurant we always used to go to when we lived in the old place?”

“Which one?”

“You know, that one on the corner, with the cat and the extra salad if you ate there more than once a week?”

“Oh yeah. That one”

“I’m having a nostalgic moment thinking about it”

“Why? The food wasn’t particularly good, and the cat only liked you if you gave it tunafish”

“Time has a way of filtering out the bad stuff and keeping the good things preserved in loving memory. What say we give it a try, just to get it out of my head?”

“Now I’m starting to think back fondly on those days. Dangit. Let’s go”

“I’ve figured out your brand”

“Do tell”

“You’re unapologetically wholesome”

“Of those two words, I’m having a hard time figuring out which one is more confusing”

“See, that’s what I mean! Anyone else would have just yelled about what I was even saying, but not you. You are politely confused, in a constructive manner”

“Huh. I suppose you’re right”

“You know it”

“Is this the part where you’re gonna rope me into eating an unapologetically  non-wholesome burger at 2 am?”

“Well, now that you mention it…”

“Let’s go. I can only be on brand so many hours a day”

“But what I don’t understand is – why won’t he just do it?”

“See, here’s the thing. He’s been in love with her for years, right?”

“Right”

“So, this is the first time she’s talked to him in all that time. By continuing to hem and haw, he thinks he can keep the line of communication open. But if he goes along with doing it, she will move right on and never look back”

“That… makes sense. In a backwards kind of way”

“Anyway. You gonna pass me that cupcake or what?”

“Love doth make fools of us all”

whirr

place

click

whirr

a short moment of spinning up, then the music began

She always liked this particular moment the most. The brief, brief second of having put a CD in the tray and pushing it in, hearing those first introductory notes. Each album had different starting points, different feels, and she knew them all by heart. Even the one with an extra moment of silence introduced by accident; its duration as intimately known as any combination of sounds

Of course, explaining this to the young ones was a futile effort. But every once in a while, she made an attempt. Like now