Marchetti
like seafood for dinner?
Thompson
yeah Marchetti. something like that
Berger
but that would really only work if the person liked seafood. what if the person wasn't into fish? this feels very specific and the lead never said anything about liking fish. have they even had a meal together
Thompson
fish food is always a strong option for people who like fish
Marchetti
anyway. read to chapter four for next time. the chef makes a seven course thing and the guy says he's not hungry and it RUINED me
Berger
seven courses
Lundy
seven seems like a lot for a guy who isn't even hungry yet
Marchetti
read it and get back to me
Jensen
i'll start tonight
Davis
he will not
Chapter 10: Lundy
Thompson did it in the book club chat, which is where Thompson does everything. He dropped it between a question about the assigned novel and a fight with Berger about whether the main character was a coward. If someone really wanted to woo a person, he wrote, they'd bring them special fish food. Berger said that only works if the person likes seafood. Thompson said fish food is always a strong option for people who like fish. Nobody tagged anybody. Nobody had to. I read it twice and said nothing in the chat. I was standing in the saltwater aisle of a specialty shop clear across town before I'd decided to drive there.
So now I'm at Soucy's door on an off day with a paper bag. He opens it in sweatpants with his hair wet from a shower. He looks at the bag before he looks at me.
"What's that."
"Frozen mysis. The good stuff, not the freezer-burned cubes the chain places carry. And the coral supplement, the amino one. The forums said a reef setup your size runs through it faster than people expect."
He doesn't take the bag. He stands there with the door half open and reads the label through the plastic. Something in his face moves. The smallest tectonic shift. The kind I've spent a season learning to catch.
"You researched my setup."
"I researched your setup."
"My setup is not on a forum. There is no forum with my setup on it. The specialist told me that to my face."
"Then I researched the closest thing to your setup and rounded up." I shrug. "Figured you round up on everything anyway."