The Prince and the Plant Whisperer

The Intimacy Experiment (Dinner Guest)

[~posted Mar 30, '21]

So there they are. The air is clear between them.

There's nothing more to do but to tackle these 36 questions.

Kai looks down at the packet of questions on her lap. She reads the first one out loud.

1. Given your choice of anyone in the world, who would you want as a dinner guest?

Kai stares at Lukas with her eyebrows raised.

"Cao Cao," Lukas says. "The Chinese warlord."

Kai's eyebrows rise. "Why?"

"Because I've been compared to him," Lukas replies. And there's the slightest smile on his face.

"You?" he asks. "Who would you have over for dinner?"

Kai looks up, thinking.

"Oh... someone no one knows—" Her voice trailed off... her answer was so embarrassing.

"Who?" Lukas pressed.

"Ah, em, a man named Huw Richards," says Kai.

"Who?" Lukas's expression seems to change, almost imperceptibly.

Kai says, "He's a Welsh gardener..." Feeling a bit embarrassed, she tries to explain. "So, I really like gardening and growing plants. And he's just a sort of... well, he's someone whose videos I've watched online... He studies plants, and how to make them grow well and be nourished, and so forth..."

As she speaks, the words are tumbling out of her...

The muscles in Lukas's jaw seem to twitch.

He seems displeased. Regal and displeased. Like he's a king and she's somehow said something wrong— something that's made him and his courtiers all upset.

But he says nothing..

Ten seconds...

Twenty seconds...

"Anyway," Kai says. "It's sorta random, I know."

Moving on.

This list of questions is really long! And they just get more and more personal.

Goodness, Kai realizes. I'm really going to have to get into some stuff I don't want to get into. Maybe Lilly is right. Maybe this professor is truly a very evil, sadistic character.

They reach Question Number 14

14. Is there something that you've dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven't you done it?

Kai thinks. Then she smiles and says, "You first..."

Lukas is quiet for a long moment. He rubs his nose lightly. Then speaks:

"I'd pay off my debts." His eyes, half closed.

"Your debts?" Kai asks. It hadn't occurred to her; she'd figured he'd come from that bunch of posh private-school kids Lilly told her about.

Do those kinds of people even have debts?

Is he a gambling addict? she wonders. She had a memory—Lilly said that other people owed him hundreds of thousands in poker. Was that wrong?

With his eyes hooded, Lukas looks like he's facing a tiring and oppressive thought. "I've almost done it. I've almost paid them all off." He seems exhausted by the thought.

Should I ask him more... about this?

But money is a very private matter.

Then his eyes flick open. "What about you?"

Kai's eyes glance around the room. She feels crazy saying it, but ... "I think about dropping out of college," she says.

"The kind of person I want to be... she isn't someone who needs to do this fancy university degree," Kai explains. Her voice trails off.

Then she continues: "But I haven't dropped out. Because of a woman who's really important to me. A woman named Nina. She made me stick to the plan."

"I'm... glad she did," Lukas says. His voice is deep and earnest.

Just beyond his shoulder in the distance, Kai realizes that a worker at the University is starting a cozy little fire in the fireplace behind them.

Above them, rain begins pattering against the roof.

Downpour! Kai thinks. I should have checked the weather!

She and Lukas continue onward, taking turns. Asking each other the questions and answering them. Kai has the sense that they're wrapped in a joint trance. It feels like the murmurs of the students around them have tapered into silence.

...

And then they reach Question #18...

...

Question #18

What is your most terrible memory?

No! Kai thinks.

How am I going to talk about this?

She looks across the space between them, staring at Lukas. At his deep, inky eyes, that gaze back at hers.

She breathes. "You first," she insists. Out of desperation.

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🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

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