Page 31 of The Write Track
Bella:Preston couldn’t tell you my favorite color. His mother used to force me to go shopping with her, and everything in my closet was black, white, and gray by the end.
Dots appeared on his screen then disappeared. When they reappeared a few seconds later, I was confused.
Nathan:That’s hard for me to imagine. You are always in something colorful.
Bella:It was just another way he didn’t know me.
Nathan:I still think we should exchange information, just to be safe.
I sighed. He wasn’t going to let it go. In a weird way, I appreciated his attention to detail.
Bella:Fine. My favorite color is purple. Not a royal purple though. More like a grayish purple.
Nathan:Mine is blue.
Bella:I know. You always wear some variation of blue in your shirts.
Nathan:Not always.
Bella:I have yet to see you wear anything but blue.
Nathan:Challenge accepted.
Bella:That wasn’t a challenge.
Nathan:It was in my head.
He was exasperating. Adorable—in a remote sort of way because I refused to let myself get too close to him, despite the favor he was doing for me—but exasperating all the same.
Bella:What’s your favorite food?
Nathan:I eat all things.
Bella:I mean, if you had to choose a theme for a restaurant—seafood, southern comfort, Mexican, etc.—which one would you pick?
Nathan:Ah, the most important of all questions.
Bella:How is that the most important of all questions?
Nathan:Because nothing is more important than food. My go-to choice is always a steakhouse. I love steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and if I can get mushrooms and onions on the steak, I’m in heaven.
Bella:That is a good choice.
Nathan:What’s yours?
In that moment, it struck me how properly written all of our questions and answers were in this thread. There was no shorthand or even emojis. Of course, we were authors, I rationalized a second later. We were used to typing things out,and fast. We had no need for shorthand. It just wasn’t part of our world.
Bella:I’m a big fan of seafood. Stuffed lobster is my favorite.
Nathan:That’s a Northeast thing. You’re not going to get a lot of stuffed lobster here. Stuffed crab, yes. Stuffed lobster, no.
Bella:It’s one of the things I miss most about Salem. There’s stuffed lobster on every corner. Finz is my favorite. They have the best stuffed lobster, and their pickled martini is amazing.
Nathan:Pickled martini? What blasphemy is that?
Bella:No, it’s amazing. I can’t tell you how amazing it is. It’s also impossible to describe.
Nathan:I’ll have to take your word for it.
