"You should let your hair grow long." Blanche reached across the table and tugged on the lone coil of hair that grew from Archie's hairline. "You'd look cute with more curls."

She lowered her hand down his ear and onto the sparse stubble on his jaw. Hair barely grew there, but Archie shaved it weekly nonetheless in the hopes that the agitation would make it grow.

"I already look cute." He snapped his head to the side to feign taking a bite out of Blanche's hand. She jumped and giggled as she pulled back. "And it doesn't really get curlier. Or longer. It just gets…bigger. I need to get it cut, actually."

Blanche leaned over, elbows on the table, chin in the palms of her hands, and looked adoringly at Archie. "I could cut it."

"Ha! No way."

"What? I could." Blanche mimicked cutting—not with two fingers, but rather with two arms that she swung inside and outside of her body. "Snap snap snap!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Are those your garden shears?"

"Yeah!" Blanche doubled down on the motions. "And I'm quick with it. I'll shape you up like an ear of corn."

"You'll cut off my ear is what you'll do." Archie grabbed Blanche's fluttering arms and closed her imaginary shears for good. "Don't you have a little one? That one you use for pruning."

Blanche's face lit up. "Oh, so if I use those, you'll let me do it?"

"What? No! You're not cutting my hair."

"Aww."

Blanche's disappointment only lasted a second as a Blue Jacket arrived with their food. They had ordered to share, Archie forgoing the more interesting chili shrimp pasta in favor of a lion's mane mushroom steak which Blanche was eager to try. She ordered the spicy pork belly and Urokan potato salad, which Archie was fine to not change.

Blanche went for his dish first, stabbing her fork into the smallest of the flat, golden brown mushrooms and running it through the creamy yellow polenta. As soon as she took the bite, her fork was back in Archie's plate to steal a bit of parmesan cheese.

"I'm glad you're so eager to share," Archie said as he reached across the table. He made a mess of the once-neat dollop of potato salad as he tried to get a bit of every color. There was something big and red, something thin and orange, something quartered and green. "Because I've been curious as to what makes a potato salad Urokan."

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He got his answer the moment it touched his tongue and his lips puckered up. "Ooo! Wow, I was not expecting that."

"Is it bad?"

"No, it's good. It's really good." Archie finished chewing. "Sour. Really sour. I'm used to potato salad being hearty. It's got, uh, lots of lemon. And rice wine vinegar, I think."

Blanche picked at the potato salad to examine it. "Carrots, probably done with vinegar. Cucumber. And dried cranberries. Interesting."

"Is the lion's mane good?"

"Just like I knew it would be."

Archie took a bite to confirm. The consistency was exactly like steak, and the purple-brown sauce had some note of cherry to it that had him eating a second bite as soon as he finished the first. "You were right. Like always."

"So you'll let me cut your hair?"

"No."

"Aww. Don't cut it too short."

"I won't." Archie took another bite of Blanche's potato salad. He considered the pork belly, but the mushroom was surprisingly meaty enough to satisfy that craving. "You know who has great hair? Flambé. He's like, what, sixty-something? And he isn't balding at all. Not like my dad."

"People say I look like him."

"My dad?"

"No. Flambé."

Archie studied Blanche's face. "Yeah. Yeah, I see it."

Blanche frowned. "Well thanks."

"What?" Archie laughed. "He's a very handsome man."

"Yeah. And I'm, you know…" Blanche pushed her arms together to accentuate her breasts. "A woman."

Archie's eyes were drawn in, and he forgot the taste of whatever was still in his mouth.

Blanche snapped her fingers to bring his eyes back up, but her coy smile said she didn't mind at all. Archie coughed, and after a long sip of water, they both cooled down.

"I think it's my eyebrows," Blanche said as she ran a finger across one. "They're too manly."

"What? No! They're not manly at all! They're just thick and dark."

Blanche pouted. "I think I'll have Mindy teach me how to pluck them."

"No!" Archie could think of no greater injustice. "Your eyebrows are my favorite thing about you."

"Really?" Blanche recoiled as if she had never heard a good thing about them in her life. Then she looked down at her own chest. "Your favorite thing?"

"Okay, one of my favorite things."

"Along with my personality."

"Of course."

Blanche touched her eyebrow again, this time with a faint smile that dared to grow. "You really like them?"

"Seriously. Don't pluck them. Please?"

"If I don't, will you let me cut your hair?"

"No. But I'll let it grow out long enough for you to realize it's not cute."

"Deal."

"Deal. Now what's for dessert?"

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