I waited for the bus with my stomach in knots. Merry shoved me onto it with a wish of good luck, and as soon as I saw Hennessy smiling at me, it all kind of fell away. He had a seat saved for me and I clutched my messenger bag and slid in beside him. “Hey,” he said, all smooth and charming.

“Hey.” I swallowed hard. “Can I just start by saying I’m sorry about yesterday’s question? I kind of panicked and made a mess of it. Oh, and thank you for the seat. I should have said that first, but I see you and my brain circuitry fries and I struggle with a filter on a good day.”

“Is it?”

“Is it what?”

“A good day?”

I nodded and tried not to smile but failed. “Uh yeah, it’s like a hundred per cent better now. Work was busy as hell today and we had a special community meeting for people who are learning or new to English, so I spent most of the day with them, helping and making sure they had all they needed.”

“You do that? At the library, I mean?”

“Oh sure. We run all kinds of outreach programs, including secondary languages and introductions and that kind of thing. I get a real kick out of it. I like helping people, and I can’t get myself into too much trouble. Although there was that time I tripped over someone’s chair and let out a motherfucker to end all motherfuckers and then spent the rest of the day trying to convince the whole class that it wasn’t appropriate when they all took it in turns to break it down into more manageable syllables in front of my boss.”

Hennessy laughed.

“I’m glad you think it was funny,” I said flatly. “My boss didn’t.”

He was still grinning. “So today’s question,” he said. “Are you ready?”

I nodded. “No, but yes.”

“It’s an easy one today,” he said. “Unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos?”

I gasped. “That is not easy. That is… well, that just might be an unanswerable question.”

He nodded toward the front of the bus. “My stop is coming up.”

“Argh! Oh, the pressure. Okay, I would say… sushi tacos.”

“Are sushi tacos a thing?”

“They are now.” I couldn’t help but grin. “But in all seriousness, I’d have to say tacos probably, because there are all different kinds, like beef, chicken, fish, even veggie tacos. Whereas sushi tends to be more limited. So if it was for life, I think I’d want the variety.”

He made a thoughtful face. “I’m not sure how to dissect that.”