Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

He was definitely not a pro at this.

His movements were awkward, sure, but the real kicker was his method of squeezing dish soap on each and every bowl and plate. Under Roseanne's bewildered gaze, he looked up with an innocent expression and asked, "Isn't this how it's done?" Roseanne was speechless.

"If you don't mind, maybe you could show me?" Corley cleared his throat. "Back when I lived abroad, I usually only used a couple of dishes at a time, so I'd just put a little soap on each..."

"There's really no set way to do dishes, and there's more than one way to use dish soap. It varies from person to person. The main thing is to get the dishes clean. However..."

She shifted gears, "From a conservation standpoint, it might be better to squirt some soap into the water, dissolve it, and then use a sponge to wash everything. Rinse with clean water afterward, dry them off, and you're set."

"Is that how it's done..." Corley listened and followed her instructions.

Just as he was about to dissolve the dish soap in water, Roseanne suddenly spoke up -

"Wait!"

Corley stopped.

"Use hot water."

"Oh, right!"

After cleaning up, the two lingered for a bit before noticing it was getting late. They said their goodbyes to Madeleine.

Corley: "I drove here. Need a lift?"

The subway had stopped running by that hour.

to play coy.

in the

if you called me 'senior' or just Corley. Or you could just use my

"Sure thing, Mr. Sullivan."

doing this on

feigned innocence: "Just habit, I guess.

call me

day, he'd make her willingly change

...

an hour later, they reached

me at the

"You're not going home?"

some data

didn't pry further, just stopped the car at the

got out,

waved: "Take care on

"Will do."

time Roseanne reached the lab, it was already

workspace, it was nearly midnight. She turned off

its pre-summer rainy season. It been drizzling

of days.

the glow of the streetlights, the rain looked like fine

was late, and the streets were nearly empty, with just

dark night felt even

and stepped