A Different Slice

21 - No Time (Naomi)

Naomi chuckled at Kieran's most recent text as she leaned against her car in the baseball complex parking lot.

Kieran: Today's food fact has me worried my brother might chuck my meat and yogurt to fill our fridge with spinach. Sometimes I swear that man was built without tastebugs.

The screenshot of Jake's app gave the average protein content count of 2.9g for 100 grams of spinach. It mentioned that a small study of 10 athletes taking spinach supplements for 14 days reduced muscle damage after running a half-marathon.

Kieran: ugh typos**tastebuds** But wouldn't it be creepy if little bugs lived on our tongue, consuming our food and shouting out the flavours to our brain?

Naomi: Tiny bacteria must live in our mouth to help start the digestive process and that running fact is intriguing.

Kieran: Have you been hanging out with Jake without me? Or has he become so techy that you're an elaborate creation designed to push healthy eating in an extremely tailored way who is momentarily glitching?

Naomi: Ouch, one comment is all it takes to question my humanity. What about all the pizzas we shared?

Kieran: It's more of a fear of his skills than anything.

Naomi: So if I said I had a banana, spinach, and strawberry smoothie for breakfast before my run, would you suspect I'm a robot?

Kieran: About a 60% chance. How gross was it?

Naomi: I used maple syrup to offset the taste, so not bad?

Kieran: It dropped to 20%. If you wanted to stop by to hang out, that would drop it down to 0.

She grinned. Going out after Rusty's training had been the highlight of her weeks. Last week's visit to the Greek restaurant with its flame-kissed appetizer had been memorable. Even though they hadn't talked about it, Kieran flirted with her a lot. Anytime she got close to him, he became a grinning, snuggly koala bear, which she loved.

Hanging out with him was more appealing than drinking with the team, although they were celebrating Ian's acceptance into his internship program. She didn't want to bail, especially since he'd been her rock at softball and was thrilled she'd agreed to come.

Naomi: That's tempting, but I'll have to delay it until tomorrow. If you meet me out front at Brinny's, we can sneak an extra one in early.

Kieran: Crafty Naomi, I love it.

His enthusiasm filled her heart with hope, but whatever build-up was happening might differ from how he'd be if this ever turned romantic.

"Nomi?" a familiar voice asked softly.

Her ex's green-gray eyes met hers.

"Hey, Greg."

Things had been awkward but civil since he'd had Tara at the game two weeks ago. One of them seemed to realize they'd struck a nerve, and she'd stopped attending.

He straightened a polo shirt Tara had bought him. "Are you going to the pub for Ian's celebration tonight?"

She nodded. "And yourself?"

He tucked his hands in his shorts pockets. "Yeah."

"Waiting for Marc?"

"He has to help Nimkii with something before he goes, and I didn't want to be a third wheel. Feel free to say no, but can I get a ride?"

Naomi fidgeted with her keys. "Tara's busy?"

"She's setting up at the bar. If you're uncomfortable with it, I'll take the bus."