“That is it.”

Coleen was not sure if she wanted to look away from the stove top long enough to acknowledge Emil. Knowing he would continue to speak either way, she decided against it as she added the paprika.

“Your being quiet is one of the creepier things I’ve ever had to deal with.”

She put the paprika back on the counter. “Really? After lifetimes, a twenty seven year old being quiet is what you find creepy?”

“Look at me.”

He was in one of those moods. Coleen was never going to understand men. It did not seem to matter if they had lived for a long time or a short time, in the end they were all nonsensical and cryptic. Like some claimed women to be. She looked at him, wondering if that would pacify him or make it worse. Maybe at one point she would have chosen to assume one of those before following through with the action, but now it did not matter.

“I bought a phone,” he said, showing it to her.

Coleen had not expected that. “Why?” she asked, wondering who on earth he would bother now, or who he expected to give the number to.

“Because I wanted one,” Emil replied. “Isn’t that the whole reason to own something in the first place?”