Rising Shards

I felt weird. I didn't like Pippi's movie, and it was fairly obvious Pippi didn't like the videos I put on. Making matters stranger, I wasn't entirely sure what to really do on a date like this. Usually by this point the person I was with was cleaning up after we had sex and was saying how disgusted they were. That I was used to, but the quiet simmering dissension was more difficult to process.

"Um...am I ruining this date?" I asked.

I could barely look Pippi's way. After all the fun we'd had so far, had I wrecked this beyond repair?

"Oh, Alix..." Pippi said. It took me a few moments to realize her gentle hug wasn't her easing into saying how shit I was and to get out of her home. "Shush with that. We just have different taste, that's all."

"Are you sure?" I asked, brow firmly furrowed. "Because I didn't get your movie, and you don't like my show. What if we're just totally incompatible?"

Pippi stroked my back. "There, there, it's OK. I don't hate your show, well, I do hate that first half."

"The first half is basically a different show!" I said. "I am of course not a fan of the bad stuff in it. Well, when it's bad and making fun of the bad stuff, it's...you get what I mean."

"And I told you, it's fine you didn't get my movie, it was super weird," Pippi said.

"That twelfth bottle is gonna haunt me," I said.

Pippi giggled. "Well, I like fucked up movies and you like sitcoms. I don't think that's a deal breaker. I like that we have different tastes. From what we've talked about already, I think you're a kind person, so I'm not mad you like Workplace Pals compilations."

I still wasn't convinced, but maybe I was just used to things getting wrecked by my own foolish hands by this point in a date, and was preemptively preparing for this to go that way.

"Oh! I almost forgot," Pippi got up, leaving without explanation. I didn't really get why, until a few minutes later when I heard popping coming from the kitchen. Pippi returned with a big bowl of popcorn, regular popcorn not the stuff they had at the indie theater. "You'll like this better, I buttered it up, too."

"Yay!" I said, stuffing my face immediately. Even if the popcorn Pippi made was just microwaved with some extra butter added, it was so much better than the weird popcorn that I almost cried.

"You want to keep watching these, or do you want something else?" Pippi asked as one of my videos ended.

"I know one that might be fun," I said. "Wanna see the time I accidentally pantsed myself at a book fair?"

Pippi snorted. "Excuse me?"

"Here, let me..." I said, asking for the remote. Pippi handed me some napkins first to wipe the popcorn butter off my hands. I loaded up a video from a book fair a few years earlier where I signed up to talk about my book, Corinani-nomics for Cani. "I got these cool pants, see? I thought they looked awesome and would be part of my authorly image." They were a pair of pants with zippers around the knees to turn them into shorts, and a bunch of belts on them, they were black and gold and I thought I looked awesome in them. But right as I reached the podium, my feet got tangled in the belt loops and I fell over, the fall somehow dragging my pants down to my ankles. I watched Pippi's shocked reaction as I fell on stage on my side, the crowd gasping in shock and embarrassment, then some laughter followed.

"Wow, your entire ass is out," Pippi said.

"Heh, sure is," I said. "I was too shocked to move there so everyone got a view."

"And they let this stay up on Videotube?" Pippi asked.

"Uh huh, apparently it's educational content," I said.

I managed to pull my pants back up and return to the podium.

"This part's great," I said.

The video zoomed in on me as I tapped the microphone. "I uh, heard there'd be a full moon this weekend but I didn't think an accidental one would be, uh, today!"

I kind of bombed the execution, but the crowd roared in laughter. It was one of the few times an off the cuff joke actually got huge laughs, like, ever in my life.

"Kind of humiliating, but if you can look back on humiliating moments like that and laugh, then the next ones won't sting as much!" I said.

"That's...something," Pippi said. "You're cute, you know that?"

"I...huh?" I said. "Usually that video just got big laughs, not...being called cute."

"And your ass is amazing," Pippi said. "Want to show me a full moon now?"

I never knew what to expect next from Pippi, but after some anxiety during this date, maybe we could both use a sharp turn to something fun.

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