As soon as Elizabeth sat down, she saw again that there was a certain symmetry caused by the plate placements. In fact, she now remembered that this order had been the first thing she had noticed when she arrived at this house yesterday. She was surprised that even the food on the plates followed this pattern. She thanked Katherine for breakfast and began to eat. It was only with the first bite that she realised she was really hungry.
Katherine took a bite of her toast and turned the jam platter a little. It was now looking in the same direction as the other one. Elizabeth called out to Katherine, both to break the silence and to ask the question that was on her mind.
"Miss Katherine, may I ask you a question?"
“You don’t have to call me ‘miss’, you can directly call me by my name. And of course you can.”
“Okay then, Katherine. Do you put things in a certain order on purpose? Does it bother you when they are not?”
Katherine took another bite of her toast, “Hmm…”
Had she really never thought about it before? Or had Elizabeth overstepped her bounds and asked the wrong question? Maybe Katherine thought she was judging her? "Why did I ask that..."
"To be honest... I have no idea."
"You have... no idea...?" Elizabeth was surprised. Did Katherine really not realise she was doing this?
"Well, it's not the first time I've heard this. Yes, sometimes it bothers me, but not always. Most of the time I don't even realise I'm fixing things." She smiled, "People around me don't like this feature of mine. Especially my friends from college say that it is difficult to work with me because of this characteristic of mine."
"I think it's cute." She was as surprised as Katherine that she had said that without a doubt. Her cheeks flushed slightly.
"Thank you." Katherine couldn't help thinking, "How can I be the cute one when she's acting like this?"
To be able forget what she had just said, Elizabeth was trying to concentrate on eating. Then she noticed the bandage on Katherine's hand. Yes, Katherine had been hurt herself because of her. “I wish I would help you carry the bags. Your wound must have hurt.”
Katherine also looked at her own hand in surprise, as if she had forgotten that she was injured. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. The bags were not that heavy. Also, I'm pretty tolerant to pain.”
For some reason, Elizabeth was annoyed by the care-free attitude of the girl. She looked at her with questioning eyes. When Katherine noticed that the woman was staring at her, she stopped eating. She asked with wonder, "Is something wrong?"
Elizabeth didn't answer, instead she narrowed her eyes even more. This made Katherine curious, "What happened? Why are you looking at me like that?"
“I’m sorry, I was just trying to understand something.”
“Okay…?”
After a short pause, Elizabeth continued, “So, you are a college student?”
“Yeah, I study electrical engineering.”
“How old are you then?”
“I’m twenty-two.”
Elizabeth threw her head back slowly, “It explains a lot.”
The woman was talking more now. This made Katherine happy. It was as if she was more comfortable with her. “And, what is it?”
“Been extremely reckless.” When a sip of water went down the wrong way, Katherine started to cough and laugh at the same time. The comment and the woman's judgmental expression struck a strange chord in her. When she managed to stop coughing, she said, "Well, I don't think it's because of my age." She looked her in the eye, tilted her head slightly and smirked, “It’s genetics.”
Elizabeth couldn't ignore the aura surrounding the girl in front of her. Katherine continued her breakfast as she smiled playfully, "I'm guessing you're in your forties since you're talking about my age, Elizabeth."
"Excuse me? I am twenty-eight!"
Katherine put some toast on Elizabeth's plate, who was blushing with embarrassment at her behaviour in front of this girl. She then placed the tong inside the breadbasket, "That was a joke. I'm surprised, you look even younger than your age.”
Elizabeth was angry that this girl was keep teasing her. But she was even more annoyed that she could not keep her composure. Normally, when she met the daughters of her mother's friends, she kept her mouth shut. Even if she had something to say, she knew she had to behave like a lady at all times. It was one of the most important rules her mother had taught her, to always be dignified and never to talk about her private thoughts or wishes. Perhaps it was because she was no longer at home that she was free to say whatever came into her mind. Or maybe it was because she was meeting someone by herself for the first time. Maybe it was giving her a chance to be 'herself'. Everything else aside, it was obvious that it was Katherine who had given her this comfort.
The breakfast she had eaten with this girl at this small table at the edge of the kitchen, inside a room painted yellow by the morning sun, chatting and laughing, had not disturbed her stomach as the breakfast she had eaten with her family at the huge table in the cold and silent living room at home. In fact, it was perhaps the first time she had been able to eat properly.
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