When they got to his apartment, Yuki went inside and just smiled. She looked around at the mess,clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink, empty takeout containers on the coffee table.
"Do you know," she said, "in our culture, we believe a messy home means a man is destined for great things. It shows he's focused on his career,very... masculine."
Luke was shocked. He thought she'd be disgusted. Thought she'd leave.
wait.. stop overthinking, he told himself.
Truth was, he didn't really want anything to happen tonight. His last girlfriend was some random chick he met at a bar. After they slept together, she went from random to regular real quick. She lied to him, took his money, and the most important part: she cheated on him.
Luke still wasn't over that shit.
**
"You seem very nervous around women."
Yuki kept staring at him. Just staring and smiling. She sat down in the middle of the couch, right on top of a pile of dirty laundry.
Luke swallowed. She saw right through him again, is that always easy for woman to read his mind?
"Being hurt feels terrible, doesn't it?" Yuki said softly, "She will get what she deserves. Please believe me. Very soon."
Luke nodded, barely paying attention. His hands were shaking as he bent down to pick up some empty Coke cans from the floor. He tossed them carefully into the trash, took him a few seconds to even spot where the trash can was.
"You sleep in my bed," Luke said. "I'll take the couch."
He started heading to his bedroom to clean up the sheets real quick.
"Luke."
He stopped. Turned around.
"Yeah?"
She smiled. "I'm starving. Could you make me something to eat first?"
Luke nodded. "Sure, what do you want? I..." He opened the cabinet, there is just one bag of bread. He hopefully checked the date.. Oh shit ,it expired one week ago.
"Uh. Sorry." His face went red. "I can go out and buy..."
"I want to eat that." Yuki said.
She pointed at something.
Luke froze. He followed where her finger was pointing,the windowsill.
A potted plant sitting there.
It was some kind of... what was it called? A pothos maybe. One of those common plants you see at every grocery store. His ex-girlfriend Emily gave it to him. He forgot to water it for at least 3 weeks. Months maybe. The little thing looked half dead.
Luke stared at her. "You want to eat... the plant?"
"Yes."
He'd never seen anyone eat a houseplant before.. he mean, plants are food, sure. Vegetables are plants.. But eating something out of a ceramic pot that's supposed to sit on your windowsill? That was new.
But what else could he do? He couldn't give her week-old expired bread. And she was staring at him with those dark eyes, still smiling, waiting.
"Okay," Luke said. "I guess... I can... yeah."
He felt like an idiot. He walked over to the windowsill and picked up the pot. Carried it to the sink like he was handling something fragile. Which was stupid because it was half dead anyway.
Luke turned on the faucet and rinsed the leaves under the water. Dirt came off.
He had no idea what he was doing.
"Do you want me to cook it?" he asked. His brain was exploding. This was too weird.
Yuki smiled. "No need."
Okay then.
Luke shook the water off the leaves. Put them on a plate. His hands were still shaking as he carried the plate over to her. He started looking around for silverware, couldn't remember where he put the forks, opening drawers randomly.
Suddenly, Yuki reached up and pulled the long silver chopstick from her hair.
Her dark hair fell loose around her shoulders smoothly,like a unfolding black silk.
She gripped the chopstick in her fist like a weapon. Then she stabbed it straight through a leaf. Lifted it to her mouth.
She started eating.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
The sound was crisp and sharp. Like she was eating potato chips, not a dying houseplant.
She seemed to really enjoy it. Ate it like it was the best meal she'd had in weeks.
"Do you have salt?" she asked between bites. "And pepper?"
Luke blinked. "Uh. Yeah. I think so."
He went back to the kitchen, dug through the cabinet. Found a salt shaker and a pepper grinder buried behind some old spice jars. At least he had something that wasn't expired.
He brought them over. Yuki sprinkled salt on the leaves. Ground some pepper. Then kept eating.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Luke was grateful he'd found the seasonings. Made this whole thing feel slightly less insane. Like if she was seasoning it, maybe it was... food? Sort of? Luke had fooled around with girls from other Asian countries before. He'd eaten food from pretty much every Asian cuisine. But he'd never heard of anyone eating raw leaves like this.
Wait. What about those leaves in Vietnamese pho? What were they called again?something looks and smell like coriander.He couldn't remember. But thinking about it, maybe this wasn't that weird?
Except no. This was a pothos.
He'd never heard of any Asian person eating raw pothos. And he thought he knew a lot about Asian culture. This plant was clearly meant to be decoration,just something to sit on your windowsill and look nice, not food.
But watching her eat a houseplant with a hairpin at 2 AM in his messy apartment,
this was the weirdest night of his life.