I’m washing the dishes before the cleaner comes. Stuart comes up behind me and watches me for a moment.
“What are you doing?”
“My nails.”
“Back when my dad, before he got a sense of humour. I would wind him up. He’d be doing something and I would come in and talk to him then I would ask what he was doing. He’d be washing the car and he’d go all agggghhhh.” Stuart waves his hands in the air a la Kermit the Frog.
“It winds me up too.”
“Does it?” There is a glint of pleased in Stuart’s eye.
“It’s obnoxious.”
“You’re just fast approaching the age where you also don’t have a sense of humour.”
“I do have a sense of humour. You’re just not funny.”
“I’m being silly Thomas. You know silly. I know you can be silly. When we first met you were silly.” Stuart went into the bathroom. I heard the shower start.
A few minutes later, I finish the dishes. The shower stops and after a moment I go into the bathroom. Stuart is standing in front of the sink with a towel wrapped around himself holding a can of diet coke. He drinks a lot of diet coke.
We stare at each other. “What are you doing?” I say.
“You know, I’m glad you asked that because I was just standing here wondering the same thing.”
We smile at each other.
