Really? Are we in junior high? Or maybe hell?
"Ready, go!"
Captain Mathis and I face each other. I sense more than see he's uncomfortable with me. I suspect Mikael will always be between us. We stare at one another, neither speaking, until the silence gets so awkward, I shift in my seat. I can't read him, don't know how to take anything he says or how he looks at me. He's so calm, it's almost unnerving.
"This is what we call an interrogation in my line of work," he breaks the silence at last. "I'm not a fan."
I laugh at his dry humor, suspecting this is as bad for him as it is for me.
"Let's do the opposite," I suggest.
A curious smile tugs up one corner of his mouth. "Like what?"
"Instead of telling each other about ourselves" I roll my eyes "let's make up stories about each other. It'll be a lot more fun."
He shifts.
I lean forward. I've caught him off guard. Finally.
"Ah. So you're a total gingerbread man," I assess. "Cookie cutter, same as everyone else, no imagination or ability to think for yourself."
A spark of something lights in his gaze. Captain Mathis leans forward as well, elbows on knees. "You don't get to where I am by not thinking for yourself."
"Prove it," I challenge. "Tell me a story about me. Make it good." I'm almost curious about what he'll say but convinced he'll prove me right about being unable to think outside the box of discipline and nicely folded corners of his bedding.
Captain Mathis studies me for a moment, long enough for familiar heat to stir inside me, before he begins.
"Katya Khavalov is the kind of person who thinks throwing lemons at enemies is better than making lemonade. Fiercely independent, she learned at a young age how to use mind control on those around her. It worked on everyone but her dog, Sawyer, who was immune to the mind control and would chew on her shoes every night."
By the end, I'm laughing again. Captain Mathis has a wry, subtle sense of humor that catches me off guard and a deadpan delivery that makes me wonder if I'm supposed to laugh or not.
"Not what you thought?" he asks with another of the faint, half smiles.
"Okay, my turn." Composing myself, I spend a few seconds righting my story then share it. "Sawyer Mathis was born as a statue in a garden near a witch's cabin. One day, the witch made him human, and sent him out to win her battles with the garden gnomes that were invading her lands. Handsome, dashing and indestructible, Sawyer won every battle, until he came across the dragon Katya. She swallowed him whole one evening but he turned back into stone in her gut and was stuck there forever."