"I assume you're smelling my fish sticks," Nick answered from the kitchen.
"Ugh, it must be. Why do they smell so bad?"
"They smell amazing and you're just jealous."
"You must have a different definition of 'jealous'," she said. "And 'amazing'."
"I like fish sticks and I haven't had them in so long," Nick explained. "It's a little treat to myself."
"Greasy, baked skunk-smelling poisoned ocean-dwellers is a treat? You're just getting all the words wrong today," she said as she went upstairs.
The oven timer went off with a beep and Nick took the hot pad and pulled the fish sticks out. Nick let them sit a couple minutes then scooped them onto a plate and sat down to eat. Nick baked half of the box of fish sticks so he had roughly thirty fish sticks on his plate.
"They don't smell that bad," he said to himself. "Just like every other fish thing."
He began eating, one at time, finishing each stick with two bites. When Nick was a kid, he loved tartar sauce but since he's grown older, tartar sauce didn't taste good anymore and prefered to have his fish--whether fillet or stick--sans any type of sauce. He also used to like Golden Grahams, that cereal with cinnamon coated graham crackers, but for some reason he didn't like those anymore either.
Nick finished the fish sticks and rinsed the plate off in the sink and put it in the dishwasher. Becky came downstairs, in more comfortable clothes. "That smell just lingers doesn't?" she asked.
"If you don't get why I like fish sticks, then you don't get me. You don't get me," Nick said.
"Okay," Becky made a face. "I'm not a fan of fish. I can eat shrimp or lobster but I don't like fish."
"Well, I don't like shrimp or most shellfish so I guess that's why we are so compatible. We can eat the foods the other person doesn't want to."
"That is the stupidest reason for people to be together."
"You are very negative this afternoon," Nick said.
"It's probably the smell of the fish sticks. It's clouding any positive neuron receptors."
"Or you're just a bitch," Nick shrugged.
"That, too. What do you want for dinner?"
"Well, I still have half a box of fish sticks..."
"You need to stop."
