'That doesn't necessarily mean coffee is your preference," she nodded, pleased that he had remembered. The rest of their dinner went much like this with her gently questioning him on his preferences. Some of it was fairly standard? "Favorite color?" Hers is blue. Some questions were a tad more random, "Chicken or beef?" She prefers chicken. "Cat or dogs." She describes herself as an animal person. If she could she'd have cats, dogs, birds, an entire farm of animals. "Cookies or cake?" She'd rather have a cookie, but when she does eat cake, it's only for the icing. By the time their food arrives, she's sharing a story about her niece and nephew, six and ten respectively.
"Owen asks me why 'suck' is considered a bad word, because they can't say it at school, particularly. My brother curses in front of them all the time, but they know better. So I explain to him that it's not really a bad word, and I try to explain about context. You can't say that a person sucks but you can say that your day sucked, because those days happen and I went on to tell him that it depended on the situation. It's one thing for him to say suck in my apartment living room, telling me about his day, it's a whole other thing for him to go to school and say it around the teachers and other students." Laila pauses and takes a drink.
"I tell him that he just needs to learn to read the room. Certain things are only appropriate with certain people. They both seem to understand this concept and we move on. Fast forward a couple weeks later and they're staying the night with me. They're telling me about school and I mentioned something about their principle--she has no fans in that household, let me tell you--and my niece goes," here Laila lowers her voice, in order to not disturb the other customers, "'So you mean Ms. Koffmen could have been like fuck you, fuck this, fuck that.' And me and her brother just freeze like... what did my precious little niece just say?" Laila laughs. "She suddenly looks at both of us, open mouthed and confused and I ask her what she just said and, poor thing, she starts crying. Looks between both of us and says, 'but I read the room!'"