When Life Gives You Lemons

Eighmy just shook her head. “Ya know, you should really talk to Spencer about his love of the color white.”

“Yeah its kind of creepy isn’t it?” Said Birkin, looking around the almost empty room. “Lets get something to eat and get out of here.”

Eighmy nodded and followed him to were the food was being served.

“Its like déjà vu.” Said Eighmy still looking around.

“How’s that?”

“This looks just like my school cafeteria. Only quieter.” She said the last two words like someone telling a ghost story.

Birkin chuckled slightly. “Yeah people tend to be quiet here.”

They got their food and sat down at an empty table. They were quiet for a few minutes, but then Eighmy grew sick of it and decided to make conversation.

“So you’ve been working here since you were sixteen, right?” She asked poking her macaroni with her fork.

“Working here when I was sixteen, I started working for Umbrella at fifteen.”

“So how old are you now?” She took a bite of the macaroni after she spoke, deciding after much poking it was not going to try and eat her.

“Thirty-six.” He looked up from his meal at her from under his bangs.

Eighmy’s eyes went wide. “Thirty-six… Really?”

He smiled slightly. “Yes I know I’m getting old, you don’t have to point it out.”

“Thirty-six isn’t old. I was just surprised that you had been working here for 20 years.” She started poking the brown chucks on her plate that Umbrella called meat. “And besides you don’t look like you should even be in your thirties.”

“Oh really?” He asked, looking up completed from his food.

“Yeah, maybe twenty-six or twenty-seven, but no older.” She smiled slightly at him, still poking the meat. “I thinks its your freckles, they make you look younger.” And there cute. She thought to herself. “Your eyes make you look younger too.”

Birkin didn’t really know what to say, no one ever complemented his looks. Not even his ex-wife Annette.

“…Thanks.”

Eighmy took a bite of the meat, deciding, like the macaroni, it was not going to hurt her. She then contented to talk, apparently not noting Birkin’s loss of words.

“And besides, I’m a firm believer that age, and looks for that matter, have nothing to do with how old you are. If you want to stay young you will, if you want to be old you will be. Its all a state of mind.”

“Yes I guess that’s true.” He slid his tray down the table so he could put his elbows on the table, he then rested his head on his closed hands. “So where do you think I fit into that?”

Eighmy choked on her drink, not really expecting the question. “Well.” She started once she could breath again. “Your very mature, but still quite young I think, though I don’t believe many people get to see that side of you.” She said thoughtfully, almost sadly.

“Mature? Isn’t that another word for old?” He asked, trying to lighten the mood, so Eighmy assumed that meant he didn’t want to talk about his lack letting people in and so decided to drop it.

“Maturity and oldness are two different things Doctor, you should know that.”

“Yes I suppose it is.” He looked at Eighmy tray and saw that she was finished. “You ready to get back?”

“Yeah.” They put their trays away, then made their way back to the lab.

Once back inside the lab Birkin asked. “So are you staying here at the mansion?” He was looking through a microscope as he spoke.

“Yeah…You?”

“No, I got a place in the city, one of the few things I got to keep during the divorce.”

“Your divorced?” She asked surprised.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He looked up from the scope. “Come look at this.”

Eighmy walked over and looked through the scope at the little monticules’ moving around. “How long has it been?”

“What been?”

“Since yo-” Eighmy quickly realized how nosey and inconsiderate she was being and shut up. “Never mind.”

Birkin, not being an idiot, knew what she wanted to know as soon as she cut herself off. “About 2 and ½ months.”

Eighmy looked up at him. “Sorry for being rude, its not my business.” She then looked back through the microscope.

“Its alright.” She was a cheap hooker anyway. He thought but decided. “I was the one who wanted it anyway.” Sounded a little better.

“Sill I’m sorry for butting in, I don’t like it went people get into my business, hence my not talking about the lying I did earlier, so I try to respect other peoples privacy.” She stepped back to let him to the microscope.

“That’s ok and besides, if your that sorry you could always tell me your reason.” Eighmy didn’t even have to look at him to know he was smirking.

“I’m sorry, BUT I’m not That sorry.”

Birkin laughed. “I’ll get it out of you someday.”

“Don’t count on it.”