Bragi exercised the same willpower. Only this time he used it to not wince. If it were any other goddess, Bragi could have used a line like that to invite her to all kinds of dances, or just to dance right there. It was a perfect segue way. The kind that doesn't always come in social situations. 'I love to dance' normally opened the door to a million opportunities. But this time they were locked. The segue way was wasted. He couldn't ask her. The truly unfortunate thing was that Bragi really wanted to ask her. He wanted to ask her more than he'd ever wanted to ask anyone. Willpower. Willpower. Willpower. Instead he said, “Yes. You'd better get started on that as soon as possible. My expectations are already rising as we speak.”
The surprise in her eyes confused him. Of course Bragi would make it within the week. He didn't have to find an orchard anymore. He'd written down where it was and everything just so he wouldn't lose it. Then again, it wasn't like the goddess knew that. And he had waited two weeks...Bragi decided her surprise was fair. This time. But then she spoke and Bragi blinked. “What?” He replayed what he'd just said. Oh. Bragi decided he'd pretend he'd done that on purpose. He smiled. He'd accept this challenge too. “I guess we'll find out,” he said.
It killed him to not know what she'd almost said. The things people almost said but didn't, were usually exactly the kinds of things that Bragi wanted to hear. Things slipped out of him so easy sometimes. It wasn't really fair that this didn't happen to other people right when Bragi wanted it too. But he'd done an alright job of not slipping that day, so he supposed it was all fair. Even if he didn't like it. “I'll show them to you one day then” Bragi promised. “Then you can rank them with the dull records, and less dull records in terms of fascination.” Her tone went casual, but her eyes didn't match it. It meant Bragi was doing something right. “I'll get working on tweaking it this afternoon then”
“She lives in an orchard a ways from here,” Bragi said. “I imagine that's how she learned. I didn't know which orchard was yours. So I ended up at a few wrong ones along the way.”