“You can totally laugh,” the chef insisted, turning away from his cutting board to give me a flat, challenging look. He was clearly baffled that I hadn't immediately reacted. He seemed to think it was a standard, universally accepted joke.
I managed a strained, awkward chuckle, waving my hands slightly. “I genuinely don’t know what to say to that,” I admitted, my eyes wide. My brain was completely short-circuiting trying to reconcile his excellent chopping skills with his incredibly dark, casual story about his ex.
The sheer inappropriate honesty of it all left me speechless. It was such a strange, jarring moment—like a needle scratching across a perfect record. “It’s... a very memorable reason to hate a color, I guess?” I offered, feeling wildly out of my element.
The chef shrugged ag
