That's. No. What? No. 

He looks at the actual menu. 

Appetizers

Caprese Skewers With Balsamic Vinegar

Fresh Peach Crostini With Whipped Honey Feta and Balsamic Drizzle

Almond-Crusted Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Cherries

Main Course

Homemade Pizza 

Dijon-Brown Sugar Marinated Steak

Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet

Dessert

The Thing You Love Most

"Did you get a deep thought? Mine is asking me to contemplate whether you were born great, became great, or had greatness thrust upon you."

"Mine is a quote about being strengthened by Christ followed by 'how does your soulmate strengthen you,' and I can't tell whether it's trying to say that we're all meant to be partnered to the Divine or if it's saying that purely on accident." 

"I'm guessing not, since they missed that 'greatness thrust upon you' is a sex joke."

"The thing they wound up saying is actually not uninteresting. Shame it's almost certainly unintentional. What do you think 'The Thing You Love Most' is referring to?" 

"Is it bad that I'm curious? I'm sure it will be disappointing but what kind of disappointing I have no idea."

"Hopefully not, I'm curious too." 

The waitress comes back and Chris orders the caprese skewers.

The pizza will probably wind up edible. Chris's face is still scarily intense.

Caprese skewers turn out to be a tomato and cheese and basil on a toothpick. If he tries one, they're very good.

"I ordered something I thought you might like."

They don't really look like a meal, he could say and doesn't. "…thank you?" he says instead. 

There are slaves who were trained in the art of maintaining a conversation. Chris is not one of them.

Chris can manage employees, train slaves, and act as a butler to a large house. He can wait in silence for his master to finish his work, bring up a concern without being presumptuous, and apologize flawlessly for a mistake. He can serve at table for British aristocracy, Japanese executives, or American slaveowners. He cannot, he discovers, maintain a conversation with a stranger who is his equal at a formal dinner. 

Chris had not realized how much he'd come to rely on the comforting scripts of slave etiquette in the past six years.

They eat in silence. 

The food is fine. Marlo keeps feeling like there's something he should be saying — everyone around them is speaking comfortably with one another — but he can't think of anything to say, and Chris doesn't seem like someone who would want to talk just for the sake of it. He's quiet. 

The waitress comes around again once they've finished their meals. "What do you want for your main course?"

"Pizza," Chris says before Marlo has a chance to speak.

"And while we get that ready for you we have questions for you to ask each other to get to know each other and spark some exciting conversation during the main course!"

It takes her a moment to figure out which set of questions goes with which person; Chris gets the pink and lacy page this time. Marlo's questions say:

1. What do you like about me? Be very honest, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

2. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?

3. What did you most regret not having told someone before you died?

"…I suppose it's probably part of the point that these questions are incredibly intrusive. Should I go first or do you want to?" 

"You can start," Chris says.

He uses a very obvious reading-out-loud voice to say "What do you like about me? Be very honest, saying things you might not say to someone you just met," and makes a face at the end. 

His face is very soft. 

"I liked the way you looked at the light from the stained glass windows. I don't know enough about you to know why it was important to you, but it was, and-- it felt like it was important to you in the same way some things that are important to me are important to me."

He sounds very soft when he says "It reminded me of my church, back home. If I ignored the windows themselves, anyway." 

"We should ask Janet to make you a place to worship in. It's not the same without people, but.. it might help."

"It would. Thank you." 

"My first question is 'tell me about your best friend in high school.'"