"There is a man-eating mermaid living in the lake, but she's been subdued already, and is a patron besides," he says, and he tilts his head, thinking. His smile is boyish, almost playful. "Have you ever been to the greenhouse?"

And now he has the impulse to poke her lips back into place. "I learned something new," he says, and his shrug sets the bar for casual. "Well worth the cause."