She turned her attention to him pleasantly surprised he took an interest in her hobby.  "Not so much on the needlework, some of the more elaborate stitches are difficult for me, but then I haven't had a lot of time to practice.  Cross stitch for me is easy, since Aida cloth is marked with equal spaces."  She grinned.  "I do create a lot of my own patterns on paper when necessary because well as you can see I do much more modern pieces than are really commercially available."  

She shifted on the couch a little so she could look at him easier when they talked.  "I have never been good at latch hook, it takes too much patience for me.  But the cool thing is that any squared pattern be it cross stitch, latch hook, plastic canvas, or even the graphgan crochet patterns can all be interchangeable.  I had thought about doing more pattern work and opening an online shop for them, there seems to be a decent market for it, but doing it by hand is a giant pain."  

He mentioned moving or keeping her place for a while and shrugged.  "Eh, nothing really keeping me here.  It's really just a place to crash.  I don't keep much in the the way of stuff.  I had too many times as a kid where we packed up and left with nothing more than the clothes I was wearing.  The only thing I really care about keeping these days are my machines."  She gestured to a small desk on the other side of the room which held two vintage sewing machines, one was an electric Singer 99, and the other absolutely identical 99 that had been converted to a handcrank machine.  

She laughed at his enthusiasum for pizza.  "I have never been one for big chains, If you ask me Pizza hut has a very chemical aftertaste.  I don't know why, but it does.  And Papa John's?  Pizza should never be that sweet.  I had a friend who worked there and told me they use a five pound bag of sugar in their sauce."  

Aliyah was very pleased with his new found skills.  She just kissed him as he mentioned using YouTube to look things up.  She was touched by his effort in making sure things were just as enjoyable for her as they were for him.  Tonight did bring about one thing different for Aliyah.  She actually asked him to stay.  She confessed that she had never spent the entire night with someone before, but asked him to stay.  She wanted to get comfortable with the idea, and doing it here, at her place seemed to be the most likely way to make that happen.  


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The next morning Aliyah slid from the bed whispering quietly to the still sleeping Duncan.  "Just getting ready for work.  Gotta give my notice today."  She said before heading to the shower.  She got dressed and ready for work, slipping her feet into her shoes she grabbed her keys and worked off one of the two keys to her apartment.  She walked quietly back into the bedroom and leaned over kissing Duncan softly.  "I have to go to work Hon,"  She set the key on the nightstand with a soft clink. "I am leaving you a key.  Make yourself at home.  I'll see you in a few hours for breakfast."  

With one final kiss she headed out the door to start her day.