I’ll buy you dinner first next time

[Tinkerbell]

“Much.” Of course, all that tiredness had now been replaced by a weird jitteriness that had me shoving the blanket off my legs and standing up. “What does it feel like, doing healing magic?” I asked, moving away to stand near one of the big windows. The early morning sunlight sparkled on the dew-covered grass.

“What do you mean?”

Rubbing my hands up and down my arms like I was cold, I shrugged. “It seems like it would be super-draining, closing wounds and bringing people back from near death.”

“It’s actually kind of the opposite,” he said, getting up off the couch. “It’s like . . . touching electricity, I guess. You’re handling someone’s life energy, so it’s intense, yeah, but there’s like this charge from it.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about you ‘handling my life energy,’ Cal.”

He grinned, and I was taken aback at how different it made him look. Cal spent so much time being stoic and solemn that it was easy to forget he even had teeth. “I’ll buy you dinner first next time, I promise.”


Why he buys her dinner? What's the metaphor?

 

[Tullia]

“I’m not sure how I feel about you ‘handling my life energy,’ Cal.”

He grinned, and I was taken aback at how different it made him look. Cal spent so much time being stoic and solemn that it was easy to forget he even had teeth. “I’ll buy you dinner first next time, I promise.”


Why he buys her dinner? What's the metaphor?

She says she is unsure how she feels about him "handling her life energy", hinting that it sounds like a very personal, very intimate thing to do.

He picks up on the fact she is nervous about it and turns it into a joke to reassure her that he won't take advantage of her.

It's a cultural joke/cliche that in order to get physically intimate with a girl, the boy should "at least buy her dinner first"; girls should get something out of it as well, and that guys. (The oldfashioned assumption being that girls don't want/enjoy the physical side of things, of course, or perhaps just that girls are somewhat mercenary? Or that guys are fickle/shallow and don't respect something unless they have to earn it/pay for it... who knows! It's not very flattering to either gender really.)

By joking that he will buy her dinner next time, he's admitting it is an intimate experience when he heals someone - but not so intimate that he can't joke about it, so she has nothing to worry about. He's possibly also flirting with her a little