Before getting started on his chili concoction, Paul turned toward her and said, “I think I’m good, Charlette.  But thanks again for your offer to help.”  He waved at the various ingredients assembled on the counter.  “I’m just throwing what you see before you together.  Nothing to it, really.  Just slicing up the hot link, onion, and peppers and throwing them and the rest into a pot.  Though unlike<i>007</i>, this shall be stirred, not shaken.”  He smiled at his own clumsy joke, aware that her other questions should be answered.  And really, there was nothing to hide and her queries weren’t all that personal.<br/><br/>“Uh, yeah, that was indeed the ex,” he said with a shrug, starting to open the cans with the electric can-opener.  “Seems what goes around, eventually comes around,” Paul casually stated, as three of the five cans now revealed their contents.  As the opener whirred back to life, he continued, “And for reasons known only to her, she felt I should know that she suspects her pilot boyfriend (he still didn’t know the man’s name) is messing around on the side.”<br/><br/>Fifth and final can now opened, Paul said with a trace of bitterness and comeuppance, “So now the cheater is being cheated upon, and such delicious irony.”  He shook his head, already regretful of his chosen words.  “Y’know, she and I are just coming up on a year since our breakup.  Had her disclosure happened any sooner, I would’ve laughed in her face.”<br/><br/>Paul looked at Charlette as he removed a medium-sized knife from the knife block.  “But I didn’t,” he quietly said.