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Reid looked at something on his phone and chuckled.
“What’s that, Pretty Boy?” Morgan asked.
“Uhm, nothing, just well…”
“You don’t wanna share with a friend?” Morgan teased him.
“It’s just… you wouldn’t ….” Reid trailed off.
“-understand,” Morgan finished for him and Reid didn’t say anything.
“If it’s an Ivy League joke, you might be right, but still, it’s mean,” Morgan chuckled again.
“Uhm, it’s just this meme…”
“You do know memes?”
“Meme is an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations. Or as defined by Merriam Webster it is an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. Then of course there are memes of translation established by Andrew Chesterman and these in turn inspired Franz Pöchhacker and his memes of interpreting… but I don’t think you meant these…”
Morgan shook his head, laughing and Reid sighed a breath of relief that Morgan stopped insisting on seeing the meme.
Morgan rubbed his hands together. “Soooo Pretty Boy, case is almost closed, the night is young, what about going to a bar and finding you a nice girl to talk to,” Morgan winked.
Reid frowned.
“Or a nice boy to talk to. We are leaving tomorrow, no deep feelings, no attachments needed. Come on, let uncle Derek play the matchmaker,” Morgan teased him.
“Why don’t you play a matchmaker for yourself though?” Reid asked.
“Uhm, well, the thing is…” Morgan started. “I’m not looking for anyone anymore. Penelope and me… we are very happy together. So I’m not looking for anyone to hook up in random bars when we are working on a case, you know.”
“Oh! Of course,” Reid said surprised. “I’m also not looking for anyone to.. you know… as you said,” he said and gestured around.
“I could help, though,” Morgan winked, happy that the previous conversation went well.
“For years I thought I was broken, I do have an IQ of 187 and eidetic memory and everything. But there aren’t many books about it, even though it’s not a modern phenomenon at all. And I haven’t thought about it, because what could I say, that I’m not into it and that would be weird and yeah…”
Morgan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “We are not talking about…” he began and interrupted himself because they certainly weren’t talking about Reid’s concerns about schizophrenia. The more Reid talked the more confused Morgan grew.
“And when someone does talk about different sexual orientations, they just mention homosexuality and bisexuality. Asexuality is there, too!”
It was Morgan’s turn to be surprised. “Oh!”
“And there’s this meme,” he said and finally showed his phone to Morgan.
“Invade Denmark? What?!”
“Well, the earth’s population is about 7.88 billion, scientists estimate that one percent is asexual, that means 7.88 million people! Denmark has 5.8 million inhabitants. I mean the meme is not that new and with the earth’s population rapidly growing… Twenty years ago the earth’s population was 6 billion people so the math would be even more balanced but anyway, there are 7.88 million people who identify as asexual and there are 5.8 million people in Denmark, the Denmark’s army has approximately 25 000 active members and 60 000 further reserve. So the assumption is that we could win over Denmark.”
“Ehm…. Yeah, and you said that it was not an Ivy League meme,” Morgan laughed.
“I could show you some more stats…”
“No, no, no. Definitely no. I don’t need any stats. And I’m happy for you.”
“For what?”
“That you belong. You’ve said: ‘we could win over Denmark’.”
“I… have, I guess,” Reid said quietly.
“So… let’s call it a night, we’ll wrap up the case tomorrow and instead of going into a bar what about going to Penelope with me?” Morgan suggested.