“Please come with us. It’s not imposing at all if I want you there.” I give Alondra my best smile, hoping she’ll say yes. I can’t think of a better way to end today than with dinner with both of them.
“Are you sure?” she asks, still seeming doubtful we’d want her there.
“It’s decided, you’re coming,” Mom says, looping her arm with Alondra’s, and I flex my hand, fighting the urge to place my arm around her again.Am I acting like she’s my girlfriend if I do that?
I shove the thought to the back of my mind, trying to focus instead on how everything tonight seems to be going right.
It doesn’t take us long to get to the local diner I usually take Momma to when she’s here. It reminds me of the diner back home she used to take me to after my games if we had the money to spare. I left my jacket and tie in the truck, but I was worried that if I stopped at my house to change, Al would change her mind about coming with us.
“Three hot chocolates coming right up,” the waitress, Cindy, says, skillfully balancing all three mugs to set them carefully on the table. I reach to help her pass them, needing to feel useful. “Are you ready to order some dinner?” she asks, pulling a notepad out of her apron, and I shake my head.
“Can we have a few minutes?” Momma asks, and the older woman nods.
“Of course, sugar. I’ll circle back,” she says, walking off.
I take a sip of the hot chocolate, immediately burning my tongue, and I wince, swallowing it.
“I’m sorry, did you just drink your hot chocolate without even blowing on it?” Al asks, gaping at me in surprise from her seat next to me, and a quiet laugh rings from Momma across from us.
“He’s never waited to drink his hot chocolate. You’d think Jack would learn after all the cups of hot chocolate we would drink after his games, but his skull is a little thick,” she teases, giving me a warm smile.
“Okay, wait, let me explain,” I say, laughing. “If you burn your tongue to start with, then it’s already burnt so you can just keep drinking it.”
Alondra’s hazel eyes widen and she wraps her hands around her mug. “No. Just . . . no. That doesn’t makeanysense, Jack.”
“I’ve tried to tell him that for years, but maybe he’ll listen to you,” Momma says, combing her light brown hair back into a bun. It’s crazy to think that when she was the same age I am now, she was chasing around a three-year old.
“It works,” I argue, trying to defend myself. I set my mug down, pushing up the sleeves of my button-up to try to get more comfortable.
“I don’t want a burnt tongue,” Alondra says, blowing on her mug to cool hers, but whatever, I think my way works just fine. “So what do you guys have planned to do tomorrow?”
“I promised Jack I’d make some cookies for his roommates this weekend, but I think we’re going to go to the aquarium,” Momma says, picking up her menu to look through it.
“I’ve heard a lot about your cookies. They sound legendary,” Al says, and my stomach rumbles at the thought of them.
“I’ll make sure to set some aside for you. I’ve heard about the fights that have broken out in their house over them, and there’s no reason for you to get caught in the middle of grown men fighting over cookies,” she says, shaking her head. “You’ll have to send me the recipe for the face masks you guys did, and maybewe’ll do that tomorrow night. I bet I could get all four of them to try it,” Momma says, and Al giggles, taking a small sip of her hot chocolate.
“If anyone could convince them, I think it’d be you, but you’ll probably want to use the cookies as leverage.”
“You might be a genius,” she says, but my mind is stuck on how she found out about the face masks in the first place because I don’t remember telling her. What exactly did they talk about during the game?
“Did you show her the pictures?” I ask, looking at Alondra, and she bites her lower lip, trying to hide her smile as she shakes her head.
“Wasn’t me, but now I wish it was,” Al says, giving me a smile before turning back to my mom. “Did Jack tell you how he got me to go to his games last weekend?”
Momma shakes her head, looking at me curiously. “No, he didn’t say anything other than you went, and he thinks you’re his new good luck charm.”
“Oh really?” Al asks, and I feel my face flush because I did tell Momma that, but I wasn’t planning on letting Al know she’s my new superstition, even if the way I played tonight confirmed it.
“Momma,” I complain, rubbing the back of my neck.
“Oh hush, you’re fine,” she says, waving me off. I definitely underestimated the trouble they could get into together. “So how did he get you to go?”
“He cheated at rock paper scissors.”
“How do you even cheat at rock paper scissors?” Momma asks, her blue eyes lighting up with amusement.
Al opens her mouth to explain, but I scramble to answer before she can throw me under the bus any further. “I’m friends with Alondra’s cousin, Macy, and she might have shared with me that Al’s default when there’s a disagreement is to playrock paper scissors, but she always picks rock,” I explain, and Momma shakes her head.
