“I think I can manage that,” he winks. “Just try it though! Thisis heaven!”
I lick a drop of ice cream that’s already melting out the bottom of my ice cream sandwich before taking a bite. “Holy shit! You’re right!”
“I told you.” He grumbles through another bite. “What’s this folder for?” He slides the folder toward himself and opens it up with the hand that isn’t covered in melted ice cream.
“One last surprise for you,” I tell him, licking a dribble of vanilla off my pinky. “I was told there should be a little note in there to explain.”
He reads the note aloud, “A friend of mine is a great artist, and she was inspired by the snippet of your story I shared with her. Enjoy!”
He pulls out the drawings that were mailed to me a few days ago and flips through them. Astonishment fills his face, and I think somewhere in there, I see a little pride.
“You make a beautiful princess, Em,” he remarks, handing me one of the images. It’s my character waving out the window of a castle down to Andrew’s character as he wields the head of a dragon. It reminds me a lot of a scene straight out of Rapunzel, but it’s exciting to see Andrew’s work brought to life.
“You make a pretty handsome knight, yourself,” I respond.
He looks through the two other images, and we go back and forth arguing over which one is our favorite. I tell him pink isn’t my color, and he insists I look good in all colors. He complains his arms look too small in one photo, but I tell him they nailed his gorgeous, piercing blue eyes.
As the sun sets and we prepare to headhome, I snag my phone out of my pocket. “Wait, there’s one more thing we have to do before we leave.”
He looks at me curiously.
I press a few buttons and allow the notes of “Porch Swing Angel”to pour through the speaker. Immediately, Andrew’s face breaks into a grin, and he holds out a hand to me. “May I have this dance, princess?”
I nod. “Yes, you may, sir knight.”
And we finish out the evening in the most perfect way, holding each other close, swaying to the melody of our song.
CHAPTER 39
Summer 19
What was I thinking?!I trudge through the mud, which comes almost up to my waist. As I attempt to keep up with Andrew, who is so casually plowing through the mud, which feels more like glue, I drive my knees up high.How is he so good at this? He’s not the runner! Curse his natural athleticism!
“I can’t believe we paid to do this,” I laugh at our stupidity as I climb up the rope obstacle alongside Andrew, who has apparently turned into Spider-man in the past twenty minutes.
He bursts into laughter. He too is caked in mud, but he seems completely unfazed. I, on the other hand, hate being dirty, but here I am with mud in my shoes, my underwear, and my hair. I’m a great runner, but I’m not great at jumping, climbing, or crawling through thick goo.
I didn’t expect the mud run to be so uncomfortable.I should’ve known!ItwasRebecca’s idea after all. She’s so much more of a free spirit than me, completely fine with being caked in mud or ruining a perfectly good pair of running shoes. Knowing she would’ve loved this so much provides me withsome comfort as the mud makes my whole body weigh an extra one hundred pounds.Is this what elephants feel like all the time? Poor things.
Leaping off the other side of the rope, I stumble a little as the exhaustion of carrying around this extra weight hits me. “Are you doing okay?” Andrew asks, glancing in my direction with concern while still keeping up the pace.
“Oh yeah, I’m doing great!” I fake a smile. “I’m a runner. I’ve got this.”
He chuckles. “You know you don’t have to pretend with me, Em. I know this is not just another run for you.”
“Rebecca would’ve loved it though. I’m doing this because she wanted to do it. Even if it’s not my thing, and I don’t plan on doing this again, I still feel closer to her by being here.”
He nods with understanding and goes quiet as we continue. The run started easy enough, with almost no obstacles for the first half mile. Since then, they’ve been sprinkled in fairly frequently.
According to my watch, which is miraculously still working despite the mud seeping into each of its crevices, we have gone about 2.75 miles. We only have .35 to go!Maybe, hopefully, we are in the clear now. Why didn’t I think to check how many obstacles there are in total? We’ve definitely gone through ten so far, so that has to be it! Ten is a nice, even number. No one would want to mess with that.
As we crest the hill, I see the mother of all mud-run obstacles. “Absolutely not! There’s no way,” I begin to panic.
Andrew must hear me because he grabs my hand. Even with all the mud currently turning my body into a shapeless monster, he’s able to find my hand. “Come on, Em! We’re so close. Remember how close you feel to Rebecca?” I think he winks, but he could just be blinking away the mud that’s slipping into his eyes.
I scrunch my nose up at him but follow him to the giant slide that slopes down the hill. It’s like one of those inflatable waterslides, except instead of fresh water, it’s full of murky brown water. I’m pretty positive the bottom is full of some really thick mud too. The slides are honestly kind of fun if I can look past the whole mud part, which I suppose is a little easier now that I’m already covered in it.
To top it off, there’s yet another mud pit, covered with barbed wire that we have to climb under.I already had to do that once! They couldn’t come up with something new? They should’ve ended this run with a funnel through a fire hose.
