He shook his head, but he was smiling now, and I counted that as a win. We kept walking, and I finished my lavender honey while Rook guarded his remaining vanilla like it contained state secrets. The sun was starting to dip lower in the sky, turning the gray water silver, and the cold wind made my eyes water but I didn't care. This felt good. Normal. Like the kind of day we should've had years ago before everything went to hell.
“You know,” I said after a while, “if the ducks had gone for my ice cream instead of yours, I would've fought them.”
“You would've lost.”
“Probably. But I would've gone down swinging.”
“That's very brave of you.”
“I'm a hero, really. Underappreciated in my time.”
Rook snorted, and the sound made warmth bloom in my chest. “You're ridiculous.”
“And you're stuck with me.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Because it's true. You can't get rid of me now. I'm like a barnacle.”
“A barnacle.”
“Yeah. Attached and annoying and weirdly hard to remove.”
“That's the worst metaphor you've ever made.”
“I've got worse ones. Want to hear my thoughts on why relationships are like competitive eating contests?”
“Absolutely not.”
I grinned at him, and he shook his head like I was a lost cause. But he was smiling too, and his hand found mine as we walked, and I let myself have this. Let myself be happy for a minute without waiting for the other shoe to drop.
We finished our ice cream and dumped the napkins in a trash can, and I expected Rook to suggest heading back to the car. Instead, he pulled out his phone and checked the time.
“We've got one more stop,” he said.
“Where?”
“You'll see.”
“That's ominous.”
“It's not ominous. It's a surprise.”
“I don't like surprises.”
“You're gonna like this one.”
“Is it sex-related? Because if you're taking me somewhere for a surprise orgasm, I'm extremely on board.”
Rook's ears went red again. “It's not—we're not—fucking hell, Soren.”
“What? I'm just trying to manage my expectations here.”
“It's not sex.”
“Disappointing, but I'll survive.”
He drove us across the city to a neighborhood I didn't recognize, and I spent the entire ride trying to guess where we were going. Museum? No, those would be closing soon. Restaurant? Didn't make sense after ice cream. Some kind of weird tourist trap? Possible, but that didn't feel like Rook's style.
