June had been grabbing a bag of lentils to make a diabetic- and kid-friendly lentil Sloppy Joe recipe… and nearly dropped the whole thing, which would have madequitea mess to clean up. Fortunately, she saved it in just the nick of time, then placed it calmly on the counter before turning to face Benjamin.
“No,” she said, which she reasoned was true, even if it did sort of sidestep the spirit of the question he was asking. “No, he’s a new friend.”
“Oh,” Benjamin said, still in that totally unbothered way that kids had when talking about something that shook their parents to the core. “That’s too bad.”
June tried to match his tone.
“Why is that?”
Now, Benjamin put down his toy and gave June an intense look.
“Do you know Marjorie from my class? Her mom got a boyfriend, and they went to the trampoline park. I want to go to the trampoline park.” His intensity ratcheted up, as June struggled not to laugh. “Trampoline parks areso cool.”
“You and I could go to the trampoline park together,” she suggested.
He looked uncertain. “I don’t know, Mommy. I think we’ll have to wait until you get a boyfriend.”
“We’ll revisit it,” June said, because if she tried to break down this kid logic right now, she would burst out laughing, and she didn’t want her son to think she was laughing at him.
Besides, if she turned her back and started to cook, she could chuckle to herself, as long as she did so quietly.
She had the lentils simmering in their requisite spices when the doorbell rang. June quickly put a lid on the food, checked her hair in the hallway mirror, decided it was as good as it was going to get in the next few minutes, and opened the door to find Levi standing there with a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
His face lit up when he saw her.
“I am very sorry,” she said.
His face fell.
“You have to cancel?” he asked, sounding disappointed but not judgmental.
“No!” His face lifted again. “No, I just… couldn’t get a babysitter. So it’s not just you and me for dinner. It’s you and me and?—”
“Hi! I’m Benjamin!”
Like most children of his age, Benjamin had no sense of personal space when it came to his mother, so he wrapped himself around June’s legs from behind and peeked his head around her hip to grin a gap-toothed smile up at Levi.
“Hello, Benjamin,” Levi said, offering his hand to shake. “I’m Levi. I’m not sure if you remember me driving your mom home the other day when you weren’t feeling well.”
“No, I wasn’t paying attention that day,” Benjamin said without a hint of self-consciousness. “But I remember you from when my mommy and Cadence watched a video of you on the internet.”
June’s face went so hot that she was certain she looked like a stop sign. Levi, meanwhile, looked delighted.
“Didn’t you come to this town specifically so people would stop gawking at you?” she demanded to distract from the flutter in her stomach she got when he beamed at her.
Levi’s cheerful expression didn’t so much as flicker. “That is super different, and I think you know that,” he said. “Did you watch alotof videos?”
“Not that many,” she grumbled. This was only partially true, depending on someone’s definition ofa lot.
“This is already an awesome evening,” Levi said, splitting the sunshine of his smile between mother and son. “Benjamin, you seem also very awesome. It is a huge pleasure to finally meet you for real.”
“Thanks!” Benjamin said brightly. “Do you like trains?”
Levi barely blinked at this non sequitur. “I do.”
“Do you want to see my trains?”
“Yes, definitely.”
