“You don’t need to feel sorry about him. You can wish him to Hell and you’d still be sweet. It’s normal to feel hate too.”
“Thank you for making me feel better.” I kiss his cheek.
“I’d do anything for you.”
“Nothing too drastic,” I warn.
“Not to worry, pixie.” He kisses the top of my head, and I rest back on his shoulder.
“Love you.”
“You too.”
I finish the boat ride with a smile on my face and a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest.
“Wait a minute.” The next morning, I pull Brendan to a stop and run into a store. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
I rummage through the postcards on a display near the door.
“Who are you planning to send that to?” Brendan chuckles.
“A friend.” I pick one that’s covered in fireworks.
“Okay. Hey, since we’re here, how about we get you one of the hoodies you’ve been looking at? It’s going to be a little chilly tonight.”
It’s never chilly here. Other than the theme parks, I never want to be in Florida again. It’s too hot and muggy, there are swarms of mosquitos and alligators hiding in every puddle.
Brendan drags me over to the hoodies.
“But they’re so—” I stop talking when he gives me the glare. “Fine. I want the baby-blue one in large.” I like my hoodies to be oversized so I can hide in them. Just for fun, I grab one and hold it against Brendan’s chest. “You have to get one too and we can be twins!” I gasp, and he laughs.
“No one will ever mistake us for twins, pixie.”
“But it will be fun.” I give him my best puppy-dog eyes.
“Fine.” He caves way too quickly, and I give him a big squeeze before we head to the register.
When he moves to grab the postcard from me, I hold it back.
“I want to buy this myself.” He looks like he might argue, but I don’t want to buy Lex’s card with his own money.
“Okay, pixie.”
I smile and hand the nice lady my money.
“Alright, we have reservations for lunch at a new restaurant.”
“Is it really fancy again?” I love getting fancy and dressed up, but the food we had last night was so fussy and weird. Like we sniffed a smokey glass before eating deconstructed caviar.
No, thank you.
“Nope, it’s more casual, and I hear they have some fantastic fried rice.”
“Say no more.” I hold up my hand. “Lead the way.”
“Let’s take a picture with the lanterns.” Brendan points when we head through the park to the next ride.
“What lanterns? Oh!” I run over. “That looks so pretty!”
