“Let me have a bite of yours,” Simon says, reaching over me with his spoon to steal some of my moose tracks ice cream.
I don’t argue, I just do the same to his bubble gum.
I get one of the little pieces; it crunches in my mouth.
“You know, I feel like these were chewier when I was a kid. Now it’s like I’m eating little frozen candies.”
“I was thinking that too.”
I get up to put the lid on mine, and he follows me.
I grab a sticky note off the counter and write “candy, not gum” with a little heart on his and then put it in the freezer.
He folds his arms and leans against the counter.
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Put stickies on everything.”
“Oh, um, my mom used to do it. Like, she’d put a sticky on my cereal boxes when she went to work early. So when I woke up and went to eat, I got a note from her even though she couldn’t be there.”
“Your mom sounds like a pretty great woman. I’m sorry I never met her.”
I shrug. “We didn’t really know each other then.”
“Do you think she would have liked me?”
I glance up, meeting his gaze at his question.
She’d have loved him.
“I think so,” I tell him.
He kisses my forehead and then points to the couch. “Another?—”
His words are cut off by his cell phone ring.
He pulls it from his pocket, and we both look down to see his mom calling.
“Hey, Mom,” he answers and moves into the living room while I wash our spoons and pizza plates and put them in the dishwasher.
“Oh, really? Okay, yeah. Five minutes, huh. Yeah, I’m home.”
My heart immediately sinks.
He’s going home.
I knew this is how the weekend would end, but I thought we’d have one more night.
“Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
I don’t even try to pretend like I didn’t hear every word when he steps back into the kitchen.
“I… Grey wanted to come home tonight so that he could work on some football stuff with me tomorrow since it’s still the weekend.”
“Okay. Of course.”
