Page 6 of Abbott’s Lost Spoon

“Everyone make an orderly line,” Ms. Lily said, working her way toward the sundae stand I’d set up. “Daddy Soren has plenty for everyone, so practice your best patience and when you are all served, I have a story to read you about the biggest ice cream cone in the world.”

A chorus of “Oooohhhs” filled the room as they all got in line. I wanted to hear that story myself!

Chapter Five

Abbott

Brock, Luke, and I went to Chained together, planning on catching up with some other little friends, including Sammy. I had a feeling my friends feared I’d cancel last minute if I didn’t have escorts. They’d have been right.

Luke decided it would be fun if we each picked each other’s outfits out, and we didn’t see what those outfits were until we were in the changing room. I had to admit, he did a good job.

Brock was extra adorable in sparkly star-covered knee socks I’d never seen before. I didn’t know if they had been tucked away in the back of his little clothes drawer or if they were new, but they were really, really cute.

For me, Luke picked out dinosaur attire because dinosaurs rocked. And in return, Luke had us pick for him. He didn’t have as many clothes as we did, and we surprised him with a new shirt that was snug and cropped and had an adorable teddy bear on the front and Ten on the back. We had no idea what the ten represented, but it looked cute.

As we were about to put our backpacks in the lockers, not wanting to rent an entire changing room, I grabbed my spoon and shoved it into my short shorts. In the chaos of Luke picking up my clothes, I’d nearly forgotten it, and that would not have been good.

We walked into the party together, excited to see everyone. It was a mommy-and-daddy free event. For some littles, that was great. It took the pressure to behave off, or it gave them some time to just be a little and have fun without having to follow their daddy’s rules too closely. But there were others who got lost without having someone there to guide them. I always tried to make sure I invited those to play with me because that was pretty brave, going when you relied on your daddy—or mommy—that much.

“I can hear them already.” Luke bounced on the balls of his feet.

There were so many voices coming at us, and we’d just turned the corner. It wasn’t screaming, but it was loud, and people were excited. That was what I’d been worrying about. It being too chaotic. But Brock and Luke each had an arm intertwined with one of mine, and we were going. We were doing this.

We checked in with Ms. Lily, and she gave us each an ice cream sticker. Once we got inside, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the echoes in the hallway made it sound. Chained had a lot more helpers in for the little event than normal, probably because of the lack of mommy-daddy supervision and the abundance of sugar. It made a really big difference. Some “helpers” were playing with littles at stations. Others were helping guide littles to their activity of choice, and Ms. Lily was keeping it all going.

There were so many littles there who I recognized. Ernie, who I hadn’t seen in forever, gave me a half wave and then went back to his puzzle. He was entranced. He’d come find us later.

“What should we do first? Is ice cream an option?” Brock asked.

“Looks like they’re still setting up,” I said.

That was when I first really looked over at the sundae table, manned by a really hot daddy. Although, he wasn’t dressed in daddy-type clothes. He was there for the ice cream, complete with an apron. But I recognized him from here. He was definitely a daddy, and somehow he got roped into scooping.

I was so glad about my spoon because I definitely wanted to say hi and see if I could catch his eye, which was so not like me. But what about today was?

“Staring at the ice cream man?” Luke shoulder bumped me.

“Shut up.”

“What?”

Luke shook his head and dragged me by the hand to the coloring table. I couldn’t help but take in the wonder that was the ice cream bar. They had a lot of flavors for something like this. Usually, I expected two, chocolate and vanilla, maybe a third with strawberry, but they had at least double that and so many toppings. Maybe this was worth it after all.

We colored our papers until Ms. Lily blew her whistle to catch all of our attention and told us we needed to form a line. Everybody was all about that. Of course, she used her full-on kindergarten-teacher voice, telling us about one person after the other, not pushing or shoving, and that kind of thing. And, honestly, there were some full-on brats here who probably really thrived on hearing that. They weren’t bratty to us, but that was their dynamic with their daddy, and this helped give them that grounding they needed.

We didn’t move as quickly as I had wanted to and ended up at the end of a long line. It felt like forever before I got up there. But finally, it was my turn, and the daddy smiled at me. From a distance, he caught my attention, but up close, he stole every last bit of it I had. Somehow, he was even hotter this up-front-and-personal.

“What flavor would you like?”

I already knew, but I wanted to talk to him longer despite there being a few people now behind us. “What kinds are there?”

He listed them off one by one, and then I ended up getting what I always did: chocolate. He scooped it into one of the cute little bowls and offered me a spoon. They were color changing with animals and pretty cool but also very much the wrong shape and texture. I whipped my spoon out of my shorts.

“I got my own.”

I hadn’t meant it as a test, but as I was waiting for his reply, I saw that I was using it as one. I was often judged for my spoon, which was why when work had ice cream socials, I tended to stay away.

“Oh, is that your special spoon?” he asked.