Hunting the Fairy Tale

Chapter 79: Why Not Complicate Things?

Willow

"So, what do you think, Missy?" Hunter asks, eying the ice cream I'm having a moment with. I just groan and grin at him, making his eyes widen, and then he laughs at me. "Does that mean you like this one more than the other one?"

"No, it means I would like to squeeze this one inside the one we finished and die in an explosion of salted caramel, chocolate, nuts, and what were those other little bits? Fudge?"

"Yes," he chuckles. "You might actually have an awesome plan there. I always eat them together."

"We should write to the manufacturers and let them know of our wisdom."

"They're made by different companies, but hey, collaboration is a good thing," Hunter chuckles.

"It's strange," I say after enjoying another mouthful of the rich, creamy ice cream. "I thought I was over fudge, but I was wrong. Fudge clusters in ice cream don't make me want to puke."

"Fudge normally makes you want to puke?" Hunter seems to be horrified by such an alien concept. I don't think I told him about the time I overdosed on fudge.

"Only when I smell it, see it or taste it... but I really enjoyed the tiny nuggets in that other ice cream we had. Maybe because they were more crunchy and not just smooth and overly sweet, like the ones that come in a box."

Hunter frowns, thinking it over.

"Aren't those Caramels?"

"Oh? There's a difference?"

Great, I'm getting a look again and a smirk. I smirk back and Hunter laughs at me, his eyes shifting to look at my ice cream.

Oh, dear! I can hear a thousand alarms go off. My ice cream is in danger!

We're sitting side by side on my bed; our legs stretched out in front of us and the small laptop table between us. When he returned from putting away the bag of ice creams and delivering Frankie to his mother, Hunter swept everything off my bed to make room for himself. The dolls I was using to fit the clothes I'd made ended up on the floor, mixed with Frankie's toys.

I wasn't quite halfway through the first ice cream when I noticed that Hunter was beginning to lose to the temptation remaining on the stick in his hand. I think he swallowed half his ice cream with one bite. I thought it prudent to swap as quickly as possible, or I might not get to taste the next one, and I was rather curious about it.

I'm still enjoying my share of the second ice cream, but Hunter is now officially ice cream-free, which is dangerous.

"You should get Tan to make you some fudge. His looks like rocky clumps, not pretty at all, and they're kinda crystallized and somehow not that sweet. So good, you'll fall in love."

"With Tanner?" I ask, peeking at him, running my tongue over the side of the ice cream.

"No! With the fudge. Tch!" He really seems to be annoyed that I could possibly prefer Tanner over Fudge. I giggle softly and shrug, licking the ice cream again.

"I highly doubt that. It will have to be some truly am-"

Hunter suddenly leans over and runs his tongue from my wrist, over my fingers to the ice cream and sucks a thick layer of the soft, choc-vanilla cream from my stick, causing more salted caramel to ooze out. I watch in fascination while he prevents the flood from escaping by using his mouth.

And just like that, half of what I had left was suddenly gone.

He gives me a guilty smile when he becomes aware of me watching his lack of self-control.