Let Love Win

Chapter 9 - Zeek

She was practically bouncing in her seat while she waited for our order to come out. "So I can't order for myself, huh?" I asked hiding a smirk.

"Oh sorry, go ahead and order for yourself. The menu is at the front," she said gesturing to the rows of signs on the wall behind the counter.

I nodded challengingly and walked to the cash. I looked up and was overwhelmed with the amount of selection. There were headings over each of the signs that described the selections that fell under it. I decided to look under the sign labelled tropical since that was usually the kind of ice cream I looked for. I thought that would make it easier but there was still 2 rows of flavour and combination choices to make and they all sounded good. Coconut and Pineapple, Mango and Peach...

I turned away and went to sit back down in front of Hadley. She giggled at me. "Did you pick something for yourself?" she asked.

"Shut up," I grumbled. "How is there even that many ways to make ice cream?"

"House secret. I don't even know how she does it. It took me an hour to decide what  I wanted when I first came here."

"So did that become your usual?"

"Nope, another 3 months of visits helped me decide what I liked the most and that's how I got my usual."

Chase came out with our order and place them in front of us. "Birthday cake for the lady and chocolate mocha for the fellow. Enjoy," he said an walked away.

Hadley picked up the spoon and dug into her bowl. She put the first scoop of her ice cream into her mouth and moaned in pleasure. My mind immediately went to Friday night when I made her moan like that. All I could think was how I wanted that sound to be for me again. How it was me that made her feel that good that night, and not some other guy. How that night led to us being here together today.

"Are you going to eat your ice cream?" she questioned, pulling me out of my little daydream. "I promise you will never want to go anywhere else for ice cream again."

I looked at her and she looked excited for me to try the first bite of my ice cream. I took the spoon and dipped it into the bowl in front of me. The ice cream was a perfect balance between soft and hard ice cream and looked smoother than silk. I brought the spoon to my mouth and it melted quickly, coating my palate in a dreamy mix of chocolate and coffee.

"Wow," I whispered. "This is pretty good."

Hadley smiled at my reaction as if it was exactly what she was looking for. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"Why?"

"Because you'll be the 13th person I've brought here and the 13th person whose loved it."

"You give this place a lot of business, don't you?"

"I guess so."

It was quiet for a bit while we ate our bowls of ice cream. "So what kinds of things do you do on your free time?" I asked awkwardly.

"I hate small talk," she blurted out.

"So what do you propose we talk about then? I mean this is a date."

She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. After clicking around on the screen, she opened up the 21 Questions app. "Instead of only one person answering, we'll both do it."

"Doesn't this count as small talk?"

"In a way, but it's structured and whenever you need a new topic, you just press the button. Small talk gets awkward and boring very quickly, but this adds a way of spicing it up a little."

"Makes sense."

She pressed the button and a topic came up. "Favourite colour," she stated.

"Blue," I answered at the same time she said, "Green."

"Favourite movie."

My answer was Fired Up while she admitted she liked the Harry Potter Series. We continued like that for about 25 minutes, answering questioned like favourite TV show, animal, books, food, music, pet peeves, hobbies and interested, and other little things like that. As much as I hated to admit it, the app really worked for first dates and Hadley was right; it was small talk in a way that never got awkward. It also automatically went from the super cheesy, general questions, to the more thought-provoking questions to answer, like phobias we have and things we would want to change about our appearance.

"I would probably only change my hair colour a couple times," she said after a moment of contemplation. "I'm pretty satisfied with everything else."

"What colour would you change it to?" I asked.

She thought for another moment. "Well, it's already half black but I don't think I would look good with black hair. And I was thinking of re-dying the tips anyways. Maybe a blue or pink ombre." As I watched her, I noticed that as she talked about it, she played with the ends of her hair as if she were picturing herself with the changes. All of a sudden, her nose turned up in disgust. "Not pink." I laughed at her reaction. "What about you? Anything you would change?"

"I'd take steroids to make myself bigger."

She looked at me as if I were crazy. "You're not actually being serious, right?"

"No." I laughed again and she glared at me. "All joking aside though, I would probably only change the style of my hair. Like cut it short or grow it long, I haven't decided yet. S until then, I'm gonna stay put somewhere in the middle."

Her finger hovered over the button to change the subject when her phone started vibrating and a caller ID flashed on the screen. I didn't get a chance to see who it was because she grabbed the phone as soon as the ringtone started playing, as if she knew who it was instantly.

"Hey, is everything ok?" she answered. I noticed her eyes quickly went from fun to worry in a matter of seconds when the call came through. I heard the faint reply on the other end and her face softened. "I'll be right there."

She hung up and looked at me. "So umm, I got called to go to an emergency babysitting job and I have to go and get the kids now. I'm really sorry for leaving you," she replied. To my surprise, she actually seemed upset that she had to go.

"Well why don't I come with you?" I suggested. "I have a football and a Frisbee in my car so we could take them to the park for a bit until their parents get back from wherever."

"Are you sure? I mean you really don't have to. I'm sure you have better things to do than spend the afternoon with kids and their babysitter."

"Maybe, but I want to. Trust me, it'll be just as much fun for me as it will be for them. Plus, I think this babysitter of theirs is really hot and would love to spend some more time with her."

"Flattering," she said sarcastically. She looked hard at me as she considered my offer. Finally she shrugged. "If you insist. They're at a school soccer game right now, so I'll have to swing by and grab them."

"Cool, so I'll follow you then?" She looked confused for a second but nodded. She reached into her purse, pulled out her wallet and ditched a $10 bill on the table we were sitting at. "I thought Trish said it was on the house?"

"Trish is losing her memory, as you may have been able to tell from when we walked in. She forgets that the place is close to bankruptcy when she gives me free ice cream for being her most loyal customer. She'll thank me later. Although one time, she did chase me down the street to shove the money back into my pocket so we should probably go now."