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Lance’s sundae is ridiculously huge, and as advertised, it’s covered in gummy bears and some sort of white topping.
“What’s on that?”
“Marshmallow fluff.” Lance digs in, twirling his spoon as it gathers ice cream, fluff, and gummy bears. He shoves the massive spoonful in and makes a contented food-love sound.
“Is it good, then?” I ask.
He makes hand gestures, but he can’t actually respond for the moment. It takes a long time before he’s finished chewing enough to use words.
“The gummy bears are so cold and hard. It’s magically delicious.” He puts on an overdone, fake Irish accent for the last part. “You need to try this.”
He shoves the spoon in and drags it through the ice cream, holding it out to me. It’s heaping. I don’t even think I can open my mouth that wide.
“That’s too much.”
He frowns and looks at the spoon, then sticks it in his mouth, removing about half the contents before he holds it back out to me. “How’s this?”
I make a face. “It’s got your spit all over it now.”
“So? You’ve already had my spit in your mouth. What’s the big deal?”
“Lance!” I look around to see if anyone has overheard, but no one’s paying attention to us.
“It’s true. But fine, I’ll try again.” He flips the spoon over and keeps his eyes on mine while he licks off the contents. When he’s done, he flips it back over, licking the other side clean. He’s incredibly thorough. I have lots of thoughts about how talented he must be with that tongue. And now that he’s not my client, I allow my imagination to run.
Holding the spoon up, he asks, “Is this okay? Or do you need me to get a clean spoon that hasn’t been in my mouth at all?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s fine.”
This time he dips the spoon in, carefully gathering a small amount of ice cream, marshmallow fluff, and a single gummy bear coated in strawberry sauce. He holds out the spoon. “How’s this, precious? Can you handle it?”
I give him a look, but open my mouth. His lips part right along with mine, his tongue peeking out as he watches the spoon disappear between mine.
This feels very much like foreplay.
It also tastes like a sugar bomb has gone off in my mouth. It’s so sweet it’s almost pucker worthy. Lance withdraws the spoon slowly, his eyes on my mouth the entire time, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. When he notices the spoon is by no means clean, he offers it to me again.
I still have a gummy bear in here, so I shake my head.
“You don’t like it?”
I chew a few times before I swallow. He wasn’t kidding about them being hard. They’re practically frozen. I put my hand in front of my mouth. “It’s a little sweet.”
He sticks the spoon back in his mouth and licks it clean. “See? I don’t have a problem with your spit.”
I can feel the heat in my cheeks, and I duck my head. Lance leans in close, forcing me to look up at him. “I want to kiss you again.”
I survey the crowded café.
He must see my panic, because he tugs my ponytail and sits back in his chair. “But I can wait if I have to.”
We eat our desserts in silence for a while. I’m too nervous to enjoy this the way I’d like to. I can feel Lance staring at me.
“Where’d you go to high school?” he asks.
“In Galesburg.”
“Right, because you moved.”
“Mm-hmm. My sister went to Wells for a year, though.”
“Really? Do you look alike?”
“Not much. She has brown hair and brown eyes, and she’s tall and thin.”
“Huh.” He takes a few more bites of his sundae. “Wait. What school did you go to before you moved, then?”
I knew this was going to happen eventually.
“I went to Pulaski.”
“I went there for, like, a month right at the end of the school year when I first moved here.” He sets his spoon down and leans forward. “Shit. I knew I knew you. I used to pull your ponytail in the hall. You were the only other ginger in the school. I noticed you right away. Do you remember that?”
I look down at my carrot cake, which sits mostly uneaten on my plate.
“Poppy?”
“I remember.”
“Was I mean to you? I wasn’t trying to be mean.”
“You weren’t mean.”
“Okay. Good.” His knee is going again. Rubbing against mine. “If you remembered, why didn’t you say anything before now?”
“It didn’t seem important.” Because I didn’t think you remembered me at all.
“That we went to school together? You came to my house. Did you know you knew me then?”
Oh, God. This is happening now? My whole body feels numb and like it’s on fire at the same time. “Maybe we should go.”
“Poppy?” He puts his hand over mine to stop me from grabbing my purse.
