"Hmm…" I prolong the torture, smiling at Liam before pretending to search the choices again. "I think I'll go with… M&Ms."
"Yes!" Ruthie balls up both fists and pulls her elbows to her chest. "Mike and Ikes for me," she says quickly to her dad before tugging on my arm. "Tess, come this way. You have to see this claw machine."
My eyes go wide as she draws me backward, my eyes finding Liam with a genuine smile stretched across his face before I'm completely whipped around.
As Ruthie drags me toward the arcade strip along the side of the theater, I return once again to the car ride over. I keep replaying it, Ruthie in the back seat and Liam and I sitting up front. The three of us laughed the whole way here, Liam and I swapping glances as he drove and Ruthie telling us all about Kenzie's birthday party next month—a sleepover with movies and facials and Drippy's cinnamon rolls.
Go figure.
I had braced for some awkwardness between us after this morning, but it never came. The tension's still there, that was obvious in the way his thumb brushing flour from my cheek set every nerve ending on fire. Yet the knot I expected to tighten the second I saw him… never did.
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye as Ruthie pounds the buttons on the claw machine in front of us. He's smiling sweetly at the cashier as he hands her his credit card, and the line of his jaw, the flop of his hair… it should feel overwhelming in a setting like this—where it's not just us.
And it does.
But not in the way I expected it to.
Ruthie tugs on my hand, and I smile at her, slipping a dollar from my purse. She thanks me and takes it, shoveling it into the slot of the machine just as a low voice—soft and steady—sounds behind me. "She's never won."
I spin to find Liam with a bag of candy hanging on his wrist, three small popcorn buckets tucked under his arm, and a carrier full of drinks in his opposite hand.
"These machines are the worst," I manage to say even though my breath is still a little short.
He sets the popcorn and candy on the cushioned seat of the driving game beside us, then balances the holder in one hand and wiggles one of the cups free with the other. "She keeps at it, though. I told her one day when she finally does win, it'll feel even better." He holds the cup out to me. "Worth the wait."
I smile as I reach for it.
"I went with Lemonade," he says. "I figured since you always have those yogurts with the little lemons on them, it might be a safe guess?"
My face falls in disbelief, and he pulls it back slowly.
"Or maybe not…"
"It's perfect." I grab the drink from him and take a long swig, the cool, tangy liquid soothing my suddenly dry throat. "Thank you."
He tips his chin down as Ruthie groans dramatically behind me.
"Every time!" she says as the claw inside the glass slides back into its starting position.
Liam tosses his arm over her shoulder. "One day soon," he reassures her, handing her a popcorn and the plastic bag of candy.
He glances back at me, balancing the other snacks and drinks in his hand. A smile tugs at his lips. "I can feel it."
Weak whispers pull me from the movie about rival zombie-teen pop bands that is surprisingly addicting.
I glance over to find Ruthie leaning away from me, talking to Liam on her other side. The next thing I know, she sets her popcorn bucket on the floor, abandoning her empty Mike and Ikes box next to it. When she stands and turns toward me, she points to the aisle. "Bathroom," she whispers as she slinks past me. I turn my knees so they're shoved against the empty seat next to me and let her through.
We're about halfway through the movie, but Ruthie finished her cherry slushie before the previews even ended. I could have predicted a bathroom break would be necessary at some point throughout the two hour film, but I didn't expect it to be this soon.
I laugh to myself as I watch her sprint down the ramp, grabbing hold of the railing at the end and swinging herself around the corner toward the exit. As I twist back toward the screen, the lead singer of the girl groupdances in a bubblegum-pink tracksuit as her backup dancers' limbs slowly decay mid-routine. Somehow, though, it's not the decomposing teens that keep my attention.
It's Liam's eyes on the side of my face.
I turn and mirror the smile he's already sporting, and he leans onto the armrest of Ruthie's seat. "What do you think?" he asks quietly, nodding toward the screen.
I press myself against the other armrest, closing some of the gap between us. "The movie's actually… not too bad," I admit.
Liam chuckles, then rolls his lips in. "Mhmm, and the company?"
