Jesus, was I really considering doing this with Payden?
Yeah, yes I was.
“I would love to do a cannonball into a ball pit,” Payden declared, looking at me all wide-eyed, to the point where I had half a mind to offer to build him one, if I knew how to nail two boards together without necessitating an ER visit.
Shit. I really didn’t have fuck all to offer this man.
“By the time we finish bouncing around in the balls, we’ll probably be hungry again and can play it by ear after that,” I suggested.
“I like that idea,” he said. “We should get milkshakes with lunch too and something with ice cream in it for dinner. Then we can call this the Unicorn Besties Best Day Ever Ice Cream Edition.”
“As long as I’m not the one responsible for fitting all those words on whatever product it’s supposed to go on, I’m good with that,” I said as Payden let out a squeal when his breakfast was placed in front of him.
Not only was the strawberry topping oozing down that giant scoop of ice cream, but there were mini chocolate chips to provide an extra boost of sugar.
I just hoped we’d be able to sit still during the movie.
“So good,” Payden moaned around the spoonful he’d shoved in his mouth. It was mostly ice cream, with a sliver of waffle clinging to the bottom.
I’d better dig in if I was going to keep up, especially if the zoomies hit while he was trying to get ready. We’d have plenty oftime to race his new trains around before he got in his Thomas outfit at the rate his breakfast was disappearing.
Damn, it was delicious, especially after I crumbled my bacon over it. He side-eyed my plate for a moment, since he’d been taking bites of his meat in between those of waffle, and yeah, bacon on ice cream was probably an acquired taste for some, but it was downright fabulous to me. I chuckled when he crumbled what was left of his bacon over the half a waffle he had left, then wiped the ice cream off the edge of his hand where he’d gotten it. Definitely not a boy who likes to be sticky.
I wondered if that went along with the OCD he mentioned and hoped my impulsiveness didn’t cause him any issues down the line. We’d forgotten to order drinks, so I waved our waiter down and ordered apple juice, though I probably should have opted for water, since juice was more sugar added to the yummy pile we’d already consumed.
“Can we build my train track before the movie?” He asked. “We have time, right?”
“I was just thinking about that myself,” I replied. “It’ll get us all hyped up for Thomas and the Magic Railway.”
“Have you ever seen it before?”
“Not since I was a kid,” I replied. “I doubt I remember much of it, which makes it the perfect time to see it again.”
“Did you watch a lot of train movies when you were younger?”
“Hmmm…” Did I tell him I watched a lot of things I only half paid attention to, most of them well out of my age range if the older boys in the group home were controlling the remote that day?
Probably not a great idea to mention any of that stuff.
“I wouldn’t say a lot, but I do remember several that had trains in them.”
“Oh, which ones? Maybe I’ve seen them too,” he asked as I started swirling waffle bits in the melted ice cream and strawberry syrup that had formed a small pool on my plate.
“Ummm,” I stammered, certain none of the ones I was about to name were ones he’d have seen as a kid. “Now that I think about it, none of them were exactly appropriate for a kid besides Thomas and Madagascar 3.”
“Were you naughty even back then?” He asked.
“Yup, but unlike with waffles for breakfast, I usually had help in the matter,” I explained.
We gulped down our apple juice once we’d run out of waffles to soak up the sticky swirls on our plates, not that there was much left. We’d stopped short of licking them, though I’d have gotten negative Daddy points, I’m sure, for being tempted, but that was the kind of breakfast I hadn’t treated myself to in years.
Back in our room, we washed our hands, then laid out all the pieces for the tracks on my bunk, since it gave us more room than the floor offered and was softer to boot.
“This is the hardest part,” Payden declared as we fit the first two pieces together.
“How so?” I asked. “Unlike IKEA furniture, there are numbers on the bottoms of all the track pieces. All we have to do is put them together in numerical order.”
“Ugh, why did you have to mention IKEA?” He groaned and dramatically flopped over on his side with his arm thrown over his eyes. “I bought everything from IKEA when I first moved into my apartment. I can’t tell you how many times I sat on the floor bawling my eyes out because I had to take something apart and turn it around because I’d assembled it backward.”
