I would say that’s how I was brought up—to be respectful, kind, and caring—but then I’d be lying because I learnt all of that on my own.
Mr. Kingston playfully shoves Nova's arm, and in return, she does the same to him.
“Wendy!” He cries out. “Your daughter is abusing me!”
Mrs. Kingston scoffs as she opens the oven, the smell of cookies invades my nose, and I groan. Nobody bakes double chocolate cookies as best as she does.
“You started it, honey.” She shrugs her shoulders, setting down the freshly baked cookies on the counter.
“No, she did!” Mr. Kingston stomps his foot like a two-year-old.
“It’s like I have five children, not four.” She sighs, pulling her oven mitts off and throwing them at the back of Mr. Kingston’s head.
“Where is Jackson anyway?” Chase asks referring to his older brother.
“Amelia’s parents,” Mrs. Kingston responds. “They’re coming here tomorrow morning.”
“What time is your stupid book club meeting tonight?” Mr. Kingston asks his wife as he shoves a cookie into his mouth, huffing out a breath where it’s no doubt burning his mouth.
“Eight,” she responds, rolling her eyes at his antics. “And my favorite girl is home from college,” she grins. “She texted me earlier saying she made two batches of her double chocolate brownies and is bringing them with her.”
Mrs. Kingston goes to a book club every Tuesday, and there’s one girl that attends—apparently the youngest in the group—that the whole club adores, especially Mrs. Kingston.
She always speaks about her, but I can’t remember if she’s ever mentioned a name because she always refers to her as “my favorite girl” and she’s also tried for years to get Chase to go on a date with her because apparently they’re so alike, but Chase shoots that situation down quickly…every time.
“Wait, She’s back?” Nova grins. “When I saw her she said she wasn’t back until Wednesday!”
“That was originally the plan,” Mrs. Kingston says. “But she said she was done earlier with exams than expected.”
“Oh, I’m totally coming to book club tonight.” Nova’s smile lights up her entire face.
“Why would you voluntarily want to go to a book club, you don’t even read.” Chase looks at her confused.
“And why wouldyouvoluntarily buy a bookstore when you don’t even read.” Nova shoots back.
Oh shit, I forgot about that.
“For my own personal reasons.” He shrugs, taking a cookie from the tray and shoving it into his mouth.
“But what reason?” Nova pries, jolting her hip out as she places a hand there and gives him a look.
“Reasons that do not concern you.” Chase resorts.
They begin arguing while Mrs. Kingston rolls her eyes at them, transferring the cookies onto a plate and then placing them in the middle of the counter, telling us to help ourselves.
I’m not one to turn down cookies—especially not hers—so I immediately grab one and shove it into my mouth.
We talk about how life has been since we last saw each other during summer break. And I tell them about Lilly, making it abundantly clear that we’re fake dating, even if something deep down inside of me is telling me it’s more than that, but I push that feeling away.
I however choose to deliberately not tell them about the sex tutoring part, that’s something I wanted to keep to myself because nobody but Lilly and I need to know that part of the deal.
“Shall we go to Jimmy’s seeing as the girls will be at book club?” Mr. Kingston asks, glancing between Chase and me.
Jimmy’s is the local diner in Fayside that sells the best triple cheeseburgers and Vanilla milkshakes ever. You can’t turn down going to Jimmy’s if someone offers.
“I’ll be down for that.” Chase nods.
“Yeah, me too.” I smile.
