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She nodded and I tore the onion ring in half and gave the bigger piece to her. Esme dipped it in ranch and ate it with satisfaction.
“I think I would take some more time off if I could have more days like this.” She closed her eyes for a minute, as if she was savoring everything.
It was nice seeing her so relaxed. She was always so high-energy when she was working at the bar. Like she turned herself up to her highest level. Even her voice memos were kind of intense. Here at the beach she was… not subdued, just more at peace, I guess.
We finished all of our fried offerings.
“Now that we ate our lunch, we’re allowed to have dessert,” I said, before tossing the empty containers. Esme sucked down the rest of her soda and tossed the cup.
“We’re very responsible adults,” she said with a smile. “Our parents would be proud.”
My mom wouldn’t, but that was neither here nor there. I wanted ice cream.
Esme and I both ordered ice cream pops that were shaped like cartoon characters with gumballs for the eyes.
“I haven’t had one of these since I was a kid,” Esme said as she unwrapped hers. We’d moved to the shade and sat on the grass under a tree. I tried not to watch too much as she licked the frozen treat and I imaged her licking… other things.
She distracted me from thinking about that by pointing out the people walking by us.
“That’s the second person riding a motorized cooler I’ve seen,” she said, as a kid riding a blue rectangular cooler with wheels and what looked like a handle from a scooter on the front.
“That’s not a bad way to get around. I might need to get me one of those. I’d probably put my laptop in there, though, in addition to snacks.”
Esme sort of knew what I did for work, but I hadn’t gone into a lot of detail, mostly because a lot of my job was really boring and just about answering emails.
“Oh, that dress is cute. I want to ask her where she got it,” Esme said about a woman walking by. “She’s pretty cute too.”
Now I was really paying attention. The woman was probably about our age and had long flowing red hair and definitely had spent some time in the gym. I could see the definition of her quads from here as she walked by, a slit in her dress giving us a little peek.
“Yeah,” I said, without thinking. I could feel Esme looking at me.
“So, what is your type?” she asked.
I almost dropped my ice cream.
“Uhhhh,” I said as it dripped down my arm.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Esme said, after I struggled for a few seconds. “If you don’t want to.”
This was new territory and I had to be careful. I wiped the ice cream and got my thoughts together.
“I don’t know what my type is? In the case of Wyatt, I think my type was ‘people who will definitely hurt you, but you won’t see it until too late’, but that’s not what you’re asking. I guess…” I finished my ice cream and popped both of the gumballs in my mouth as I looked back at my dating history.
“I really go for people who are passionate. It doesn’t matter what about. Someone could be into collecting workout videos from the eighties, but as long as it fires them up, I’ll think they’re attractive. Does that make sense?”
The gum lost its flavor after about a minute, but I kept chewing it, even after it turned into a more rubber-like substance.
Esme had been watching me the whole time and I was dying to know what she thought.
“That makes a lot of sense. I seem to be attracted to anyone emotionally unavailable or who cheats or who is secretly married and has a wife that lives in another state,” she said.
I almost choked on my gum.
“That last one sounds extremely specific.”
She gave me a look and popped the gum pieces in her mouth. “Do not recommend.”
“Yikes.”
