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“Ice cream.”
I almost startle with laughter, because when he tells me ice cream will make him feel better, it’s said with almost no sadness, no hint of the tears that are still streaming down his face.
“Oh, ice cream fixes scratches, huh?”
He nods, wiping his nose with his shirt sleeve. “Uh-huh.”
I chuckle, collecting the stroller and heading in the direction of the food court. “Alright, Mr. Ted. Let’s get you a cone, huh?”
Teddy beams at me, and I shake my head, feeling like I’ve been played.
***
Thirty minutes later, after getting my hustler child a cone of rainbow sherbet and watching him eat it like an absolute monster, we make our way down to the other end of the mall in search of Emily.
When we walk into the Verizon store, I find her chatting with an employee and holding what looks like her new phone. Perfect timing.
“But that’s not the best part,” the employee tells her, and I wait back a few feet for him to finish talking to her. “The best part is how it feels right when you fall out of the plane.”
My brow furrows. What does this have to do with her phone?
“Really?”
He nods. “Yeah. It’s unlike anything in the world. You seriously have to try it out. It’s life-changing.”
She laughs. “I’ll think about it. I’m not really a big risk taker, you know?”
I take a few steps forward, moving next to Emily’s side. “Hey.”
Emily looks up at me and beams. “Oh, hey! We just finished.” Then she holds up the dark green phone in her hand as if to prove it. “Evan was so helpful getting me through all the insurance stuff, so it took way less time than I thought!”
I glance at Evan, who is now looking at me with a smile that’s a lot more formal than the one he was giving Emily when I walked in.
“Awesome. Glad you were able to get it sorted. Thanks, Evan,” I say, giving him a wave.
“Yeah, thank you so much!”
“Before you go, it looks like you had a single line on your account. Did you guys want to shift to a family plan?”
There’s a brief moment where Emily and I both pause, and then Emily bursts into laughter.
“Oh, no. This is my boss, actually, and his son. Hi, Teddy.”
Teddy waves from his stroller.
“So thank you for offering, but we definitely don’t need that,” she says, laughing again.
I lick my lips, my eyes narrowing at Evan.
Clever. A simple way for him to find out if she’s single without straight-up asking in front of me. Because really, he can’t ask her on a date if she’s here with a man and a baby, right?
My nose wrinkles, but I stay silent.
“And thanks for sharing about skydiving. It sounds really cool,” she adds, turning slightly to leave.
Thank you. Let’s go.
“Well, hey, if you decide you want to go, I’m a licensed instructor,” he tells her. “It could be a blast.”
