Five

When it was our turn, we both ordered the peach.

“Here’s yours.” The teen handed Alicia his ice cream. “Sorry, but we ran out. Do you want another flavor?” He directed his question to me.

I was grateful he’d given it to Alicia instead of asking us who wanted it. Alicia was the one who’d been looking forward to it, he of course should be the one to have it. But he would be nice and offer it to me, and then we’d be going back and forth until it was half melty and neither of us would have a decent ice cream experience.

“I’ll have strawberry please,” I said automatically. Originally they carried chocolate, vanilla, and the flavor of the day. This season they added strawberry as one of their daily offerings and it was a huge success.

We went and grabbed my cone for me, and Alicia and I walked over to the picnic tables to eat our yummy confections.

“You can have this one.” He held out his peach cone for me.

“It’s why you came,” I countered and licked mine as some sort of primal way of saying