“Should we take this to the car?” I asked.
“Yes!” the girls answered.
I carried the treasure chest as the four of us held our heads high and marched our way past the snotty faces of the Mean Moms. Their cat-eyes turned into angry slits.
“Boots with fringe? That’s funny. Didn’t fringe go out of style like two decades ago?”
“Those poor girls. Someone should seriously introduce them to Etsy before they are forced to wear store-bought costumes another year.”
“Nah. I just donated a bunch of my shoes to the Salvation Army last week. I think that’s enough charity for this year.”
“Oh, snap.”
Speaking of things that were out of style, I was pretty sure no one said, “Oh snap,” anymore.
I looked at Cora to see if she’d heard them. I knew by the expression on her face that she had. I would have taken her hand then, or touched her in some way to comfort her, but both hands were carrying the treasure chest. I did the next best thing and hip-checked her.
9:06 P.M.
The girls insisted that the treasure chest be strapped into the back seat of the SUV with a seatbelt. Once it was secure, I looked at my watch. It was after nine, late for six-year-olds. We should probably call it a night. But I didn’t want to be away from Cora yet. And wasn’t it okay for kids to stay up a little later on special occasions?
I didn’t want to mention it in front of the kids in case she said no. I pulled out my phone and texted her.
BEN: Pizza?
She checked the phone and nodded. “Sounds great. I’m starving. We forgot to stop by the snack booths inside.”
“Let’s pick up a pizza and then head to my house to eat and divide up our treasure.”
“YAY!” Lucie yelled.
“PIZZA!” I heard from Olive.
“All right girls,” Cora said, “get in and buckle up if you want pizza.”
When I sat down in the passenger seat, I scrolled through the numbers in my phone to find my favorite pizzeria. Yes, I had it saved in my phone. I was a single dad who only knew how to cook about three meals. I had more restaurants than people in my phone’s contacts.
I leaned my head back on the headrest and turned to face Cora. “I have to ask you an important question.”
“Yes?”
“Do you like pineapple on your pizza?”
“Of course.”
“Does Lucie?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
9:45 P.M.
The four of us sat at my dining room table to eat and sort the candy. The pizza disappeared quickly. We’d all been so hungry after our treasure hunt.
We divided all of the candy into two even piles. When we had an odd number, we compromised with no arguing. We took an extra KitKat, but they got an extra Almond Joy. Everyone was happy and full, and probably pretty candied out since we’d been eating some as we sorted.
When the candy was in order, Olive asked Lucie if she wanted to watch Frozen. Of course she did. The two girls went into the living room. My guess was they’d both be asleep in less than ten minutes.
We were alone. Sort of. But Cora couldn’t seem to look at me. She’d been acting really shy since we’d gotten to my house.
“So,” I asked cautiously, “is there a reason you‘re having a hard time looking at me?”
She looked alarmed at first. Then she just laughed. “No reason,” she answered with a slight smirk.
“You sure?”
She shrugged. “It’s possible that I had a dream about your dining room table once.”
Okay. I wasn’t expecting something that good. But I wasn’t going to complain about it. “Did you want to tell me more about this dream?”
She shook her head and pursed her lips together tightly, probably to keep them from blurting anything out. It was probably for the best. If she said anything naughty I was going to want to bend her over the table. Who was I kidding? I already wanted to. Oh shit. Change of subject needed immediately if I ever wanted to be able to stand up from this table.
“Maybe some other time?” I asked, hopefully.
She nodded firmly. “Yes. Definitely.”
I pulled the two gift cards from my back pocket and held them up. “What about these?” I asked.
“What are they?” Cora asked. “I didn’t get to see them at the school.”
“A restaurant gift card and a movie gift card.”
I was hoping she’d say we should use them together. She didn’t.
“We could each take one,” I suggested. “We could even draw them out of a hat to make it fair.”
She shrugged. “Sure. Whatever you want. We will be fine with either one.”
“What I want… is for us to use them … together.”
She smiled. “We could do that.”
“When?” I asked eagerly. “We could go tomorrow night before I take Olive to her mom’s. Or we could wait until Thursday when she comes back over.”
“Tomorrow is perfect.”
“Good. I really didn’t want to wait until Thursday to see you guys again.”
I heard music coming from the TV in the living room. “For the First Time in Forever.” I could relate.
The kids were asleep. I could hear Olive snoring. Cora got up from the table and took our glasses to the sink to rinse out the Sprite we drank with our pizza. I got up, too, and took the paper plates and napkins to the trash. I set the empty pizza box on the counter and leaned against the stove.
I didn’t want her to go yet.
“Hey, Cora,” I said timidly.
She turned around from the sink. It reminded me of that night, when I came upstairs to find her in the kitchen.
“If you want to stay and hang out for a little while,” I said, “I’ve got some cherry Kool-Aid in the fridge.”
She narrowed her eyes at me for a moment. First I thought she might be pissed, then I realized she was just trying to figure me out.
“You remember,” she said quietly.
I stepped closer to her. I stopped when I our chests were just an inch or two from touching. “Remember?” I repeated. “How could I forget?”
She tried to back away before she remembered her back was already against the counter. “I need to ask you something, Ben.”
That didn’t sound good. It sounded like the beginning of a very serious talk, one that I didn’t think was necessary this early into the game. But it was the first time I’d heard her say my name, and it gave me a chill in the best way. I was curious to hear this question. “What’s that?”
With her hands on the counter behind her, her guard was down, and her body was completely open to me. She didn’t look down the way she had that night long ago, but looked right into my eyes instead. “When you go to the grocery store, do you take a list?”
I smiled, surprised at how flippant the question was after all. “Are there people who don’t?”
“I’m afraid so.”
I laughed at her serious face. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
She nodded. “Good. That’s good.”
I slid my hand under her hair and wrapped it behind her neck. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” I said, “I’m going to kiss you.”
Cora
Halloween 2019
Feed the kids a
Get Jamin in his Yoda costume
Look over Lucie’s costume to make sure she isn’t showing too much skin or looking too risqué — Check. P.S. She’s only eleven! Why is this even an issue already? I’m really not ready for this…