finishes their ice cream first?”
“Of course.”
“Winner buys the other ice cream next time?”
“Again, of course.” She takes a breath. “On your mark,” Cat says and smiles.
“Get set,” I say and smile along with her.
“GO!” we shout at once.
Then, we both jump forward and shove our ice creams into our mouths. I attack mine one giant bite at a time, ripping the cone in half and ignoring the rainbow sprinkle casualties. I eat way too fast, vanilla ice cream flying everywhere (and let me tell you: it is one hell of an ice cream.) I glance up at Cat, whose cone is down to about half. I rush to eat more but before I can, she devours the entire thing in a bite. I stare at her in horror.
She just shrugs. “I win,” she says.
“Unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately?”
“You heard me, Davenport,” I say, and finish my ice cream. The “loser’s bite,” we call it.
When I’m done eating, Cat and I move on to laughing about random things and, of course, trash talking each other in preparation for the next ice cream contest. Cat has vanilla all over her mouth and I’m sure I do too, but I don’t think either of us even cares.
“I change my mind,” Cat says. “We are so weird.”
“It’s pretttty freaking awesome. You know, being weird,” I say.
“It is.”
I wipe my mouth with the napkin. “So are you going to tell me about your Harry Potter apparel?”
“You mean my Hogwarts wardrobe?”
“Sure?”
“Oh, well, it’s nothing vital. Just a new line of nerd fashion that’s going to alter the lives of Harry Potter fans across the globe. NBD.” She says it all so blankly that I can’t help but laugh.
“Wow. That sounds bleak.”
“Also, with these new clothes, I’m probably going to attract some paparazzi and everyone is going to want to be me because of how incredibly hot I look. So, the usual. You wouldn’t understand,” she adds.
“I wouldn’t?”
“Oh yeah. You just don’t know what it’s like to be awesome.”
I toss my hair. “Bitch, I’m fabulous.”
I catch her stifling a giggle, which makes me smile, too.
“Sure thing, West. Sure thing. All the girls flock around you on your way to your kiddy ice cream shop, too, am I right?”
“Yep. They cling to my killer biceps the whole time.”
“I can’t even picture that.”
I shrug. “It’s only the natural reaction when you see a hot guy walking down the street.”
“No, I mean I can’t picture you having biceps.”
At that, I stick out my tongue at her like a true adult. “Okay. Fine. You got me there, Davenport.”
“I totally did.”
There’s a pause, and my gaze wanders to the scribbled-on white wall in front of me as I listen to the squeals of the kids and the methodic shushing of their parents. Surrounded by the smell of ice cream and the cool air of The Icecreamery, I realize once again how glad I am to have Cat and these Ice Cream Saturdays. Anything to keep me from being cooped up at home with my dad, with only my camera to escape to, is more than welcome.
I turn to Cat after another minute, opening my mouth to say something about her Harry Potter wardrobe, but I close it when I notice a sliver of vanilla ice cream still on her lips. “Oh,” I say, and I reach for my napkin. “I think you got something there…”Without even thinking, I grab the napkin, lean forward, press it to her lips, and gently dab the ice cream off. “There,” I murmur, and sit back down, the warmth of her lips seeping through the napkin and tickling, almost tempting, my fingers. “All better.”
It takes me a moment to realize how tense Cat’s body suddenly is, how she’s staring at me with those wide blue eyes of hers, a mix of alarm and a faint hint of curiosity on her face. My stomach drops, and I feel my muscles freeze, too. Shit. Did I do something wrong? Shit shit shit.
My whole face flushes when I realize she’s tensing over the napkin. Oh god, was that wrong? Too far? Too overfriendly? I wasn’t even thinking when I did it, I just assumed it would help and then… boom.
“I… um… am sorry,” I mutter and snap my gaze back down to my feet. I can’t help but notice how the warmth of her lips lingers on my fingertips. “I didn’t mean it like that, I just wanted to help…”
“It’s nothing,” she says quickly. “I was just surprised… is all. Yeah,” she says, nodding