To All The Girls I've Loved Before - Jenlisa

Chapter 35

Late 2025


Over the course of her life, Lisa has collected quite a few realisations she has become sure of.

--

One of them was that Lisa realised she still hasn't outgrown her childhood love for ice cream sandwiches.

When Jen asked to get dessert while walking Kuma out two months ago, Lisa had a sudden hankering for milk ice cream and inadvertently led them to the old shop they used to go to when they were kids. Nearly twenty years and it pleased the two of them to see the shop was still alive, if it wasn't evident by Jennie's widened eyes and sudden hard grip on Kuma, face stretched by her unbreakable child-like smile.

Although most of the store seemed smaller--either because they're now kids in grown-up bodies or maybe they never paid much attention to the store before and focused only on the ice cream they bought on summer holidays--the whole experience brought on so much nostalgia that it was hard to stop a near sob when Lis bit on to her wafer sandwich, followed by a deft lick on the dripping ice cream on her finger. It was sweeter than she remembered; possibly a chock full of sugar in frozen form, if we're being honest.

But it was simple and delightful and just...magic.

They've stayed on the street just outside the store like before, propped on the chipping paints of the metal railings while watching people on the streets and enjoying the mildly cold weather through their wooly cashmere cardigans.

She heard Jennie's delicious moan beside her. Kuma was being a frizz-haired ball of energy on her feet and latched on to Jennie's leg, desperate to get a piece of anything. Lisa mercifully gave their pup a bit of the wafer and not much ice cream, worried about the amount of sugar in it.

"Wow, I didn't know they were still open," Lisa just smiled at an adorable Jennie who was struggling, mouth full of a bite of the ice cream sandwich and thickly swallowing before trying to speak again. "How did you remember this place?"

"I got stuck on a cab around here a few weeks ago due to that freak rain shower and saw it," Lisa's fingers were greedily being licked by their dog whose paws were unashamedly perched on the blonde's bent knees. "Kept making a mental note to visit with you again since I thought it might bring back childhood memories."

"Yeah, it's been about...more or less two decades?" Jennie was counting on her fingers. She paused then added wistfully, "Did you ever imagine we'd ever be together for this long when we were kids?"

Lisa's head raised to meet Jennie's voice, her eyes softened at the latter who was preoccupied with the frozen sandwich now dripping on her hand. Lisa grinned at how preposterous an adult Jennie looked flustered at trying to messily eat an ice cream she effortlessly championed when she was only maybe 9 years old.

The blonde smiled softly to herself. She supposes she has been infatuated with a 9-year-old ice-cream aficionado in an adult body this whole time.

"I mean--" Jennie licked again, "--you were only here during summers. And--" Another messy lick and a slight whimper, "--you never really came back again after some time. I would have--" Her tongue licked clean her lips instead, "--thought we wouldn't have met again, you know? And then we did, and then we were apart, and it was just a mess. I don't know."

Lisa wiped her fingers on the wet wipes she's holding, stood up and leaned on the railings to face the street. Kuma danced around her feet until he found a comfortable spot, looking up every once in a while at his two mommies.

Lisa didn't answer. She just smiled as she licked her ice cream again.

When Jennie nudged her slightly to prompt her answer, she shrugged. She didn't tell Jennie that she knew; or at least, now that Jennie asked that question, it was another realisation in her heart that somehow even in her young age, she knew that when they met that their lives would be significantly intertwined.