Fix-Her Upper

Team Spirit

We stroll through the vendor tables which consisted of baked goods, honey, jams, jewelry, candles, glitter Yeti's, kid clothing, toys and Lularoe leggings- which I thought were already out of style, but they are apparently still a hit here in Magnolia.

Finn buys me a jar of honey, a raspberry vanilla candle and a purple glitter Yeti with a fish on it because he said he knew how much I loved fish. I force him to buy a jar of honey with a dipper because I told him it would pair well with all of the tea he is going to start drinking on the reg. The whole thing feels very boyfriendy and I put about a hundred ticks in the boyfriend vibes column. He wasn't making me feel like a summer fling today.

We also run into a few of the guys on his bowling team and Finn territorially keeps his arm around me while we chat at the jam table. One of the guys, Johnny, also works for Finn and mentions that Finn had been less curmudgeonly these last few weeks and figured I was the one to thank for his change in attitude. I glance at Finn, surprised to hear he's a pain in the ass boss and Johnny begs me to stick around a while. I didn't miss the, "I'm hoping she will too," that Finn replies back to him and we definitely have couple vibes going on.

When they announce the games were starting he grabs my hand and hauls me off toward the field. I'm surprised to see an obstacle course set up made out of paint buckets, traffic cones and wooden planks to make up a balance beam. This strawberry on a spoon game is a lot more than just quickly walking in a line to your partner.

"Jesus, this is intense," I tell Finn as we look over the course and I see the kid's course next to us is much simpler.

"Still think you're walking away with the prize?" Cade says as he strolls up next to us with Wendy finishing up her ice cream cone. Layla wanders over with Matty and Alyssa and Ryan also comes and stands next to us. I recognize a few of the guys Finn introduced me to earlier now with their wives and Dotty and Donna come skipping into the player's area wearing matching pink shirts with strawberries on them that say, "Berry Sweet." Dotty waves excitedly when she sees me and Donna wiggles a canteen at me. I give her a thumbs up but have no intention of tasting what she has in there. It looks like there are fifteen teams and they break us into five groups of three. Of course, our heat consists of Finn, Matty and Cade so whoever is doing the event organization clearly wants to see some tension.

The prize is a ten-dollar gift card to Squeeze and I am more enticed to do well now that it is something I will actually use.

We're the fifth and final group to go and when Finn hands me my tiny silver dessert spoon with a plump red strawberry on top he says, "Keep your eyes on the berry. If you drop it, you have to start all the way back at the beginning."

"I've been watching," I tell him, and Dotty had to trot back to the beginning over ten times before she was able to get Donna the spoon. They came in last but cheered like they won.

I am surprised to see Cooper strolling over to the obstacle course and he waves when he sees me. He's wearing a red staff t-shirt and I shouldn't be surprised to see him volunteering for this.

"Came to cheer you on!" He yells and I stop in front of the starting cone. Dotty bumps him enthusiastically with her hip when he settles in next to her and almost knocks the poor kid sideways.

Great, I know Cooper's eyes aren't the only ones on me as I line up in between Layla and Wendy. I have my spoon with my strawberry held out in front of me and wait for the coordinator to shout, "Go!" Once he does, all three of us take off and step onto the wooden planks that create a long balance beam. None of us drop our berries and mine wobbles as I zig-zag through the cones. Layla falls when she tries to step over the paint bucket, but Wendy and I stay neck and neck until Wendy trips over the last paint bucket and her strawberry flops off her spoon. I keep my eyes on the prize as I navigate over the last balance beam to hand off my spoon to Finn. He's ready to go, and we have to delicately transfer the spoon from my hand to his. Wendy has caught us, but Finn shoots off before Cade. If we lose it will be Finn's fault.