The Struggle Of Our Lives

Chapter 25, continued.

"Pretty please can we go get ice cream?!" Theo asked, with Daniel following suit, and inspiring Lotte in the process. I turned to Yasmin to see her smiling warmly at the kids.

"Sure, why not?" I was surprised at Yasmin's response, and assumed she expected a request like that. Maybe her brother asks for deserts a lot, I thought, since Teddy doesn't make an effort to ask for treats like that. I asked, "Where can we get ice cream around here?" Instead of answering, Yasmin pulled out her phone from her leggings pocket, mumbling something like, "Let's find out." 

Turns out there is a parlor a block away from the library called Sammy's Ice Cream. The five of us left the library after I looked through the fiction section and checked out a book called Heartless with a pretty black cover with red thorns on it. We don't go to the library often, since you can read most things online and the twins could check out books from their school.

There was a small line for ice cream, which surprised me since it was a warm Sunday afternoon with only three clouds in the sky. The shop was built like any other ice cream parlor; a small striped building with two windows to order from and outdoor seating beside it. They had a orange and white color scheme, with the menu board to the left of the queue to match the aesthetic. We squinted to see the small font of the menu and considered our options just as we got to the front of the line

Yasmin went first, and ordered a cone with a scoop of raspberry and strawberry, then a smaller vanilla cone. She turned to face me and before I could say my order, declared she'd be buying our ice creams. "Bu-"

"NO butts, I'm paying. What are you three ordering?" She demanded, I pouted in return, not wanting to take her offer so readily. The boy taking our order looked through the window like he'd heard this conversation all day and had been getting sick of it. "A cone with strawberry and vanilla, and two small cones; one Reese's and one pistachio." The boy wrote our order quickly on his Sammy's brand notepad, and asked us to wait at the second window. We stepped aside for the people behind us and waited awkwardly, so I used this time to re-adjust Tember in her sling.

"You don't have to get our ice creams for us," I began, just for Yasmin to shoot me down again. "Noooo, I'm treating you! I get the feeling that you've been through a lot of shit, so let me treat ya guys." She had her hands on her hips, with a stern look on her face I imagine she inherited from one of her parents. After a small silence where the kids looked back and forth at us, I sighed. "Ugh, fiiiiinnneee." I finally let her have her way. Though I did wonder why she cared so much about doing that for me. I was pulled out of my thoughts when the boy who took our order started handing us all the ice creams. I gave Lotte her pistachio and Theo the Reese's cone, and looked up to see Yasmin giving Daniel his vanilla cone.

As we looked for an open table, I asked Daniel, "Is vanilla your favorite flavor?" He replied while making a face at Lotte's order. "All the other ones either smell bad or taste bad." I laughed and agreed. "Mine is a scoop vanilla and one strawberry. But it's flavored strawberry, I hate chunky ice cream." He nodded and admitted I was the only person who agreed with his take on ice cream.

We sat in the second row of benches on the far left, closer to the building and continued talking about our preferred flavors, then our favorite foods and restaurants. Yasmin asked me if my flavors tasted good together, so I handed it to her for her to try. She gave it a taste and shook her head, surprised. "You know? That isn't bad." I agreed and asked if her raspberry-strawberry tasted any good. Instead of saying something, she gave her cone to me. I looked at her confused before she replied, "You tell me." 

I guess this visibly surprised me because the kids started giggling at me. I had a taste of her ice cream and considered getting her order sometime. "I wouldn't have thought to get this, but it's pretty good," I admitted. She had a satisfied look on her face as we swapped ice creams again. "But I do prefer mine." She laughed at me, nudging Daniel and giggling about my sense of taste, saying it was like his. 

"I didn't get a chance to say it earlier, but you're very pretty," Teddy said a little quietly to Yasmin. This surprised me, not because he complimented her, but because he said it so meekly, like he was intimidated by her looks. "Aw, thank you!" She gushed, "You kids are pretty sweet, saying all these things about me." I smiled, subtly rubbing Theo on the back since he sat closest to me, and gently bounced Tember in her sling, "I hope all of us are like that." Teddy was red in the face, clearly embarrassed by Yasmin's comment. 

Although tempted to give the baby a little snack, I had read somewhere that babies shouldn't have dairy or sugar until at least a year old, and so just asked Theo for her travel bottle, which was small enough to fit in one of his pockets. He went to hand it to me, but faltered so he could ask if he could feed the baby. Of course, I was fine with that, so I turned on the bench so he could face September. He sat up slightly and fed her some of her bottle before she decided she would rather sleep. 

Watching us try and feed the bay, Daniel shyly mumbled, "What's her name? She's cute." Before I could answer, Theo replied, "September."