White Cloud

29- You Love Me Now

I never realized how easy it is to entertain a little child. Always having to babysit Dylan, I'd have to work really hard so that he wouldn't get bored or annoying. Helping him Google things about Fortune 500 companies, taking him to book stores to find the best business books and looking into a great deal of get-rich-quick scams.

With Ava, though, all we have to do is give her some ride tickets at the pier, some cotton candy, and she's gone crazy. Vincent and I stand in the center of the kiddy rides so that we can see her getting on and off of each ride without actually having to follow her around to each one and that's it. Normal little kids are so cute, I wonder what happened to Dylan and why he wasn't so easy to babysit when he was this young.

"So how's the kitchen thing going?" Vincent asks me as Ava gets on the swings.

"Really well, I think," I say with a nod. "I've been reading up on color schemes and I even bought an interior design book to give me some more ideas. I think you were really onto something with this interior design thing, I'm getting really into it."

"You'll have your own HGTV show in no time," He says jokingly. "Have you been looking at schools then?"

"Yeah. I tried looking at schools around here but Hodges University is really the only one that's even around here and they don't really have an arts program," I explain to him. "Even in Florida, it's hard to find a decent art school. There's some really big ones in New York but I've been there and it's really not my thing."

"You shouldn't constrain yourself to Florida," He tells me. "I mean, I know that your family is here and your dogs but this decision is going to shape the rest of your life, you know? You should aim for the stars and go to wherever is best for you."

He doesn't say if he's willing to go with me, wherever it is that may be best for me, and I don't ask because I'm too afraid of the answer. Because what's best for him is right here, that's why he's going to school here, and it's not going along with me to New York or wherever it is that I decide that I want to go.

"I might not even do design," I add. "I'm really into it now but I might get tired of it."

"I don't think you will," He shakes his head at me. "But yeah, you could. You do have a lot of time before you have to really decide so maybe you shouldn't even stress about it right now."

"You're right," I decide. It's only the fall and I don't have to decide on a school until the beginning of winter so I have a few months to decide on what I want to do in terms of what school to go to. "I shouldn't stress about it right now. And I'm going to go find something deep fried to eat, do you want anything?"

"Just whatever you get," He says.

I walk away from where he's keeping an eye on Ava and I find the closest kiosk that's selling funnel cakes. I have to wait in a five person line before I order two funnel cakes and after paying, I return to where Vincent is standing, now talking on his phone. I see Ava standing in line for the kiddie scrambler.

When I approach, I hand Vincent his funnel cake and start digging into mine, trying to keep the powdered sugar off of my shirt because it's brown so the white powder will stand out terribly and I'll probably look really ridiculous.

"Yeah. Alright, Chuck, well I have to go but we'll talk about this later, alright?" He's saying into the phone and then Chuck says something else on the other end before Vincent says goodbye and then he's hanging up the phone to face me.

"What was that about?" I ask curiously.

"Chuck," Vincent says with a troubled frown on his face. "He's decided to completely ruin his life."