'Tis confusion!

ice cream (anti-) social

As the five of us continued walking around the mall, I realized that hanging with the guys was exactly how I imagined it would be. They were all so laid back and funny. They treated each other exactly how they did on the show- gentle ribs and insults were slung every few minutes, and Murr managed to trip Sal twice in under a minute.

"Murray, I'm gonna kill you, I swear," Sal exclaimed. "Next time you come out with us, I want you to walk at least a thousand paces ahead. Matter of fact, why don't you start right now." Murr laughed. "You're such a jerk. I still don't see how I manage to step on you all the time. There are three other people here, and I haven't stepped on any of their feet at all."

Sal rolled his eyes. "Murr, I don't know how you do it, or why you do it. All I know is you do it. All the time. I'm going to rent a stroller and strap you down in it so you don't even have to walk. I mean it." I was cracking up at this point, imagining Murr in a stroller, with Sal pushing him down the mall hallway. We continued past the pretzel stand again (the workers pointed at Joe and Murr as we walked by), and wound up at the self serve yogurt place. Sal and Joe looked at each other."What say we try and repeat our yogurt challenge?" Sal asked. "I bet Joe wants a second chance to prove himself."

Q and Murr nodded. "I'm up for that." "Me too."

Sal clapped his hands together. "Excellent. Let's go."

Murr frowned. "Who's going first?"

Sal clapped him on the back. "You are. Good luck buddy. The rest of us will get seats close enough to watch what's going on, but far enough that they don't realize something's up. "

Murr protested a bit, but finally agreed to go first. He headed in, and we watched him load up a cup with three kinds of yogurt, then go to town on the topping. Cookie crumbs, gummy bears, caramel sauce, cherries, walnuts..everything. His cup was practically overflowing. He brought it up to the counter and the worker put it on the scale.

"That's $12.17"

"Twelve dollars for ice cream? I don't quite have that much. Hold on." Murr took his cup off the scale, stuck a spoon in it, and started stirring furiously, turning the whole cup's contents into a soupy consistency.  He then put the cup back on the scale. "How about now?"

The guy behind the counter rolled his eyes. "$9.92"

"No, that's still too much. Hang on." Murr grabbed the cup again, and began to drink the soupy mess inside. The guy behind the counter glared at him. "Yeah, you're really not supposed to do that. Give me the $9.92,and I won't call the cops."

"Like that's the first time Murray's been threatened with having the cops called on him," Sal muttered to the rest of us. "Only difference is, this time's it's not a girl saying it."

We watched Murr pay for his yogurt and slink back to the table. "Guys, I don't think this was such a good idea... I feel as if one of us-probably me-  is going to be arrested."

 "And the bad part of that is?" Sal cracked. "If nothing else, you being in jail would stop me from being stepped on all the time."

Murr rolled his eyes. I could tell he and Sal were getting on each others' nerves. "Sal, I already told you, it's an accident. Always. I really don't know-"

Joe stepped in. "C'mon guys.  No fighting. Honestly, you're like children. "

Q chimed in, "Yeah, would you knock it off? You're making yourselves look like babies in front of a beautiful...I mean..in front of my new friend here. You're embarrassing me."

Murr and Sal looked at each other with raised eyebrows. I saw Murr mouth something to Sal, who nodded. What did he mouth? Did it have something to do with Q's 'beautiful" slip of the tongue? If I hadn't heard it for myself, I wouldn't have believed it. Was it possible Q felt something towards me? It definitely wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. After all, there was only an eight year age difference..that wasn't so bad, was it?

Q's voice jolted me back to the present. 

"You ok?"

"I- yeah...yeah, I'm fine. I guess I just kind of spaced."

"Oh, ok. Well, we're going to go grab a slice of pizza. You're coming, right?"

"Of course, I'd love to!"

"Cool. You don't have anyone to get home to? No roommate or husband or anything?"

"Just my animals. But they're pretty laid back. I doubt any of them will even notice I'm gone. Well, maybe Java."

"Java? What, is your coffeemaker waiting for you?" Q teased.

"No, Java's my cat. She's light brown with a white splotch on her back that looks like cream."

Q's eyes lit up. " I love cats..well, you probably knew that."

I smiled. "I did. But Java thinks she's a dog, honestly. She's pretty much the best cat I could ask for."

"Sounds like my Benjamin. Too bad we can't set up some sort of kitty play date. It sounds like they would like each other."

"Yeah..."I  sighed. I was having such an amazing time, it hadn't really occurred to me that this day was going to come to an end. How soon, I didn't even know.

Q tucked his hair behind his ear then smiled at me again. "So, not to rush you, but...the rest of the gang's already left us. "

"Oh. Oops. I'm sorry. "

"No need to apologize. It is a little more peaceful now, which is never a bad thing. I'm sorry if Murr and Sal have been getting on your nerves. God knows they piss me off about a hundred times a day, I can only imagine how you must be feeling."

"No, it's fine. Like you said, though, it is nice being here with just you. you've been my favorite Joker since I first started watching. I always thought you'd be..well..exactly like you are, honestly. This has been perfect."

Q smiled once more. "I'm glad to hear that. It makes me feel like when I do what I'm about to do, you won't react negatively towards it. And that's a good thing, because it would probably shatter my confidence if you did."

"I wouldn't want to do that! Wha- what are you going to do though?" I asked anxiously.