Jay logged out before he saw the answer. He was just about to go on a date with another girl and didn’t want to seem too eager. The thought plaguing his head repeatedly was: play it cool.

He ultimately decided to do what he dreaded most before his date with Claire: grocery shopping. He spent too long going through the aisles and looking for real food. There was way too much for him to understand, but he ultimately got some help from a lovely mom shopping in the middle of the morning.

By the time he was ready to jet off to frozen yogurt, he was running late. He played a little fast and loose with the rules of the road on the way to the yogurt shop.

When Jay arrived, Claire was already standing on the sidewalk, leaning on her car. He parked behind her. She wore a yellow dress that didn’t quite come to her knees. The dress had thin shoulder straps to keep it up; it wasn’t skintight but melded to her shape.

He approached her and found her tapping the clock on her phone.

“Three minutes late,” Claire said, leaning toward his face to tease him. She put her phone away, having set up her joke. “Not the best way to say you’re sorry.”

On the sidewalk, in full eyesight of the world, Jay stepped closer and put his hands on her waist. He leaned closer when she didn’t pull away, easing his lips towards hers. Before overthinking it, before Taylor Lynn could even pop into his mind, he leaned forward. She parted her lips, and he kissed her. Her kiss was soft and yielding.

Too soon, five seconds later, Jay pulled himself back. He did not want to push things too far, too fast, even though they were both adults.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

Keeping her arms around his neck, Claire admitted, “That was a much better apology. Why was I mad at you again?”

“Because after running away like a weirdo, I didn’t call you for three days,” Jay deadpanned.

Claire flicked him on the nose. “You’re not supposed to seriously tell me and ruin the moment.”

Even though she joked it was, the moment wasn’t ruined. They stood like that for several moments further. Slowly, Claire’s hands dropped from his neck, but one of them grabbed Jay’s hand. He smiled at her, basking in the afterglow of feeling that, for once, he had made the right move.

“Excuse me, some of us are trying to get frozen yogurt,” someone announced loudly inside Jay’s left eardrum. “Could you move?”

The man was younger than Jay, wearing stylish clothing and an entitled expression. Jay slid out of the way to make room for him.

“I see you haven’t gotten a new car,” Claire pointed out. “I thought you might upgrade now that you’re rich.”

Jay shot her a mock horrified look, but she laughed it off. “Thought you might have after our previous conversation.”

It was a callback to his awkwardness when he first picked her up. Thinking back to that previous moment reminded him he was still nervous. Being on a date with Claire wasn’t any easier than hanging out with Taylor Lynn.

“I thought about it,” Jay said. “I’m just choosing to move past my previous failures.”

“I can get behind that,” Claire said. “Frozen yogurt?”

“Frozen yogurt,” Jay agreed.

The pair went inside, going through the various nozzles to load up on frozen yogurt. Jay dedicated two-thirds of his bowl to banana-flavored frozen yogurt, avoiding the other flavors. Claire’s approach was a bit different. She found five distinct flavors and poured small amounts of each into her bowl.

Claire’s toppings featured mostly chocolate, along with some gummy bears and a thick dusting of sprinkles. Jay used a little chocolate syrup but focused most of his extra room on peanut butter candies.

Frozen yogurt could say a lot about a person.

Jay took the lead on weighing the bowls and paying for the “lunch.” The frozen yogurt shop wasn’t bustling since most people were having authentic lunch during their lunch hour. He found an open table by the window and pulled out Claire’s chair for her.

“Such a gentleman,” she said, taking a seat. “Not at all like the sort of guy who leaves a girl hanging.”

“I’m reformed,” Jay said, taking his own seat. He took a bite of his yogurt, and Claire reached across the table to brush her fingers against his knuckles. She gave him a playful smile and started attacking gummy bears head-first.

“I could get used to it,” Claire confessed. “You know, the dessert for lunch thing. I probably shouldn’t, though. So why did you decide to call me?”

“Well, I talked to my sister and—”

“Should have known there was a girl involved,” Claire said, cutting across Jay. He looked at her indignantly, but she laughed it off. “Sorry, sorry, continue.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Anyway,” Jay said, accentuating the word as heavily as he could while he rolled his eyes. “I talked to my little sister. She’s a little wiser than I am sometimes, just in general. A little bit smarter, too. But I got all the good looks.”

Claire rolled her eyes, but it was playful. “Well, tell her I said thank you. I’m glad you did. I had a hard time figuring out what I did wrong. I thought maybe we talked about too much, too fast. But it just felt so… natural.”

“It did feel natural,” Jay agreed. “It wasn’t really about you like I tried to explain on the phone. It was a problem with me, but I’m working my way through it. As you can tell, I’m making some progress.”

“I see that,” Claire said. “So tell me more about your little sister. I like her already. Do you think we’d be friends?”

Jay wasn’t expecting the question, so he paused momentarily while thinking about his genuine opinion. Sarah had a harder attitude than Claire, but Sarah also got along with Jenny without problems. Sarah seemed to really enjoy hanging out with the twins. Beyond that, she’d probably be happy to see him dating anyone other than Taylor Lynn.

“I think so,” Jay acknowledged. “You’ve got a great personality, and she’s pretty open to most people. The only problem is that when it comes to Sarah, once you’re out—you’re out. It’s tough to come back.”

“I have a great personality?” Claire said, fake surprise all over her face.

Jay made a noncommital noise, which caused Claire to fling sprinkle shrapnel across the table at him. He managed to dodge, saving his shirt.

“I bet her ex-boyfriends have some stories to tell,” Claire mused. “Do you think any of them have worked to get back into her good graces?”

“She doesn’t really date too many people. And when she does, it usually isn’t serious,” Jay said, pausing to himself. “There was one guy back before she started to get sick. I think she really liked him. But she broke up with him when her health wasn’t improving.”

“Why?” Claire asked. Jay saw echoes of the same questioning look he had given Sarah once upon a time. Claire didn’t understand why someone would give up a relationship just because she got sick. Neither did Jay, really. He thought, perhaps, it was something that an individual had to experience to know.

“I don’t know,” Jay acknowledged. “She doesn’t like to talk about it, so I assumed she knew what she was doing. It’s usually a safe bet when it comes to Sarah. Any past relationships in your rearview mirror?”

He regretted the question immediately. It was one thing to talk about family, but talking about exes was another story. At least it wasn’t the first date. His mind drifted to a memory of Claire talking about her paintings. He should have asked about the paintings.

Claire didn’t miss a beat, though. “I have some ghosts, I guess. No skeletons, though—promise. What about you?”

She twirled sprinkled yogurt onto her spoon as Jay’s mind spun on full cylinders to figure out what to reply. In the end, he basically stole her answer. “Some ghosts, too. No skeletons. At least, I don’t think so. Admittedly, I haven’t checked recently.”

Knowing what was coming, Jay mouthed, “Dad joke!” Claire did the same thing at the same time. She was absolutely delighted by the synchronicity. The air hung with the electricity of attraction as she bridged the silence with a bite of yogurt. Jay did the same.

“I was engaged once,” she finally said, which sent surprise coursing through Jay’s nerves. “That probably sounds like a skeleton, but it isn’t. It happened a long time ago.”

Even though he knew better than to pry, he was extremely curious. “Who ended things?”

“My mother,” Claire said. “I was only sixteen, so I couldn’t do much about it. I couldn’t get married without her permission. I couldn’t do much without her permission, really.”

“Wow,” Jay said. “I don’t think I’ve heard that one before.”

“It didn’t take long to get over it,” Claire admitted, flushing red. “Turns out that other boys are much more interesting once one gets banned from coming over.”

“I can see how the whole star-crossed thing might stop being romantic after a little while,” Jay laughed. “If we start counting high school, there’s going to be skeletons everywhere.”

Claire twirled the hair back behind her ear. She hesitated but looked like she wanted to say something. He paused, eating yogurt and giving her space to say what she needed to say. She didn’t; it didn’t seem right to push her, either.

When she didn’t fill the space, Jay did so. “How is your painting going?”

Claire’s eyes sparkled. She hadn’t expected him to remember. “It’s going well. Thank you for asking. I just got some new paints, actually. I’ve been experimenting with building my own colors. You know, mixing new colors from multiple paints.”

“Can you show me any of your paintings?” Jay asked eagerly.

“I’ll make one for you,” Claire said before she realized her mouth was talking faster than her brain. Her ego hung in the air as she fell silent. It was one of those moments that, if mismanaged, would deal a tremendous wound.

“I would love that,” Jay promised. “No rush, but I can’t wait to see it whenever it’s ready.”

“That’s like the best answer ever,” Claire said. She looked down at Jay’s yogurt. “I hate to be that girl, but can I try one of those candies?”

Jay tried to launch a peanut butter candy into her mouth for the next five minutes. The staff sent him very disapproving looks but didn’t stop him. Every time a candy rolled away, he meticulously found the wayward sugar and cleaned it up. Finally, one of them stuck: a direct hit.

“Yes!” Jay cheered.

“I’m never asking you for candy again,” Claire said, exasperated. “That was an absolute nightmare.”

“Mission accomplished, then,” Jay said. He grinned wide and mischievous. “Anyway, we were talking about your painting. Is that something you want to do? If you could support yourself through your painting, would you want to?”

“Nah,” Claire dismissed the notion. “I think that might ruin the whole point of it. I want to be an HR Manager someday. It’s an important part of every company. There are good and bad ones, but if I take it seriously, I can be one of the good ones.”

“That’s noble,” Jay said, and he truly believed it. He could tell from the look on her face that she was serious about it.

“I guess,” she blushed. “What about you?”

“I don’t have any idea,” Jay said.

“Oh, come on,” she shot back. “Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.”

So, he did.

“Alright. Someday, I’d love to run a game studio. Games create a whole other world for people to experience. It’s like a movie, but you have hours, maybe days, of playing time to create just the right picture. I’ve benefited so much from my experiences in those other worlds. Connected with people that I wouldn’t have otherwise connected with. I want to share that.”

Claire’s phone rang. She glanced down at it and frowned. “That’s work. I’m so sorry, Jay. I probably need to leave.”

She stood up, becoming immediately frazzled by the phone call. She looked everywhere, found her purse, and threw it over her shoulder. For a moment, she looked like she was going to run to the door, but she stopped herself.

Taking a deep breath, she released it and turned to Jay. “Better not run out on you after our last date, huh. How about we go see a movie for the third date? Soon. I’ll text you.”

“Sounds great,” Jay confirmed. Smiling gratefully, Claire flew out of the yogurt shop like a whirlwind.