Page 72 of Riverside Reverie

“Oh, Ontario Place! I forgot about that. The amusement park and waterpark were my favourite growing up. Have you ever been to the Exhibition?”

“No, my grandpa didn’t like crowds. He’d rather take us camping in the backwoods than deal with the amount of traffic The Ex gets,” I chuckled, missing the old man. He’d passed away six years ago. “Ontario Place was busy enough for him.”

Lux smiled sympathetically. “I get it. I hated the crowds whenever we’d go to The Ex, but it’s a lot of fun.”

“We’ll have to go. You could show me around your favourite local places back home sometime,” I grinned down at her, making her smile grow.

“I think we could arrange that…” she said, noticing it was our turn to pay. I’d already pulled my wallet out and quickly slid my card out to cover our charges.

We spent the next several hours walking around the different exhibits and talking about everything and everything. Lux smiled the whole time, her eyes light and happy. I made any excuse I could to touch her—subtly, of course. I was aware of the children and families around us.

We stopped off at the gift shop before we left. When she was distracted buying rock candy suckers, I couldn’t resist picking out an agate butterfly for her. It reminded me of how she’d fluttered into my life with her natural beauty and captivated me.

“Aww, thank you, Theo. You didn’t have to do that!” she exclaimed when I handed it to her.

“I wanted to,” I told her, watching as she studied it.

“It’s so pretty! I love it,” she replied, turning it over in her hand.

“So are you, which I guess is why it made me think of you,” I scratched at the back of my neck, cringing. “I know, that’s pretty damn cheesy—but it’s the truth.”

She glanced back at me with bewilderment. “Well, thank you. For this and for the day date.”

“Oh, we’re not done yet. I still have to take you to see the Big Nickel,” I grinned.

“Stop! I forgot that was a thing,” Lux laughed, her nose wrinkling and eyes sparkling with amusement. “Why is it a tourist attraction again?”

“Well,” I said with flourish, taking her hand and heading toward the exit, explaining while we walked to the parking lot. “It commemorates the two hundredth anniversary of the isolation of metallic nickel by a Swedish mineralogist and chemist, Baron Axel Frederic Cronstedt. It also pays homage to the ingenuity of chemist Ludwig Mond, who developed the first commercial process to produce pure nickel.”

“Okay…” Lux said, still not getting it.

“Since the Sudbury area is rich in nickel-bearing ore and has a history of supplying it to the world, it’s kind of a big deal for us locals. And tourists love it. Pretty much everyone who comes here ends up with a picture in front of it. I think Jasmine even has one.”

“Yeah, she does. She took it when she first moved here and sent it to me. I didn’t get the hype,” Lux admitted with a grin as I unlocked my car.

“You still won’t get it after you see it, but it’s a requirement.” I opened the door for her, holding it while she climbed in.

“At least you’re honest,” she laughed.

The drive to the Big Nickel wasn’t far, only ten minutes. We grabbed some lunch and then took our time exploring the educational mine before making the Big Nickel our last stop. Lux stared up at the three-storey high coin, tilting her head, trying to figure it out.

“Huh. It’s cool and all, but rather anticlimactic.”

“I’m still going to take your picture in front of it, so go stand there and look impressed,” I teased. Lux crunched up her nose and laughed as I pulled out my phone.

“Are you going to make me do one of those ‘holding it’ pictures?”

“I wasn’t, but now that you mention it…” I said, waggling my eyebrows. “Move forward and put your hand up, like you’re holding it.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Lux was blushing, but she did as I asked, the megawatt smile on her face. I snapped a few photos with my phone of her appearing to hold the nickel between her index finger and thumb.

Then I asked someone else to take one of us together with the nickel off to the side. “Gotta commemorate this moment,” I told her, putting my arm around her. She glanced up at me, and I looked down at her, smiling.

It was nearly five by the time we were done at the Big Nickel, and although we’d grabbed lunch earlier I wasn’t ready to end our date day. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun on a date.

Tomorrow, Lux would be heading back to Guelph. Sure, it was only for a couple of weeks until she officially made the move, but I knew I’d miss having easy access to her.

“Feel like grabbing dinner out before we head back to the house?”

---