Page 71 of Fear of Intimacy

“Fine, then. I’ll just annoy you with some music instead.” Beside me, Tasha paired her phone to the stereo. “Let's see how you like this one.”

The moment Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan”came on, I wanted to laugh. Oh, Tasha.

“Sucks for you.” I sent her a grin. “I love me some Tay Tay.”

Before she could say anything else, I started belting out the words. I was so off-key as I sang. I was a horrible singer, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I sang the lyrics, knowing the song word for word. I mean, who didn’t love Taylor Swift? Tasha laughed as I kept going. I could have listened to her laugh every second of the day.

I didn’t miss a single word or beat as the song came to an end. With a proud smile on my face, I looked over at her and found her grinning ear to ear.She had the most perfect smile.

“You are horrible.” She laughed.

“I think you mean fantastic.”

“Fantastically horrible,” she amended, to which I agreed.

“You’re damn right.”

“How do you even know that song?”

“Because Tay is the queen.” I snapped my fingers, making her laugh even more. “Plus, she has some decent songs to workout to.” And she did. My workout playlists consisted of everything from R&B to Disney songs. If you were lifting weights or running you couldn’t listen to boring slow songs.

“You are such a dork.” Tasha shook her head at me.

“You love it,” was my response back. With my phone still in her hand she flipped through the pictures she just took as I placed my hand back on her thigh. I had no problem with her going through my phone if she wanted. I had nothing to hide.

We lapsed into silence, a random song playing in thebackground. It wasn’t awkward silence either. Being around Tasha made content, like neither of us had to fill the quietness with awkward conversation. We could just be around each other.

We drove for another twenty minutes before I saw the sign that told me I needed to turn. We were a long way from Toronto where it was more dense with trees, and the homes were mainly cabins or farmhouses.

“So you ready to know where we’re going?”

“I've been ready since yesterday!”

“I thought since it's an unseasonably warm October day, we should be outside. And the other day, you told me how you’ve always wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and get a pumpkin. So, I thought why not?.”

The smile that formed on her face at my words let me know I made the right choice in choosing a date at a local pumpkin patch. Earlier this week, we were lying in bed talking about random things when Tasha brought up that she’d never carved a pumpkin.

Said her parents thought it was pointless so she never got the chance. I could hear the longing in her voice as she spoke about it, and I knew right then that we had to go.

And there was also the fact that I only carved a pumpkin once or twice in my life. When I met Wyatt in university, he brought me over to his mom's house. At the time, Matteo was only twelve, and they had a tradition where they all went and picked out a pumpkin, brought it home, and had a contest to see who carved theirs the best.

They gladly took me in with open arms and let me tag along with them. Even at nineteen, it was a blast. Plus my pumpkins typically won the contest.

Tasha was practically jumping in her seat as I turned down the road that led to the patch. There were only a few cars, seeing that it was nearing one o’clock on a Thursday,which worked perfectly. The two of us could hang around for as long as we wanted without anyone seeing us.

Parking the car, Tasha looked out the front window in excitement. Turning to face me, she sent me the widest grin.

“Let's find the biggest pumpkin here.”

22

TASHA

“Look at this one!” The pumpkin in front of us was literally the size of a boulder.

“Maybe we should pick ones that’ll fit in the car,” Trevor suggested. This may or may not be the fifth big pumpkin I'd asked for us to get. Each time Trevor said no. Apparently, one the size of a car wasn’t allowed.

The two of us walked around the pumpkin patch for a good thirty minutes. Trevor tugged a wagon behind him that already had his pumpkin since he picked it out fifteen minutes ago. There were plenty to choose from, but I wanted theperfect one.

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