Page 76 of The ABCs of You & Me

“Fine. Junk? Thrifting or food, or a combination of the two?”

“That sounds like actually not a terrible idea.”

“I am somewhat brilliant occasionally, after having the right amount of coffee.” She smirks and goes back to marking before her head pops up, eyes narrowed. “What did you do for I?”

“Hmm?” I play dumb. “Oh, ice cream. We, uh, went for ice cream.”

Wednesday night I cancel drinks with a friend so I can do some more research. I want to be more prepared for when I see her tomorrow.

I find a list online with ways to improve intimacy in your relationship and realize we’re already working through it. Do new things together, check. Reminisce, check. Be present, check. Cook together, check. Hug daily? I can do that.

The list evolves into more physical intimacy, and while I tell myself that’s not what we’re doing here, I can’t seem to stop from reading through the list. An adult version of Go Fish that leads to physical closeness. It sounds a tad corny, but I wouldn’t say no. Pausing while sexually intimate to look at one another or share an intimate detail is further down the list. The last thing I want to do is imagine Sophie with her ex, but I know for a fact she didn’t get that from him. He’s probably the type of guy that the expression “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” was invented for.

“Pfft, I doubt he ever got to the thank-you part,” I mumble to myself.

Gary jumps on the couch beside me and wails. I’ve been neglecting him a little bit since Sophie walked back into my life, so I set my phone aside and lean back. He immediately climbs up my chest to rub his face against mine. Getting to this point took forever, but here we are, two gingers cuddling on a couch.

“Sorry I’ve been a bit distant lately,” I murmur into his fur once I’ve got my arms around him. He purrs and starts making biscuits on my right pec. “I’ll take this as forgiveness.”

Sitting in my apartment with a cat, I never would have believed it if someone had told me this was my future. Then again, I wouldn’t have believed them if they told me I’d be pretending to date Sophie Hore either.

THIRTY-TWO

SOPHIE

“I even left a tip,” Cooper says with a defeated shrug.

“You left a tip for the Tooth Fairy?” I ask, uncertain that I heard him correctly.

“She does good work,” he claims.

“Oh, well, yeah, sure, that’s true.” Tipping the Tooth Fairy seems a bit like tipping an ATM, but I don’t share that. “Did you ask your dad?”

“He got home late. Melissa was babysitting.” Melissa is Cooper’s older half-sister and babysits a lot when their dad is working a later shift at the hospital. He probably didn’t even know about the tooth.

“Has the Tooth Fairy ever missed a pickup before?”

“No, she’s always on time. I hope nothing happened to her.” He looks at me with wide eyes filled with concern.

“She probably had a busy night. There are a lot of kids losing their teeth right now.”

“Maybe she should hire some help.”

“There’s an idea. But also maybe tell your dad. Sometimes parents have a direct line to the Tooth Fairy.”

“Really?” He perks up. “Santa too?”

“Oh.” Shit, I’m digging myself into quite a hole here. “I’m not sure, to be honest. Santa is a pretty big deal.”

“But the Tooth Fairy is busier. She works every night.” His voice rises as his enthusiasm grows for the work habits of fictional entities. “And everyone loses teeth, but not everyone celebrates Christmas.” He’s got me there.

Foster

Hey! You good if I pick you up tonight?

My body fully relaxes when I see Foster’s message. Interesting.

Yes! Same time?

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