Page 151 of Mates: Posy

"Anyone who wants to swim is welcome to, but I don't have a suit," I murmured.

Instead of dampening Peri's spirits, the words lit her up.

"You don't have aswimsuit?Oh, girl. You know what that means, right? More shopping!" she yelled.

"Oh, no." I hid my face in my hands.

"Quit yelling," Gisela grumbled with a frown without opening her eyes. "Neither the queen nor luna can leave the property. No shopping today."

Nowthatdampened Peri's spirits.

"Can I at least have another ice pop to console myself?" she grumbled.

"Of course!" Tyler smiled at her. "What color would you like?"

"Red, please."

He booked over to the freezer, and the queen and I grinned at each other.

"What?" Peri demanded.

"He never asks us what colorwewant," Queen Lilah purred. "We have to take whatever he brings over."

Peri's face went blank for a second, then bright pink bloomed on her cheeks and her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.

"Hey, Ty," Emerson called out, "where're you going?"

We all swiveled our heads to see Tyler heading toward the house.

"Just going down to run down to the store and grab some more ice pops."

"Dude, there are like fifty in there."

"Peri asked for red, and they're all gone."

"Oh, that's okay!" Peri jumped up and frantically waved her hands in front of her. "Purple's fine, or blue. You don't have to make a special trip."

Tyler slowly walked over to her, a frown pulling his eyebrows together.

"I can go get some. I don't mind."

"No, really. I'm good with anything. Except green. If there were only green left, then sure because I really don't like the green ones, but anything else is good."

She was pink-faced and rambling by the time he came to a stop right in front of her.

"I need popcorn," Queen Lilah whispered, and I grinned.

I need to vomit.Lark rolled her eyes.

Hush!I hissed.They're adorable.

"No green. Got it." One side of Tyler's mouth picked up in a half smile.

"It's that lemon-lime flavor. What kind of flavor is that for an ice pop? I don't even like it as a soda flavor. Lemon-lime is a terrible flavor for an ice pop..." Peri's voice slowly faded into nothing.

She and Tyler stood there staring into each other's eyes, and the queen and I muffled our giggles behind our hands.

Crew meandered over to them and held out a blue ice pop. Neither Tyler nor Peri noticed or moved. I wasn't even sure they were breathing at this point.

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