Page 34 of Stuck With Mr. Frosty

“It’s very romantic, but there’s nothing quite like someone’s head being cut off.”

He laughs and gets comfortable, eating some pizza while I find the movie that looks like it’s going to have the most heads flying. All thoughts of talking about the future disappear for the moment.

But they come rushing back when the first movie ends and Aiden shuffles beside me, pulling me into his side and pressing his lips to my temple.

“Have you thought more about where you want to apply to teach once the season’s over?” he asks as I scroll through the movies, looking for another one to watch.

I swallow hard, chest tightening. “I don’t know. There are some schools in my area, but I don’t know if I want to stay in my area or if I want to move around.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to stay where you are?”

“Lots of ghosts.” I force a smile, but the words are hard to say, like I’ve been avoiding talking about why I would want to leave.

“Ghosts?”

“Of Mom.” I pull away from him so I can look him in the eyes, sitting up and pulling my knees to my chest. “I know that seemsridiculous to say given the fact that I came here to feel close to her, but there’s something about this that feels different than staying in the city.”

“Why?” He sits up and crosses his legs, laughing when Honey plops down in front of him with her big head in his lap.

“Mom was always larger than life to me.” I pick at a loose thread on my pants. “And now that she’s gone, everything else about my life seems so small. I keep going to places in the city where all I see are the spots she and I used to be together, and then it hits me like a ton of bricks.”

“You’d rather run away?”

I glare at him out of the corner of my eyes before sighing. “I guess you could see it that way.”

“How would you see it?” His fingers comb through Honey’s fur, letting the long strands run gently between his fingers before falling away.

I pause, not sure what to think about his line of questioning. It doesn’t feel like he’s interrogating me; more like he’s trying to understand what’s going on in my head. And for a moment, it feels like we might be something more than just two people having fun. Like we might be headed for something after the season and he’s trying to figure out where I stand on the entire matter.

Sighing, I reach for a slice of cold pizza. “I think I want to get out and live my life for her. She wouldn’t want me to sit around and keep thinking about all the places we used to go and all the things we used to do.”

“That still sounds like you’re going to be living your life for another person.”

I bite the inside of my cheek and turn to face him. “What would you do if you were me?”

The corner of his mouth twitches. “I’m a horrible example to follow. I spend most of my days traveling around the world and avoiding having to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I’m probably the last person you should be taking advice from.”

“And yet, I’m asking you for it. So, what would you do?”

His hands are still in Honey’s fur. “I think I would spend the rest of the season figuring out who I am and what I want from my life. You can’t spend it living another person’s dream.”

“Kind of seems like a cop-out answer.”

He chuckles and shrugs. “You have me there, but I don’t want to be one more person influencing you to do something you don’t want to do. This should be your choice, and you should make it with your own best intentions in mind.”

“Is that what you do when you travel?”

He presses his lips into a thin line for a moment before looking away from me.

For a long while, he says nothing. This is it. I’ve finally pushed him away from me, just when I thought things were starting to go well. He’s going to keep pulling back and all the progress we’ve made over the last few weeks is going to disappear as if nothing happened at all.

Finally, he leans back and looks up at the ceiling. “I travel to run away from the thought of having to figure out where to settle down.”

“Do you think that’s ever going to change?”

I know I’m asking more for myself than anything else. I want to know what he thinks about us having a future, and I’m asking about it in every way I know how without having to say the actual words.

And if he knows that, he doesn’t let on.

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