Page 103 of Clichés & Curses

That, I agreed with; I did look cute in that photo, and Nina did too—which was why, it was a mutual favourite from the bunch that we had taken. Or I didn’t think Nina would have it printed out, much less have it framed.

Colton placed the photo back in its original spot as he turned to me. ‘So, pizza?’

‘Sure.’ I nodded. ‘You can wash your hands in the kitchen, I’m gonna go change first.’

Picking up my abandoned tote bag on the kitchen island, I headed to my room and set it on my desk chair. After Icarefullyhung Colton’s baseball jacket, I reached through the rest of my closet, searching for an oversized t-shirt and some sweatpants.

Once I was done changing, I returned to the living room and found Colton sitting on the right side of the couch, scrolling through his phone. I washed my hands on the kitchen sink before joining him, folding my legs together once I sat down.

Colton leaned forward to put his phone on the coffee table, the screen facing down. Opening the pizza box, he picked it up and brought it towards me. ‘Your dinner, milady,’ he said, not forgetting the head bow as he uttered the words.

I shook my head at his dramatics, amused laughter coming out of my mouth. ‘Why thank you, milord,’ I said, picking up a slice of the pizza.

He gave a playful grin and took a slice of his own before placing the box back on the coffee table.

We both ate in silence, content with our food of choice for the night. I was only halfway through my slice, when Colton reached for his second one. As I sat there eating pizza with Colton in my living room, I couldn’t help but think of the other male figure in my life and our little pizza tradition.

Without even second-guessing myself, the words were already out of my mouth. ‘My dad and I had a baseball tradition while I was growing up.’

‘Yeah?’ Colton said as he started on his second slice.

I nodded. ‘We used to attend those little league games when I was in middle school, and we would get pizza afterwards. It wasn’t something we did intentionally, but the more games we went to, it sort of just became a routine—a tradition. When the divorce happened, we sort of stopped doing it for a while.’

‘What happened then?’

‘We started it again, only this time, instead of eating pizza after going to a baseball game, we ate it while we were watching a live baseball game on the TV. It didn’t matter which team was playing, I would just go to his house every Sunday, and he would already have the pizza ready for us. Sometimes he would even make it himself.’ I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory. ‘It took a few tries, but he eventually got the hang of it. And now, whenever I go to his house to watch a game, the delicious smell of pizza never fails to greet me.’

‘Was your dad a big baseball fan?’ I heard Colton ask.

I shook my head. ‘Not really. I think he liked watching the sport, but wasn’t a big enough fan to follow it religiously.Anyway, what about you? Did you have any family traditions related to baseball, or family traditions in general?’

‘I do actually,’ he started. ‘To be honest, I never really thought of it as a tradition before, just something we did. But when I just started playing baseball, my whole family and I would go celebrate at this ice cream shop we had in my hometown if my team won. My usual order was a chocolate sundae.’

‘And what happens if you lose?’

‘I also get an ice cream sundae.’

‘So, you mean, you’ll get one either way? Whether you win or lose?’ I asked him, my voice teasing.

‘Yeah,’ he broke off, the tips of his ear going slightly red. ‘They just went about it differently. Like if I win, then it’s a celebration and if I lose, then it’s to cheer me up. I think my family thought it was just a hobby when I was younger, so it didn’t really matter much. But once I started taking it seriously, we just stopped doing it any more.’

I took another bite of my pizza, tucking this piece of information about Colton into my mind, and adding it to the list of things I knew about him. But this particular story reminded me of another trait from that list—one of my favourite things about him.

‘Is that how you got your sweet tooth?’ I pointed out.

Colton pondered over my question for a moment. ‘Now that you mentioned it, I think so. But hand to heart, that shop had the best chocolate ice cream sundae I ever had.’

‘When was the last time you had it?’

‘The week before I came back for the new semester,’ he answered, as his hand reached out for another slice of pizza. ‘It’s sort of like a little farewell gift for me before I head off.’

‘It really is that good, huh?’ I teased him.

‘I’ll take you there someday and you can decide for yourself.’

My breath caught up in my throat at his words, anticipating a feeling of fear to creep up on me, but it never came. Instead, I felt excited at the prospect of it, of seeing the town Colton grew up in, and the legendary sundae that created his sweet tooth.

Giving him a smile, I said, ‘I’d like that.’

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