Paige laughed. “What I’m saying is that breaking up with you was a huge mistake and I’ve regretted it every moment since I did it and I love you and will you please take me back?”
“Yes. But only because you asked nicely.”
Paige reached across the table and ruffled his hair. “You’re a jerk sometimes, you know that?”
He grinned. “Lauren tells me that a few times a week.” Then he took a deep breath. “I didn’t want to break up, but I couldn’t go on feeling like I was the only one who cared enough to be in the relationship. I’m glad you changed your mind, and I hope this means that we will live happily ever after and all of that. I love you, too, and I’ve missed you every day since the last time we spoke.”
Paige let out a little squeal and leaned across the table to kiss Josh again. He laughed as she did it, and it made his lips vibrate, but then he sank into the kiss with her. He felt giddy. She loved him! They loved each other! And now they were kissing in an ice cream parlor like a couple of teenagers on a first date, but he didn’t care about that. What he cared about was that Paige was here. Everything felt lighter than it had in weeks.
“We should probably eat our ice cream before it melts,” she said.
He laughed. “Fair enough.”
“So, uh, how are things?”
He smiled and ate some ice cream. Then he said, “It’s been an interesting few weeks at work, which I say not because I want to talk about it, but that it…put some things in perspective. I mean, this is not all going to be easy going forward. I’ve got two paralegals doing some of my busywork now, but mostly because my boss put me on a pro bono project that, actually, I’m enjoying in a perverse way? We’re going after an evil corporation instead of defending it, basically. But that’s not…” He stopped talking and shook his head. “My point is, I’m going to have to work late nights, probably for the foreseeable future, because I think odds are good that when I finish my first year at DCL, I’m going to find a new job. I’ve got offers already, even.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We can get into it later. I have alotto tell you. But now we have all the time in the world, right? I can tell you the rest later, so let’s set work aside. I only brought it up to demonstrate, you know, there will be late nights and canceled plans, but I will do my best. And probably there will be weirdness with Lauren, but she’s got her own stuff going on, too. Hopefully that will distract her.”
Paige smiled. “Okay. I take your point. Probably not all smooth sailing. But I think if we talk to each other and stay honest, we’ll be okay.”
“Yes. I promise to be honest and tell you how I feel, if you do the same. If we hold up this bargain, this might just work out.”
“I certainly hope so.”
“How’s your ice cream?”
Paige had nearly finished hers, so she scooped the last bit onto her spoon. “Excellent. How is yours?”
Josh looked into his cup. “Fantastic. Sneaky of you to feed me to butter me up and then mold me to your will.”
Paige reached across the table and took the hand he hadn’t been using to eat his ice cream. “You liked all of it, didn’t you?”
“Immensely.”
“So you want to go join this party now?” Paige glanced at her watch.
“When does itactuallystart?”
“Five minutes ago.”
“Cool. We’ll be fashionably late. And you can smell that pork being smoked from here. I can’t wait.”
* * *
When they walked through the entrance of the BBQ restaurant, they found a nondescript space full of picnic tables. The entire back of the restaurant was a series of glass doors that were pushed open to a back area with more picnic tables. The place was mobbed and smelled like pork.
Paige got out her phone to text Lauren to ask if they’d arrived yet, but she spotted Caleb’s head above the crowd in the outdoor area.
They were more than five minutes late. Once they had noticed that they were totally alone in the ice cream parlor’s backseat area, Josh had insisted on kissing Paige again, some more, and they’d lost track of time until Josh’s stomach rumbled. They’d had a good laugh about it and then walked hand in hand back to the BBQ place. So by the time they got to Caleb and Lauren’s table, Evan, Lindsay, and a couple of guys Paige didn’t recognize but who must have been Caleb’s friends were all there.
“This was a choice,” Josh said as they joined the group.
Paige couldn’t disagree. The crowd was one thing, but the fact that it was a steamy mid-August day and this place was not air conditioned was something else. There were huge fans positioned all over the dining area, but they were mostly just pushing hot air around. Apparently Paige was the only one bothered by this.
Lauren took one look at the two of them and let out a little squeal. “So what happened?”
