Sweeter Than Summer

10 | mint medley

"Tell me."

"No."

"Please?"

Carter exhaled loudly, then wiped his mouth with the napkin I had handed him. "I'm going to ask Rosa out on a date. Or, I did ask her out on a date."

"And you weren't going to tell me this?" I asked him, "Carter, why weren't you going to tell me this?"

"Dude," he said flatly, "Rosa is your best friend. And I don't think she knows it's a date."

"I think that's kind of a requirement."

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone, tapping a few buttons with sticky fingers. He handed it to me.

Carter Bingham (7:19): want to go for pizza tonight?

Rosa Jimenez (8:40): carter WHY don't you ever sleep

Rosa Jimenez (8:40): if u were jogging then I would personally like to SMACK SOME SENSE INTO YOU

Rosa Jimenez (8:41): yes I do want pizza tonight

Carter Bingham (10:41): see you later then. antonia's at 7. gtg to work

I scanned it once, then twice, before handing it back. "Carter, you guys go to the pizza place at least once a week."

"So what? A man's gotta have his dough."

"So," I said, "how is Rosa supposed to know that this is a date?"

"Uh, she isn't?"

I threw my hands up in exasperation just as the door swung open. I thought I recognized the woman who walked in, but when she stepped up to the counter and wanted to know if the "annoying, wannabe seductive one" was there, I knew for sure.

"Frank's not working today," I assured her, "you're Sylvia, right? Do you want a cup of rum raisin?"

She raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows. "It's creepy, I know," Carter said from next to me, "she knows everyone's order."

"Not everyone's."

"If you come in more than once, she memorizes it. If she wasn't a midget, it would probably scare people."

"Hey!"

Sylvia raised the right side of her lips into a half-smile. "I didn't think I was that memorable."

"You called out Frank, which was a first," I said, "and you're the only person I've ever met who ordered rum raisin more than once."

She snorted. "My legacy."

I grabbed a clean scooper from the drawer behind me, holding it at the ready for when she officially ordered. Carter stuffed the rest of his sugar cone into his mouth, brushing off his hands on his jeans and crossing to the register. "Would you like rum raisin, or would you like to prove January wrong?" he asked her.

"Rum raisin, one scoop. In a waffle cone."

Carter punched a few buttons. "Three eighty-nine."

As I started to cram the ice cream into her cone, she handed over a five and Carter handed her the change. They stood there for a moment before Carter asked, "you're the chick Frank's been freaking out over?"

"Sounds like it." Carter nodded, and I leaned over the glass case to hand Sylvia her ice cream. She continued, "But he's a little too juvenile to be my type. And the wrong gender. You can tell him I said that, maybe he'll stop pining."

"I doubt it," Carter told her.

"He better, I swear to god," Sylvia sighed, "thanks for the rum raisin, I'll order it again sometime. Continue my legacy."