Page 65 of Snowballed

She leans against me and runs her hand over my chest. “Well, I have a suggestion. Rocky says we can have her apartment for one night. Maybe we can combine that with your dinner.”

“That’s really nice of her. What will she do?”

“She can stay at Jeremy’s place,” Zoe says.

“Is he her boyfriend?” I can’t believe I’m asking this, but Wags needs the intel.

“Yes, he’s the guy who won her auction date. He’s a grad student like you.”

Now Wags will really regret not coming to the auction. I pull out my phone and check my calendar. “I think that sounds like a plan. What night shall we do it?”

Zoe pulls out her phone too. Our schedules are so full, we need to double check everything. “Maybe next Thursday?”

“Sounds good.”

“Noah, can you imagine having a whole night together?”

Yeah, I can. But if I let my thoughts go down that path, I’ll be sporting a semi in no time. It’s hard enough to sit here with Zoe’s firm body next to mine and not run my hands all over her. But Denise will be home anytime. I recall the privacy of my spacious bedroom in the Tempe townhouse. If only I had my own place now. But if I were living in Burlington, I would never have gotten to know Zoe, so I can’t complain.

On Thursday night, I arrive at Rocky’s place with a full bag of supplies. Wags groaned when I told him where I was going tonight.

Rocky lets me in since Zoe has a class until 5:00.

“Pretty nice. You’re feeding her first,” Rocky comments.

“She deserves a nice time.” Again I regret that I can’t take her out to a nice place. Zoe knows every gourmet restaurant in a 50-mile radius and hasn’t been to any of them.

“I’m glad you get that,” Rocky says. “Zoe needs to have more fun.”

Clearly, we’re in agreement that Zoe works too hard. But that’s what she wants, so there’s no point in arguing.

“Thanks for lending us your place.” I start unpacking groceries. I got some flowers too, and Rocky pulls out a vase for me.

“Pas de probleme.” She smiles at me. “You know when I first met you, I thought you were kind of serious and stuck up. But you’re really nice.”

“Thanks.” I’ve always been intense, especially about hockey. And that was only compounded by all my financial issues and the rift with my family. But lately I’ve been able to relax and enjoy life more. It’s partly that the pressure around hockey is lessened, and partly living at the farm with Zoe.

Rocky takes off and leaves me to the daunting task of making dinner. Luckily, my grandmother knows exactly how crap I am in the kitchen. Instead of “chop” or “dice,” she’s drawn illustrations: onions this size, beef cubes this size, carrots this size. The curry package also has drawings and instructions, but since they’re in Japanese, that’s not so helpful. I slice and cook everything in a big pot. Then I’m supposed to add water and simmer. After adding water, this meal looks like a lame pot of soup. Hopefully, the curry box will be the magic ingredient.

“Honey, I’m home,” Zoe calls out.

“Hey, you.” I wrap my arms around her, and we kiss. It feels nice to be alone together, playing house.

“Can I peek?” She lifts the lid without waiting for me to answer and looks disappointed.

“Don’t worry, you’re just in time to see the magic happen.”

“I thought that would be in the bedroom tonight,” she jokes.

“Oh, that too.” I squeeze her ass and she laughs.

I take out the box of curry powder mix. It turns out to be a heavy paste that breaks into four pieces. It smells spicy and good. I stir all the pieces into the pot.

“What is this?” Zoe grabs the box from me. “Vermont Curry?” The packaging is in Japanese, but the wordsVermont Curryare plastered across the front.

I laugh. “Yeah, apparently it’s a famous brand in Japan.”

“But why Vermont? It’s not like we’re famous for curries.”

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