Page 14 of Forever After All

I don't push for a different response, but the atmosphere at the table has changed a little. Alice pulls the menu back up andcontinues to read it. I see the top of her head poking out above it, but she makes no further conversation, looking engrossed in the laminated paper in front of her.

Luckily for me, my guardian angel, Ange, comes to take our order at just the right time.

"Oh, Carter, my honey. How are ya doin’?"

I stand and pull Ange into a hug. "So good to see you, Ange. I’ve missed you."

"Missed you too, kiddo."

Ange isthe best.Her and Jim have been running Pie As You Feel for about fifteen years now. I’m a huge advocate for what they do here. Feeding people for free or at very low cost means you run out of options pretty quickly when you have bills to pay, but theynevercomplain. They never close. Pie As You Feel is open sixteen hours a day, every single day of the year. They have volunteers that come in to help, but it's mostly run by the family. You will never meet a more selfless group of people. They don't care who you are, where you're from, or what your story is. All they care about is feeding people. There are always huge donation drives for them at the local sports games and at local businesses. Everyone wants this restaurant to succeed, because nobody should ever go hungry.

"This is my friend, Alice. I told her about how good the damn pie is here, but I don't think she believes me."

"Hey, I never said I didn't believe you." Alice smiles at Ange, but doesn't even attempt to look at me. "He's making it all up. Don't listen to him." She beams now.

"Well, just look at you. Aren't you gorgeous. How do you two know each other?"

"Oh, thank you so much. That's so sweet of you. We're friends." Alice starts filling Ange in. "His brother, Sawyer, is married to my best friend, so I'm kinda stuck with him. He's not too bad, though. He is taking me out and buying me pie. So there are some benefits to being friends with Carter." Alice looks at me now, trying not to allow the grin to spill over.

"Excuse me. I'm also cool," I interject.

"Debatable," both Alice, and Ange say at the same time.

"Wow. Did you plan that?"

They both laugh at their jinx.

"Anyway…" Talking over the two women, I say, "How about some pie, Ange? Apple for me, cherry for Alice."

"Sure, sure. Coffee?"

"Please."

Ange sets down two plates of pie—with slices bigger than my head—and two huge steaming coffees.

"Holy shit. That's a lot of pie!" Alice exclaims and her face lights up and she sits upright in her seat. "Thanks so much."

"You're welcome, honey." Ange walks away from the table and leaves Alice and I to our pie. Taking a bite, Alice's eyes go wide and she stares at me across the table, the green of her eyes popping as she does.

"Well, fuck me."

Okay, if you insist.

"You weren't lying. This is…incredible." The words are muffled as she talks through a mouthful of pastry.

"Told you so," I tease.

"Do you always have to be right?" Alice rolls her eyes at me.

"Not always, but I love it when I am." I wink at her in return.

I really do love being right. It’s the competitive streak in me. I've been this way since I was a kid. I love winning arguments, games, competitions. Hell, I even loved winning the school science fair. I am such a fucking nerd at heart, and I'm proud of it.

Alice starts wiggling in her seat with a content look on her face. It’s the most relaxed I've ever seen her look. This is adorable, and she has no idea that she's doing it at all. It’s so funny to see someone so excited over Ange's pie.

"That's so cute." The words leave my mouth as I think them, even though I don't mean to say them. She looks at me confusedbefore realising she's doing a happy little food dance in her seat.

"Oh." Her cheeks redden slightly. "Sorry, I can't help it. It's just…SOgood."

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