Page 72 of Affinity

“I’ve been craving them for over twenty-four hours. Of course, I’m ready.”

“Good, why don’t I grab some sticks and roast the marshmallows, and you can get the rest ready?”

“Sure.” She bumped her shoulder with mine.

I searched around our campsite for a stick long enough to roast marshmallows but keep me far enough back from the flames. I found one without any branches that was a good three feet long and held it up. “Do you think I should wash it before I put the marshmallow on?” I wasn’t a fan of dirt with my food. “Is that something people do?”

“No, the fire will kill anything on it,” Abbi said matter of factly.

That didn’t seem right, but what did I know? I shrugged and then started shoving marshmallows on the stick.

“How many marshmallows do you think go on one s’more?”

“Two? Did you forget I have no idea how to cook?”

Even in the dark, I could see Abbi roll her eyes. “Not knowing how to cook doesn’t give you the right to have no clue about food in general.”

“Since neither of us has ever had them before, what makes you the expert?”

“It’s commonsense. Plus, I may have watched a YouTube video while you were in the shower this morning.”

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “Fine, we’ll only put one on each cracker, but I know they’re going to be the bomb, and we’ll want more than one.”

Putting the stick by the flame, I held it out and watched as the white globs slid off the stick. “What the fuck?!” I threw the stick in the fire and backed away. “Why am I so fucking incompetent?”

“Just try again. I’m sure no one gets it right on the first try.”

Kicking the dirt, I mumbled. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

Pulling the stick out of the fire this time, I only put two marshmallows on. I made sure to keep it slightly upright even though it put me closer to the fire.

“Hey,” she took my free hand in hers and ran her fingertips along the vein on the top of my hand. “I’m sorry about Paul making the fire. I know you wanted to do it yourself.”

I wasn’t going to tell her how it made me feel like less of a man. Instead, I kept quiet and watched our marshmallows.

“I think they’re ready. Now how do we do this?” I tried to pinch the first one to pull it off the stick, but it was hot as hell, burning my fingertips.

Abbi bit her bottom lip and wrung her hands together. “Should I pull up another video?”

“You don’t need to do that.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I know you know how to do it already. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

She rolled her lips and tried not to smile. “Bring it over here. I’ve got the chocolate on the graham cracker already. We’ll put the marshmallow on top of the cracker, and I’ll pinch it off between the crackers while you pull the stick out.”

“That sounds like a disaster, but let’s do it. I want to eat one of these damn things already.”

We followed Abbi’s instructions to the letter, and when I bit into my s’more, I swore my eyes rolled back in my head. Those three ingredients were pure perfection.

“This is so good.”

“I know.” That time I didn’t hide my moan.

Abbi scrunched up her nose. “What no one bothered to mention in those videos is how messy they are. It’s like I want to lick my fingers clean, but they’re covered in dirt and bark, and who knows what else.”

“I guess the only way to fix it is to eat more,” I said as I shoved the rest of it in my mouth.

“I like the way you think,” she patted my cheek with her sticky hand.

“The ones that caught on fire are even better.” Abbi moaned with her mouth full.

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