Page 71 of All I Want Is Love
Robin and I exchange a gaze before bursting into hysterical laughter, while Aspen just tosses Soren a disgruntled look.
“I liked that one,” Robin giggles. “Usually your jokes suck, but this one…”
“This one sucked in particularly,” Aspen says.
Soren moves from one leg to the other with me in his arms, swaying us that way. “Talking about sucking—"
“No, you don’t,” Aspen warns.
“I kinda wanted to hear the joke,” Robin complains. “Don’t ruin the fun!”
Aspen ignores him. “If you don’t stop, you won’t want to face me on the playfield after the break.”
“We are on the same team,” Soren grins.
“I will betray West Sunhaven and fight for the other town!”
“We don’t want to see the fallout from that,” I say.
Soren squeezes me and kisses the top of my head right when the bell chimes again. “Time to go back to the warzone,” he says.
“Good luck,” I smile.
“You better win this!” Robin exclaims.
“Don’t worry, we have this in the bag,” Aspen says with Soren nodding confidently.
I have no idea if that’s true or just their egos speaking. Nothing about this so-called snowball battle makes sense to me, and I have no clue how the referee even counts the points. Robin and I keep watching and listening to the group of old ladies who comment on every move.
At the end of the tournament, the ladies next to us cheer, so Robin and I do too. “Looks like we won?” I whisper.
“Seems like it,” Robin whispers back. Soren and Aspen high-five each other, and two of the guys next to them. “Yeah, definitely, we are on the winning team.”
“Oh, look,” I say when Soren comes running towards us.
He grabs me and twirls me around before kissing me. “We won!”
“You won!” I say, hugging him. “Congrats!”
“We have no clue what you did, but you were amazing,” Robin says.
“Aspen and I are just going to take a shower and change into fresh clothes,” he says. “Then we’ll catch up with you.”
“We can go over to the stand with the mulled wine,” Robin suggests. “They have tables there. We’ll make sure to save some seats for the four of us.”
Soren nods. “Good idea. Order us something to eat.”
“What do you want?” I ask.
“Anything, really. We are both starving.”
“I saw they have truffle fries,” I say. “I know they aren’t for Aspen, but—"
“But I want them. You got me there,” Soren smiles happily. “Get me a large portion.”
“And the chili cheese ones for Aspen,” Robin concludes. “I know the man.”
Not long ago, these words would have given me a twinge of jealousy because somebody else knows so much more about Aspen than I do. But now I don’t mind anymore. I can get to know Aspen again and rediscover who he truly is, far away from our parents and our past, which held us back.
