Page 14 of All I Want Is Love
“It can’t beat fast food, though,” he sighs.
“I don’t know,” I muse. “I never ate much fast food.”
“You are kidding me!?”
“No, I… as a kid I wasn’t allowed to eat a lot of it, and then…” I mostly went to posh restaurants because that’s where I had to be for my career. “I just forgot about it.”
“Then let me be your personal food guide,” he exclaims. “I will make sure you try it all!”
“Just not all today, please.”
Robin beams, once more looking like he is throwing pixie dust around him with how brilliant his smile is. “Of course not. We will make this a weekly outing instead! Maybe Soren and Aspen want to join, too.”
I feel a twinge in my chest. Is it pity? Does Robin take pity on me? Still, it would be impolite to turn him down. Even if he is just being nice.
Fuck, when did I turn so cynical?
“Only if they want to,” I say evasively.
“They want to,” he says with finality in his voice, right when our food arrives.
We dig in, and he was right; I was clearly missing out. Not that I didn’t have pizza before, but I certainly never had this super-cheesy, calorie-heavy type of pizza. I am going to feel so sick later, but I don’t mind.
“How did you actually meet those two?” I finally ask what I‘ve wanted to know, since I met him and Soren. I figured Robin is going to mind these questions the least.
“Oh! I know Soren from school,” he says. “As for Aspen, he bumped into me when he came here. Literally. Knocked me over.” Robin laughs. “He was so cute, how he scrambled to pick up all my things. Obviously, I had to drag him to get some tea from our little tea house in town, only to learn there that he was the new owner of that completely run-down place.”
“The one that’s the coffee shop now?”
“Yes, it was supposed to be torn down. But Aspen bought it and renovated it. He did most of it alone, and well, I helped.”
“That was very nice of you,” I say.
Robin looks flustered for a moment before he shrugs. “Aspen’s vision was contagious, and I didn’t know what to do with my life anyway. I tried college, but it wasn’t for me. And Aspen understood.”
“So, that’s how you became friends and partners,” I muse, noticing how Robin blushes furiously and waves his hands in panic.
“Work partners,” he exclaims.
“The library was always yours?”
“Yes, I inherited it, and with Aspen’s help, renovated it as well. He really knows what he is doing.”
“I agree. His talents would have been wasted in university,” I say quietly, my stomach churning at the fact that my parents were never able to see that.
“Then we struck a deal, became business partners and with the finances from my inheritance, managed to fulfil this dream. I needed Aspen for me to learn what I truly wanted to do with my life.”
“That’s amazing.” I listen in awe, soaking up all his words. I never asked Aspen how he built up his business here. I missed asking him a couple of years ago, and now it just feels shallow to do it.
“And you and Soren were friends in high school?”
“Not at all,” Robin says. “Clearly, I was one of the cool kids.” When I stare at him, he giggles. “Just kidding. Soren is a bit older than I am. We bonded because we were both the two geeky boys in school.”
“Hard to imagine,” I admit.
“Today,” Robin says. “You should have seen us two awkward kids back then.”
“I was awkward too,” I say.
