I swallow as her hand falls away. We’re so close. Her bent leg is pressed up against my thigh. I stay perfectly still, scared any sound or minuscule movement might give her reason to shift away. Dawn holds my eyes for a long moment.

I feel something fall onto my pants and look down. My cricket ice cream is dripping over my hand. “Excrement,” I mumble.

“Oh no.” Dawn looks over at her own ice cream which is also starting to drip over onto her hand.

We take a second to do some ice cream maintenance.

“Come on, let’s still take the picture,” I urge. I want this picture no matter who I look like.

“Come closer,” she directs me. I come even closer, wearing a close-lipped smile. Dawn looks like happiness incarnate on the screen with her mint-green outfit and pink honeysuckle raspberry ice cream. She raises her cone a little higher, trying to get the whole thing in the shot, and accidentally clocks me in the face as she takes the picture.

She gasps and lowers the phone. A pink splotch is dripping down from my cheekbone like runny paint.

“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry, Siri.”

I laugh and reach out, trying to lift her phone arm again. “Don’t be sorry. Come on, get the shot.”

Dawn smiles and lifts the phone. As she gets it back up to eye level, I bop her on the cheek with my ice cream. It’s an exercise in facial control to keep my lips closed as Dawn gasps again.

Her face goes slack. “You did not just bop me with your bug-ass ice cream.”

“I definitely did.”

Mirth sparks in her dark eyes. She raises the camera. We look into it, cheek to cheek, with close-lipped smiles and ice cream running down our faces. Dawn snaps a bunch of options, slightly switching her pose and the angle of the phone to get the shop properly in the background.

A shimmery warmth is growing in me. I’m high on the performance, and her attention, and I’m suddenly seized with the strangest urge to lick the ice cream off her face. I turn my head and lick the green ice cream off her cheek.

It tastes like mint and joy.

Dawn stills. She lowers the iPhone once more. Slowly, with her gaze trained down, she turns her face to mine. We’re almost nose to nose, and when she meets my eyes with her deep endless ones, I swear I see desire there. I lean forward the slightest bit and kiss her. Her cold lips are pillow soft and they taste like honey.

She kisses me back.