no fudge samples were available inside. many people milled around but not many seemed to be in line. i stood in line. alec and allie were elsewhere. i asked to try a few samples of ice creams, didn’t really like any, but ordered turtle cheesecake and chocolate peanut butter in a waffle bowl. felt shitty. it was $7. i snickered and said ‘you guys aren’t getting anything,’ which souded more like an antagonistic observation, or maybe question, than the deadpan jab at myself i had intended. wanted to continue on, like, ‘don’t even think about getting a bite,’ but it seemed like i was the only person interested in or aware of what i was saying. alec seemed…i wasn’t sure what he was doing at first. he picked up a box of chocolate covered cherries. encouraged him to ‘do it,’ thinking i was either encouraging him to buy or steal the cherries. he said ‘no, i don’t want to steal from them.’

i was mostly behind alec and allie as we walked to the car. they were talking about bob dylan. allie likes bob dylan a lot. felt happy to be occupied with ‘eating ice cream, not talking for now.’ we approached the parking lot. finished giant bite of the waffle bowl and people seemed impressed. remembered telling alec earlier that he could wear my cardigan if he got cold, and how he had been periodically mentioning feeling cold since the sun had set. thought ‘say something? no.’

alec’s phone died. allie said we could use her phone for directions home. whenever this conversation happened, sometime at dinner i think, alec and allie said things about not knowing how to work gps on their phones very well. felt really full from the ice cream. started driving without knowing where to go, not really caring where i’d go, confident that ‘we’ll end up home somehow.’ allie and i found the way to the highway around the same time. sort of bickered with alec about radio stations. he switched stations fast. i kept saying ‘i want to hear ‘blurred lines,’ let’s see if it’s playing anywhere.’ my ‘thing’ became saying ‘this isn’t ‘blurred lines.” i liked bickering, was either laughing outwardly or inside the whole time. alec said ‘okay, let’s find a radio station where you don’t try to make funny comments or complain about the music.’ allie was quiet in the back for most of the ride. alec started dancing to a song i didn’t know. felt annoyed by the way he was dancing, and annoyed at my annoyance.