This seems so stupid, so mundane, but then again, when you spend years of your life wanting to do something so simple like this and your partner in life doesn’t want to, the experience is heightened.

“That’s a guarantee. What else? I’m going to get an Icee. There’s Coke-flavored over there, so I think you know where I’m headed. Do you want one too?”

“Yeah, I think I do want one,” I say.

“Awesome. And we need some candy too. But the important question is do we go with a chocolate base or a gummy base?”

“Umm…”

“Wrong choice,” he says with a wink. “We get both.”

He pulls me up to the register, asks for a bucket of popcorn and two large Icees, and then has me pick out the candy. I go with Peanut M&Ms and Red Vines. He praises my choice, and then we head on over to fill up our Icees and popcorn.

“What if I mixed the cherry Icee with the Coke-flavored one?” I ask.

He pauses and slowly turns toward me. “Pips, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a better idea. We must.”

Chuckling, we take turns mixing our drinks, passing the cups back and forth as we layer up the flavors. Then we cap off our drinks, grab our napkins, and head to the theater with all our goodies. Of course we’re about twenty minutes early, so when we find our seats, the theater is pretty empty.

“Okay, let me see the popcorn,” Wilder says.

I hand him the popcorn, and he starts pouring it into the nacho trays he asked for—which confused me at first, but now I see why he wanted them. He opens the M&Ms and sprinkles them over the popcorn, then places some Red Vines on the side.

When he’s done, he hands me a tray and says, “When you need a refill, let me know. Also, try eating an M&M along with some popcorn. Pure magic in your mouth.”

“Okay, let me test this out.” I pop a piece of popcorn and an M&M in my mouth and let the salty and sweet combination mix on my tongue. After I swallow, I look Wilder in the eyes and I say, “Umm, that’s really good.”

He smirks. “I know.” Then he pops some in his mouth as well. “Follow it up with some Icee—that’s the real treat.”

“You act like you do this all the time.”

“Well, for a guy who doesn’t really do much, I’m not shy about attending a matinee.”

“I can see that.” I turn toward him as ads play on the screen. “Not to bring down the mood, but I feel like we need to talk about what happened at camp.”

“Sure,” he says. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Can I ask what made you change your answer?”