Side Note: I Think I Love You (Side Notes Book 1) - COMPLETE

Chapter 31 - Attie

After paying for the check (technically, Ian paid but it took a game of rock, paper, scissors to come to that decision), we walked out of Suze's and just started walking. No set destination, really. Just walked and talked until I spotted no line at Monty's Ice Cream Parlor and insisted that we grab a scoop.

He chose Suze's, so I'm choosing ice cream. It's only fair to end off what just happens to be one of the best nights ever with one of the best sweet treats to exist, right?

Besides, he can't pull out the vegetarian card—he can still eat ice cream.

Afterward, we sit right on the hood of his car in a mostly empty parking lot. With him, munching on a cone of peanut butter chocolate. I chose this mango-vanilla flavor that's really popular.

Side note: I can't do this with my Jeep—just casually sit on the hood like it's normal —because it's much bigger than a Toyota Corolla. I'm also a little terrified of heights but that's neither here nor there.

We're eating our ice cream in silence since I think we've gone over everything we could possibly talk about. I'm looking up at the night sky, playing a game of Connect the Dots in my head with the stars I see, since I don't really know of any constellations—except Pisces, but that's a given.

"What's on your mind, princess?" Ian asks.

A realization dawns on me. "Why do you call me that, anyway?" I question.

"What?"

"That nickname." I turn to face him. Some of the streetlights are on so I can see his face clearly. "I don't even remember the last time you called me by my actual name."

"Can't I give you a nickname just because?" He asks. Are his cheeks turning red? I'm not imagining this, am I?

I shake my head, remembering Jason's words. "I like to think that there's always a reason."

"Just don't judge me."

I chuckle. "Why would I do that? You've never given me a reason to. Unless..."

"It's not inappropriate, I swear," he clarifies, cheeks turning a light shade of crimson. "But remember those games we played back in elementary school? When Derek and I first moved here?"

I nod. Whenever Mom forced me to hang out with the boys, there were always games involved. Specifically, freeze tag, hide and seek, just to name a few. Why boys love alternate version of lacrosse and tackle football, I will never understand.

"I remember how there was always some sort of situation that ended with me saving you from getting in trouble," he continues. "I would tell my mother about it and she would say that I was some sort of knight in shining armor, ready to rescue his princess."

I giggle.

"Hey, I'm just quoting my mother," he protests.

"I know," I reply. "But I'm realizing how much of a mother's boy you are." It's pretty adorable, especially since I know how alike they are.

"Nothing wrong with it."

"I didn't say there was." I rest both my hands at the back of my head and lay down, one leg crossed over the other. Perseus was a mother's boy and he got a happy ending—then again, his father was a deadbeat olympian. I love both my parents equally and will always be grateful that I still have them both in my life, under one roof. Sometimes, I forget that not everyone is lucky.

Take Amy for example. I don't know what happened to her mother because she refuses to ever talk about it. I just assumed that she was dead because it can't be that hard to talk about your mother if she was alive, right?