Since Jeremy's mother was working overtime in order to cover up her backlog, Jeremy and Kiara decided to have their ice-cream date at the former's home. Walking hand in hand, Jeremy was holding a paper with an ice-cream tasting kit which held twelve different ice cream flavours.
"I already feel tired," Kiara complained.
"Come on, it's not that bad. We always walk to the ice-cream shop. What's the problem today?" Jeremy tried to make her smile. "Very soon we'll be driving our own car. Jacob said he's going to help us with it. Before April, we'll be driving our own first car." he said excitedly.
"Your own first car," Kiara smiled up at him.
"Ours, Kiara. What's mine is yours. The car will be ours." He corrected her.
Kiara did not like the subject. Since her incident with Vine, she detested any topic emotional, for she had to do anything and everything to keep the tears at bay. They walked on and the moment they entered inside the house, Kiara said,
"I can't wait any longer. Let's have the ice cream already!"
"Ok come sit here. I want us to play a game. I will blindfold you and feed you some ice-cream. You must tell me which flavours each of them is."
Kiara laughed and said, "I'm likely to get all the flavours right. You know how obsessed I am with ice cream. Why don't you be the one to be blindfolded?"
"Ok," Jeremy sat on the sofa and smiled while rubbing his hands together in excitement.
Kiara carefully blindfolded him and fed him the first scoop of ice-cream.
"Ummm, I think I will need another spoonful before I can tell which one it is," Jeremy said.
Kiara burst out laughing; "the rule is you get only one spoonful, Jeremy. Come on, which flavour is it?"
"You tied the blindfold too tight. I can hardly think or taste anything. Please loosen it a bit," he said in a voice which sounded like he was going to cry.
Kiara laughed even more.
"OK, here, I am loosening it a bit. Don't cheat, Jeremy! Ok, here is another spoonful of the same ice-cream. Tell me, which flavour is it?"
Jeremy took the ice-cream and allowed it to stay in his mouth for a while before he swallowed it.
"I don't know. It's not a nice flavour," he said.
"Take a guess!" Kiara encouraged him.
"It's not fair, you too have to play the game," he complained.
"Enough of the complaining, Jeremy! I will play after you. Now tell me, which flavour did I just feed you?" Kiara was amused by the way in which Jeremy continued to come up with excuses.
"Umm, I am not sure. Was it vanilla? Or maybe bubblegum? I don't know."
"It's cotton candy, Jeremy!! Oh my word, you really don't know anything about ice-cream, do you?" she laughed heartily.
"Of course I don't know. You know that I don't know, that's why you tricked me into doing the tasting," Jeremy pulled off the blindfold.
Kiara could not help but laugh, seeing him full of complaints like that.
"Put back the blindfold!" she took it and tried to cover Jeremy's eyes, but he ran off, and Kiara after him. Since she was already holding a cup of ice-cream, Jeremy snatched it and started to eat while he ran. Not to be outdone, Kiara fought for the same cup, and the poor cup smudged, spilling the ice cream all over the floor.
"Oh my word, look what you did!" It was Kiara who said that.
"We both did this!" Jeremy stated.
"Let's clean up," Kiara said.
"No, let's eat up our ice-cream first and we will clean up later." With that, Jeremy was already picking up another cup from which he fed Kiara some more.
"Strawberry!" Kiara beamed with joy.
"You saw it written on the cup!" Jeremy refused to be defeated.
"No I didn't! OK, let me close my eyes. Feed me three of four different flavours, and I will tell you which ones they are." The young lady prompted her boyfriend.
Jeremy quickly took the blindfold and covered Kiara's eyes. He fed her four spoonfuls, and waited for her to say which flavours they were.
"The first one, I think, is cookies and cream. And then maple, pistachio and banana. I don't like banana flavoured ice cream," she wiped her mouth using the back of her hand.
"You're right." Jeremy removed the blindfold off his girlfriend, and the two of them sat down to enjoy the rest of the cups. Since Jeremy knew Kiara well, he had already bought some wafers, marshmallows and pretzels for her.
"Let's find something nice to watch," the young man flickered through the TV channels.
"I want something which is action-packed, with a lot of fighting, shooting and the like," Kiara suggested.
Jeremy waited for a moment. It was the first time ever for him to hear his girlfriend asking for such a movie. She always preferred the romantic tear-jerkers. She liked especially movies and series based on true stories.
"You're surprised, aren't you?" the young lady laughed.
"Of course I am. I wonder what happened to you?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Nothing happened. Today I want to watch something different," Kiara smiled.
She had to continue smiling. The smile was her sole weapon to hide what was going on inside of her head. How on earth could she have told him that she was running away from the romantic movies, for she feared running into a story like hers? She feared running into a movie whereby the lady cheats on her man. She did not want to watch a movie in which the storyline, in any sense, matched hers.
Jeremy stopped searching when he found a movie which seemed to meet Kiara's description.
None of them were watching it, anyway. They were busy enjoying their sweet snacks, and admiring each other, while the movie ran.
"I love such moments, Kiara. Whenever I am with you, I feel that my life is complete. You really make me happy. I pray that one day you won't dump me for the next guy."
Oh no. Why did he have to talk about that?
"W…why would you think like that? You…you've never spoken like that before," Kiara stammered.
"I don't know. It's just that, since the day you worked at the Two-Sons Hotel, you have changed." He looked at her, searching for something in her eyes. His hope was either to confirm or refute his worries, but Kiara quickly looked aside.
"You can hardly look at me, Kiara. Why do I continue to feel that you're moving further and further away from me? It sure feels like there is a thick cloud between us, and its ruining our love and our friendship." His tone was serious.
"Not at all. I don't feel it," she forced herself to smile. "We've just been laughing and playing now, I don't see what has changed."
"Yes we have been laughing, but I still feel as if these days you're becoming distant."
"How?" Kiara sat up.
"You always seem to have something on your mind. Sometimes I have to repeat myself many times before I can get your attention." The young man explained.
"I think you're thinking too much into this. I just get stressed when I think about my new job. I'm starting on the first of next month, sometimes I don't feel ready," she lied with a straight face.
"What stresses you?" his voice was full of care.
"I'm not too sure. Just the idea of being in a formal workplace…will I manage? Will I meet my manager's expectations…I have all such fears."
"Relax, you will be absolutely fine," Jeremy assured her, rubbing her back in small circular motions. "You've always been a bright student, Kiara. You will be fine. I know you will grasp everything within your first week, and you'll soon be their best employee," the young man planted a kiss on the lady, and smiling sheepishly, she let her head hang low.
"Let's clean up!" Kiara jumped up and headed for a mop bucket.
The two of them had just started cleaning when Sharon walked in.
"Good evening my children," she yawned loudly and threw her bag on the sofa. "I'm exhausted," she sat down.
"Good evening, how was your day?" Kiara asked.
"It was good," the elderly lady yawned again and rested her head on a cushion.
Seeing that Jeremy's mother was really tired and probably needed her rest, Kiara finished up the cleaning and immediately said her goodbyes.
Jeremy walked her out and left her at her doorstep,
"I'll see you tomorrow," he smiled.
"Ok, sleep well," she smiled back at him. "And don't call me at night, Jeremy. Today I want to sleep like a baby." She said, not really meaning it. Since she was failing to sleep most of the times, she was really looking forward to the calls from her boyfriend.
"I will call you," Jeremy teased.
They continued to say their goodbyes, yet Jeremy did not leave. When Kiara walked him to the gate and waved goodbye, he insisted on walking her back to her door, stating that he was going to leave only after she entered the house.
Kiara stood by the door but did not get inside the house. While she insisted that he may leave, he too stated that there was no way he was going to leave her standing outside. And they laughed and pulled each other playfully, they joked and teased each other. It was close to an hour later when Jeremy finally left and walked back to his house, not without turning around several times and shouting some sweet nothings while Kiara giggled.