“Mom!” Jordan pleaded as his mom led him back to their bench.

“Thank you so much,” the woman said to Christos.

“Any time,” he smiled at her before sitting next to me.

I pulled at Christos’ collar and looked down his shirt.

“What are you doing?” he laughed.

“Are you wearing blue pajamas under this shirt? With a big red S?”

Christos chuckled. “Sorry, my tights are at the cleaners with my cape.”

A short time later our pizza arrived. I’d never had a pizza like this, and definitely not one with artichoke hearts. It was amazing. “This is like, the best pizza ever,” I said before taking another bite.

“Wait’ll you try their beers.”

“Really?” I mumbled as a string of cheese stretched from the slice in my hand to my mouth. It kept getting longer and longer and didn’t seem to want to break. “I think I need scissors!” The cheese finally broke and stuck to my chin in a wiggly string.

“That’s a good look for you,” Christos laughed before leaning over to lick it off.

I couldn’t decide if that was gross or hot. Maybe both. I grimaced while he did it. I hoped no one was watching.

“Daddy,” a little girl sitting two seats over said, “that man is eating pizza off that girl’s face!”

Nope, no audience.

“Kids are the best,” Christos said.

After my public humiliation subsided, I said, “Do you ever think about having kids?”

“When I’m older. But you have to find the right person to do it with first.” He gave me a knowing look. “Emphasis on the ‘do it’ part, and the ‘right person’ part,” he winked.

“Stop!” I giggled excitedly, a flash of that earlier family fantasy I’d had warming my heart once again. Could it be true? Me and Christos, and babies? Some day? I pushed the thoughts quickly away, afraid of jinxing myself if I thought about it too hard.

“What,” he looked confused. “You don’t want to do it anymore? Was it that bad?”

I blushed thinking about how unbelievably good “it” had been. “Eat your pizza, Christos!”

“That’s not all I’m going to be eating,” He said suggestively.

Yes, my thighs quivered expectantly beneath the picnic table for the remainder of dinner. In a good way.

SAMANTHA

After dinner we went back to my apartment.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” I said as I raced up the stairs. “You’ve got to see what I drew in my sketchbook today!”

“You mean the little traveling one I gave you for Christmas?”

“Yeah!”

I opened my apartment door and we went inside. I pulled the sketchbook out of my book bag and opened it to the page with the drawing of Madison sawing Tiffany in half.

Christos barked laughter instantly. “That’s awesome! Is that Madison slicing Tiffany to pieces?”

“Yeah!” I was kind of surprised he could tell. “How did you know it was them?”

He studied my drawing thoughtfully. “This is obviously Tiffany. I think it’s the hair. Besides, what other bitch could the caption be referring to?” He winked at me. “With Madison, I don’t know, you just captured that smile of hers.”

“But it’s just cartoon drawings,” I said. “Not like your oil paintings that look like photos of people. Anyone could tell your painting of Tiffany was her.”

“I see what you’re saying, but cartoons have their own weird kind of magic. I can’t articulate why, probably one of those mysteries of how the mind works. But have you ever noticed how with political cartoons you can always tell it’s a drawing of the president?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s what you did with Tiffany and Madison. You captured the essence of them in your drawing. That’s pretty amazing, Samantha. I’ve been telling you that you have talent from the beginning. This is further proof. Who knows, maybe you’ll be a famous cartoonist someday.”

I was bashful again. Would I ever be able to accept all the compliments that Christos showered on me?

“Speaking of which,” Christos said, “did you change your major?”

“I did,” I smiled, proud of myself.

“That’s awesome, agápi mou. You totally did the right thing.”

My stomach somersaulted. “But I haven’t told my parents yet,” I winced.

“Ah. I imagine that’ll be tough.”

“Do you want anything to drink?” I asked, needing to change the subject.

“Sure. Water’s good.”

I walked into the kitchen and pulled a pitcher out of the fridge and poured a glass. When I put it back, I couldn’t help staring at the freezer. “Want some ice cream?” I hollered.

“I could go either way,” he said, now standing in the kitchen. “You’re freaking about telling your parents, aren’t you?”

“Stop reading my mind!” I whined. I couldn’t help my sudden poutiness. The idea of finally telling my parents about changing my major made me want to eat too much ice cream, vomit it up, get drunk, vomit that up, then go for a jog so I could eat more ice cream.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked softly. He walked toward me and clasped my arms in his warm hands. He leveled his super-powered blue eyes at me.

Why did I feel so at ease every time I gazed into those eyes of his? Was it their color? Because they were impossibly beautiful? Or was it the man behind them, and his love for me? I’m sure it was both. But it was also the fact that I’d never felt this kind of love in my entire life. Unconditional, supportive, understanding, compassionate love. I was tearing up again. It was starting to become a bad habit.

Is that what love did to you? Made you cry all the time?

Christos pulled me into his arms. “You don’t need ice cream, agápi mou. You need to talk, I can tell.” He grabbed his water and led us to my couch. “What’s eating you?”

I sniffled and giggled. “My need for ice cream.”

He chuckled. “We can have some later. But right now, I want to know what’s bothering you so much about telling your parents, if you want to talk about it. If you want to wait, that’s fine too. But it needs to come out, or it’s going to keep eating away at you.”

I wasn’t sure where to begin. I held my hands up plaintively, then dropped them in my lap. But I knew Christos was right. This was just like the Taylor Lamberth situation. I knew I needed to get it out. I took a deep breath, and began.

“I never told you this before,” I started.

“Sounds like a familiar opening,” he smiled.

I shook my head and leaned into him. We were thigh to thigh on the couch. He put his arm around my shoulder and I rested my head on his chest. It was so firm and supportive, just like he was.

“When I was applying for colleges in high school, I got the idea into my head that maybe I could go to an art college. But I never told my parents. I went online and found a bunch of different schools, all of them in California.”

“Which ones?”

“Mainly CalArts and Art Center College of Design.”

“Those are the big gun schools in Southern Cal.”

“I know. Anyway, I read about portfolio submissions, and realized I needed to do some drawings of my own. Some serious drawings. So every day after school, I would draw all kinds of different things at home. Since I’d lost all my friends after the Damian thing, I had plenty of spare time. But every day, I’d make sure to put away my drawings before my parents got home. Somehow, I intuitively sensed they would say something to knock me down if they ever found out.”

“Serious?” Christos frowned.

“I guess it wasn’t like that in your house growing up.”

“Heck no. My dad and my grandad were always wanting to see what I was working on, always trying to help me make my work better.”

“You have no idea how lucky you are,” I said, my voice quavering. “Because, one time, I was so wrapped up in one of my drawings, I never heard the garage door when my mom came home from work. I was trying to copy a photograph of a horse, and I remember how amazed I was that my drawing looked good. I was drawing the entire horse, legs and all, and for once, it didn’t look like a kid’s drawing. To me, anyway.