“I’m off to work. Enjoy your day, and please.... Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Ben chuckled as he watched his father leave. “He doesn’t seem to have anything against us dating. Guess that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“That being said…” He gave me a look-over. “Get dressed, Sofia. Don’t you have a date today?”

“Psshh…” I threw a crumpled paper towel at him. “I was thinking of bailing. A wise man just told me that I should be careful and tread lightly.” I attempted to mimic the way Lyle said those last two words.

“Right…” Ben scoffed at me as he approached. He leaned on the dining table as I got up in order to put aside the dishes. “As if you can bail out on me.”

I raised a brow at him. “What makes you think I can’t?”

He shrugged, feigning self-confidence. “What makes you think you can?” He tilted my chin upward with his forefinger and was about to stoop for a kiss when Amelia walked in, her mass of blonde hair a total mess, looking like she was half-awake, half-asleep.

“Good morning, Mom.” Ben said. Never being a morning person, Amelia just grunted his way and went straight to the fridge.

“Sofia and I are going to spend the day out, okay? We’ll be home by dinner.”

“Uh-huh…” Amelia nodded, her head still stuck in the refrigerator. I was pretty sure none of what Ben said sank in. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and walked out of the room.

I motioned to pick up the dishes but Ben grabbed my arm. “Leave it. I got you.” He grinned, giving my PJs a look. “You really have to get dressed. I can’t be seen with you looking like that.”

“Is this what you do to all the girls you go out with?” I rolled my eyes.

“Nope.” He shook his head. “Only the ones who show up in their PJs.”

He escorted me to my room and gave me time to get ready as he himself got dressed. I didn’t know what he had in mind for our date, so I really had no idea what to wear. I took a good five minutes staring at my closet, wondering what to put on. Why don’t you just go ask him, Sofia? For crying out loud, this is just Ben… your best friend… Still, I wanted it to feel like a real date – complete with all the hassles of assembling the right outfit.

Since it was a Saturday morning and I was sure Ben wouldn’t be the type to drag me into a formal gathering of sorts, I ended up putting on a baby doll blouse with a white lace tube top and a sheer old rose chiffon bottom. I paired it with dark skinny jeans and pink doll shoes. I considered lifting my hair up into a ponytail, but decided to wear it down and accent it with a crystal headband.

I just finished putting on some light makeup when Ben began knocking on my door. I stuffed my phone, makeup and wallet in my hand bag and grabbed it before Ben could make his way inside my bedroom. When I opened the door, his eyes lit up upon seeing me.

It was a strange feeling having known him for half my life and still finding myself mesmerized by a side of him that I’d never actually been introduced to before.

“So? I guess now you’d be willing to be seen with me?” I teased.

He looked at me from head to foot. “M-hm… You’ll do.”

I rolled my eyes and lightly slapped the uninjured side of his face.

“Ow.” He frowned as he held the assaulted area. “Fine.” He relented. “You look perfect, Sofia.”

We made our way to the driveway and got on his truck.

“So?” I asked as I made myself comfortable in the passenger’s seat. “What exactly do you have in mind for our first date, Mr. Hudson?”

“Well…” He started the vehicle. He looked genuinely excited to go on our date. “I figured that we’ve been having some pretty nasty memories lately, so it might be worth our while to revisit the good ones.”

I smiled. “Sounds interesting. Where to then?”

“Just wait and see.”

Ten minutes passed before we arrived at our first stop: a string of outlet stores that I didn’t remember visiting before. What kind of memories would I have in a place like this?

We stepped out of the truck. Ben held my hand and led me to a toy store. He passed the racks of toys, observing quietly as he strode with purpose toward the back of the shop.

I couldn’t bear my curiosity any longer. “Why are we at a toy store, Ben? I’ve never been here before.”

“Neither have I, actually,” he admitted, amusement wrinkling the corners of his eyes as he continued to scope out each rack he passed by, his fingers still intertwined with mine. “Ahhh… there it is!”

He stopped at a rack containing an impressively large assortment of water guns. He faced me and smiled. “Do you remember the first time we actually played together?”

“You call that playing together?” I burst into giggles. “You kept squirting me with a water gun… right in the face!”

“It was the first water gun I’d ever received. I was nine years old. I thought it was a pretty cool toy and then you showed up, and you couldn’t even sit in one place for even a second… What?! It’s true! You were all over the place and you kept bugging me with stupid questions.” He shrugged. “I was annoyed.”

“So your solution was to shoot water at me whenever I opened my mouth to speak.”

He leaned his face closer to mine and slit his eyes at me. “It shut you up, didn’t it?”