“Chocolate?” Kelsie lifted one eyebrow and turned to Andrew.
“A chicken tender platter with no ketchup, and a water. We’ll talk about the chocolate later.”
“Alright.” She took the rest of our order and walked away.
I handed Haylie a crayon and a placemat just to piss Andrew off for his passive-aggressive display. He tried to take the crayon away from her, but she started shrieking. He knew better than to say anything.
“How’s work going?” I asked once Haylie had quieted down.
“It’s wonderful. I’ve got two clients that want me to work on their marketing campaigns full-time. I’m doing logos, web designs—everything, and I’m raking in the cash.”
“You don’t mind having to stay home?”
“No,” he said definitively, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He wrapped his arm around Hayl
ie and gave her a hug. “A lot of people don’t get a chance to experience their kid’s younger years. You have no idea how enriching it is.” He was rubbing it in.
“I’ll bet it is.” I stared down at my placemat.
“You could have that.”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to block him out.
“I mean, when was the last time you were even in a relationship?” He leaned closer to whisper. “How are people ever going to respect you if you can’t stop chasing tail?”
“I’m not chasing tail. I’m career-oriented.”
“Bull,” he scoffed. “You’ve got those roaming eyes. I can see it. What’s the problem?”
“Look, I just don’t like telling people my business. You got that?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. It’s just people are starting to wonder about you.”
“About me? You think I’m gay or something?”
“Please, you are the furthest thing from gay I’ve ever seen. They just think it’s a little weird that they’ve never seen you with a woman.”
“It’s not their business.” The waitress brought us our food, so I took my time squirting ketchup on my fries and spreading mayonnaise on the bun. Haylie reached out and snagged one my fries.
“Mine!”
“What are you doing, huh?” Andrew gave her an overdramatic look of disapproval, then turned to me. “You’re missing out.”
I dropped the knife I was using to cut my burger. “You think I don’t know that?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.”
“I just don’t like to talk about it.” We ate in silence for the most part until the waitress came back to check on us.
Haylie gave her a stern look and said, “Chocolate.”
“Chocolate?”
“We’ll get a really tiny chocolate shake,” Andrew conceded.
“You sure you don’t want a really big one?” the waitress asked.
“Don’t push it,” Andrew said.