Love, Life, and the List

“Okay. I’m going to say hi to your grandpa and mom.”

“Sounds good.” I went to my room and he went to the living room. I heard his greeting as I searched for my flip-flops in my closet.

“It’s great news about Abby,” he said.

“Yes, we’re proud, and so is her father,” Mom said.

My father? I’d just barely emailed him. Had Mom called him too? I pulled out one polka-dot flip-flop but couldn’t find the other. I dug under a pile of clothes. I needed to clean my closet.

“Me too,” Cooper said.

“Where are you taking her?” Grandpa asked.

“I don’t know. Milk shakes, maybe? She likes milk shakes.”

“Aha!” I said as I freed my second flip-flop. I slid them onto my feet and went to join the others.

“Have fun,” Mom said when she saw me.

“Did you call Dad tonight?”

She looked at the clock on the wall. “No. It’s too early there right now. I’ll let him know.”

“But you said he was proud.”

She smiled. “Of course he’s proud. He always talks about your art.”

“Oh.” She just meant in general. “Thanks, Mom.”

“You ready?” Cooper asked.

“Yep. Let’s go.”

For a Sunday evening, the milk shake place was packed. We’d already been waiting in line for ten minutes when the bell on the door rang for the millionth time and a new group of people walked in.

“Cooper!”

Cooper’s smile stretched wide. “Ris! Hi.”

She joined us in line, leaving her other group behind. “I thought you said you were busy tonight.”

“I am. Abby had some good news, so I had to take her to celebrate.”

I tried not to smile with this statement, but I couldn’t help it, and Iris noticed.

“What good news?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing big,” I said.

“It’s really big. She gets to have her paintings in an art show at the museum. She’s the only minor in the show.”

“Wow,” Iris said. “That’s great. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“Can I join you guys?”

I should’ve said no. I wanted to say no. But how would that make me look? Like a petty best friend? “Um . . . yeah, that’s fine,” I said, hoping Cooper would turn her away.

He didn’t. He put his arm around her and said, “Of course.”

Maybe I was imagining it, but I could’ve sworn she was the one giving me a smug smile now. I turned my attention to the lit menu, even though I pretty much knew it by heart. Cooper and I had tried almost every shake combination they offered, plus some we’d made up. But looking at black words on a white board was better than watching Cooper nuzzle Iris’s neck.

We finally made it to the front of the line and Cooper looked at me, then nodded to the menu. “Hey, remember the time we combined the—”

“We are not doing that again.”

“It wasn’t bad.”

“It wasn’t good either,” I said.

He laughed. “Fine. Do you want the—”

“No, I want the banana pie shake.”

“But you only like that if the bananas are the perfect amount of ripeness.”

The guy behind the register raised his eyebrows when I looked at him.

“Are they?” I asked him.

“Are who what?”

“Are the bananas perfectly ripe?” Cooper asked. “That means zero brown spots but zero green as well.”

“I’ll find you a perfect one,” he said.

Cooper nodded. “Then we’ll take one of those and I’ll have a brownie batter.”

“That made you sick last time,” I said.

“I’ve been conditioning my stomach.” Cooper, whose arm was still around Iris, said to her, “What would you like?”

“Surprise me,” she said.

Cooper hated that line. My smug smile was back.

“Nope. Your taste buds are your own,” he said.

She let out a short sigh, then asked the worker, “What’s your favorite?”

“I don’t know. I like the cheesecake shake.”

“Okay, I’ll try that one.”

He rang us up, and we went to look for a table. All the ones inside were taken, so we were forced outside to the circular metal ones while we waited for our shakes to be made.

Iris slid her chair as close as possible to Cooper, and he put his arm around her. Really? This was my celebration, but suddenly it felt more like I was the third wheel on one of their dates. I tried not to let it dampen my spirits. If Iris was going to be around more, I needed to make a better effort to get to know her.

“What do you like to do?” I asked.

“I like to bake.”

“Bake? Like food?”

“No, like kittens,” Cooper said, kicking my foot under the table. “Of course, food, Abby.”

I scrunched my nose at him.

Iris put one hand to her chest. “My dream would be to own my own bakery one day.”

“That’s cool. Unlimited sugary treats is my dream, too.”

She seemed to think I was mocking her or maybe not taking her seriously enough, because she said, “It’s not all about the food. I’ll need to figure out how to run a business too.”

“Abby wants to see her paintings in museums around the world one day,” Cooper said.

I said, “Speaking of museums, you can pick my mom up for the show on the twenty-first, right? I’ll have the car, plus it will help get her out the door.”

“Of course.”

“But don’t come right away. It will be too crowded. Maybe like eight?”

“Sounds good.”

“Why does he have to pick your mom up?” Iris asked.

“Because she hates to drive,” Cooper said without missing a beat.

And it was true, among many other things. She did hate to drive.

Our order number was called and Cooper left to collect our shakes. I smiled at Iris and started to ask her what her favorite thing to bake was when she stopped me with, “I like Cooper.”

“I know,” I said.

“And you need to stop trying to sabotage our relationship.”

“What? I haven’t been.”

“It’s obvious you wish I wasn’t around. But it’s you who needs to step back and let him have a girlfriend. You scare away anyone he wants to be with.”

How would she even know that? Had she been talking to Cooper’s past girlfriends? “And here I thought I was trying to be nice.”

“We both know that’s not true. It’s obvious you’re jealous.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Wow. Okay. I’ll tell you right now that getting on my bad side isn’t a smart move.”

She brought her smirk back out. “Ditto.”

Cooper pushed the door open with his foot and came out carrying all three shakes. Iris’s face transformed back to sweet innocence. Mine did not.

I collected my shake and stood. This was my celebration that she had butted her way into, not the other way around. “Cooper. Can we leave?” Please, don’t fail me now, Cooper.

“What?” He had just sat down and taken a long drink. He looked between Iris and me.

She gave him a pouty lip. “Don’t leave me here.”