It was the Mid-Summer Nights festival and it was the two of them, Ever and Taylor, walking together, close enough to be hand in hand, but not. She was looking around at all the stores, eyes wide and curious. It was nice to see her like this, outside the ice cream shop.

  “You should open a bank account,” Chaos advised.

  Ever blinked. He was in the backroom of the Pagoto’s, holding the tote bag Taylor had bought for him, one hand for each handle. A day dream.

  “A bank account?” Ever echoed.

  “It will store all of your cash so that you don’t have to carry it like this. That tote bag is going to get full at this rate.”

  The soul looked into the tote, jiggling it around. It wasn’t that full, but it was definitely getting bulky - and harder to hide.

  Ding!

  “She’s here,” Chaos whispered under his breath.

  Crap! One of the tamer words Taylor used numerous times on a daily basis. Ever shoved the tote back into its hiding place and tried to shuffle out nonchalantly.

  “Hey, you’re back,” Ever said, keeping his voice level.

  “Yeah,” she replied. She looked at Chaos and glanced briefly at Ever. “Thanks for covering for me at the last minute. Exam period sucks hard.”

  “I’m sure it does,” Chaos said, nodding sagely.

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  Something was definitely off. Ever thought he heard it in her voice over the phone yesterday and the way she was today already made him feel uncomfortable. His skin prickled in patches and his stomach felt like it was kneading itself.

  “So I’ve got something to tell you guys.” She was counting the cash in the register. “We are getting-”

  Ring! Ring!

  “Hello, Pagoto’s?” Taylor picked up and answered the phone in one fluid movement. Troubled or not, she still had lightning-fast reflexes. “Yes cool, just park outside and bring it in. Thanks.”

  Ever shifted the weight between his feet, while Chaos stood with his arms crossed, stone-faced.

  “We are getting a couple new, seasonal ice cream flavors.”

  “Oh,” Ever said. He didn’t know what he was expecting to hear, but it wasn’t that.

  “Oh?” Chaos said, “that is news.”

  “I thought you might like that, Mr. Sweet Tooth,” she said grinning at Chaos. “We’re heading into Fall, so we’re going to get Pumpkin Spice and Cinnamon flavors.”

  “Fall?” Ever glanced outside. The trees in the park waved at him, still quite green.

  “Look, Unc wants to do some early market tests and that’s why he’s bringing in these flavors. I think it's dumb. I’ve never been a fan of those stores that got the Christmas decorations up too early.”

  Right on cue, a delivery truck parked in the loading bay. A guy jumped out, jogged to the back and rummaged around for a while before wheeling in several tubs of the new flavors. Taylor let him in, signed off on the delivery and brought the tubs over. Moments later, they were licking the back of the little spoons, sampling the flavors.

  “Both are lovely, I think I prefer Pumpkin Spice,” Chaos said.

  “I like Cinnamon a bit more,” Ever said.

  Taylor nodded absent-mindedly. She pulled the spoon out of her mouth and looked down her nose at it. “By the way, I probably should tell you guys that I might be moving overseas to study pretty soon.”